Written works that inspire a better built environment, compiled by Staff & Members.
1- Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
Richard Louv, 2008
The book explores how modern childhood has become increasingly disconnected from the natural world and examines the far-reaching effects that shift can have on development, health, and well-being. Blending research, storytelling, and firsthand observations, it makes a compelling case that time outdoors offers benefits that are often overlooked in today’s technology-driven lives. Rather than simply identifying a problem, the book invites readers to rethink how families, schools, and communities can help children rebuild a meaningful relationship with nature.
2- Minding the Climate: How Neuroscience Can Help Solve Our Environmental Crisis
Ann-Christine Duhaime, M.D., 2022
This work explores why people often struggle to act on climate change even when they understand the risks. Drawing on neuroscience, the author argues that the human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over long-term threats, making environmental action psychologically challenging. The book also offers a hopeful perspective, examining how individuals and societies can reshape habits, incentives, and decision-making to support a more sustainable future.
3- Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation
Edward Humes, 2016
This book explores the vast, largely invisible network that moves people and products around the world, from daily commutes to online purchases, and reveals the immense logistics behind modern life. Through real-world examples and reporting, it examines the benefits, costs, and inefficiencies of transportation systems while showing how deeply they shape cities, economies, and the environment. The book also looks ahead to emerging technologies and changing mobility trends, asking how transportation might evolve in the future.
4- The Lorax
Dr. Suess, 1971
The Lorax is a deceptively simple story that uses wit, memorable characters, and vivid illustrations to explore themes of progress, environmental responsibility, and the choices societies make. While categorized as a children’s book, its observations about human behavior and the consequences of short-term thinking give it surprising depth for adult readers. Thought-provoking, charming, and remarkably relevant, it’s the kind of book that can be enjoyed in a single sitting, yet will linger in your mind long afterward.
5- Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything
Zahra Ebrahim, John Lorinc, Dylan Reid, and Leslie Woo, 2025
This book explores a provocative question: what if the seemingly chaotic parts of city life (street vendors, unofficial shortcuts, improvised public spaces, and quirky neighborhoods) are actually what make cities vibrant and resilient? Through dozens of essays and stories from around the world, the book challenges the assumption that good cities emerge solely from careful planning and regulation. It invites readers to reconsider whether a little disorder might be essential for creativity.
6- The Ministry for the Future
Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020
The Ministry for the Future imagines a near-future world grappling with the escalating consequences of climate change through the perspectives of people trying to reshape society before it’s too late. Combining science, politics, economics, and human stories, it explores bold ideas for how humanity might respond to an unprecedented global crisis. The novel is both thought-provoking and surprisingly hopeful, inviting readers to consider what a livable future could require.
7- The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
Deirdre Mask, 2020
This book uncovers the surprising story behind something most people barely notice: street addresses. Through vivid stories from around the world, it reveals how the simple act of naming and numbering places can shape opportunity, exclusion, belonging, and even survival. What begins as a history of addresses becomes a fascinating exploration of the hidden systems that influence who is seen, who is counted, and who holds power.
8- Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
part of a collection of poems by Wendell Barry entitled The Country of Marriage, 1973
This poem is a passionate and rebellious call to resist a life dictated by profit, efficiency, and conformity. Through a series of surprising commands and paradoxes, the Mad Farmer urges readers to embrace community, nature, love, mystery, and actions that “don’t compute” in a purely economic worldview. Rather than offering a political program, the poem imagines freedom as a deeply personal and ecological act of living according to values that cannot be measured or controlled.
9- Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Charles Montgomery, 2014
This book explores a deceptively simple question: why do some places make people feel happier, healthier, and more connected than other places? Drawing on psychology, urban planning, and real-world examples from cities around the world, the author reveals how the design of streets, neighborhoods, transportation systems, and public spaces quietly shapes everyday life. If you’ve ever wondered why certain cities feel vibrant and welcoming while others feel isolating or stressful, this book offers surprising insights that may change the way you see the places around you.
10- What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, 2024
Instead of focusing on everything that could go wrong, this book collects ideas, stories, and visions of a world that has made meaningful progress on climate challenges. Through conversations with thinkers, creators, and changemakers, it explores how different aspects of society (cities, food systems, culture, etc.) might evolve for the better. The result is a thoughtful, hopeful book that imagines a wide range of possibilities for a better future.
11- Biophilic Design: The Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life
Stephen R. Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, Martin Mador, 2008
This book challenges the conventional view of buildings as purely functional spaces, arguing that the environments we create have a profound influence on how we think, feel, and thrive. Bringing together insights from architecture, environmental psychology, neuroscience, and ecology, it explores the evidence for designing spaces that foster a deeper connection to the natural world. More than a design manual, the book presents a compelling vision for how homes, workplaces, schools, and cities can become healthier, more restorative places for both people and the planet.
12- Sink: A Memoir
Joseph Earl Thomas, 2023
This memoir is a deeply personal coming-of-age story that explores childhood, family, identity, and survival in a neighborhood shaped by violence and instability. Through vivid, lyrical storytelling, it examines how imagination, literature, and self-discovery can become lifelines amid difficult circumstances. The memoir offers an unflinching yet deeply humane portrait of resilience, inviting readers to reflect on the forces that shape a life and the possibility of finding one’s own voice.