20 Best Interior Design Books Recommended by Designers and Architects

Few publications have had as enduring and comprehensive an impact on architecture and interior design discourse as Domus. Founded in 1928 by the visionary Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti, Domus chronicled the evolution of 20th-century design with unmatched breadth and sophistication. This monumental compendium, curated by Charlotte and Peter Fiell, distills over 70 years of the magazine’s archives into a richly illustrated, 12-volume box set (or, in some editions, a condensed single volume), offering readers an invaluable window into the shifting tides of modernism, postmodernism, and beyond.

Each decade reflects a distinct aesthetic and cultural moment—documenting the rise of Bauhaus, the rationalism of Italian interiors, the playful provocations of Memphis, and the digital experimentation of the 1990s. Through its editorials, project features, and critical essays, Domus shaped not only how designers thought about interiors but how they understood their role in shaping modern life.

For architects and interior designers, this book is more than a historical archive—it’s a design encyclopedia. It reveals how furniture, lighting, color theory, and material culture have intersected with architecture across generations. It’s especially relevant for those interested in the interplay between editorial curation and design evolution, making it both a collector’s object and an enduring professional reference.

Anne Massey’s Interior Design Since 1900 is a scholarly yet accessible chronicle of the socio-cultural, technological, and artistic forces that have shaped interiors over the last century. Unlike many interior books focusing solely on aesthetics or individual designers, Massey contextualizes design within the broader framework of modern history, revealing how interiors reflect shifting values, ideologies, and ways of living.

Structured thematically and chronologically, the book explores how movements like the Arts & Crafts, Bauhaus, Art Deco, Modernism, Postmodernism, and Minimalism influenced domestic, commercial, and institutional interiors. It draws connections between political developments—such as post-war reconstruction, consumerism, and globalization—and the spaces that emerged in response to these forces.

This book is essential for architects because of its analytical approach to interior spaces as designed environments that both shape and are shaped by society. Massey does not reduce interiors to decoration but treats them as architectural and cultural artifacts. Her inclusion of lesser-known figures, women designers, and non-Western influences further enriches the narrative, offering a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of the field.

With over 200 illustrations and case studies, Interior Design Since 1900 serves as both a reference and a critical lens to reconsider the interiors we design, inhabit, and critique today.

In a world saturated with curated perfection and aspirational minimalism, Deborah Needleman’s The Perfectly Imperfect Home offers a refreshingly human approach to interior design. Rather than chasing trends or magazine-ready formality, Needleman celebrates homes that reflect the quirks, passions, and lived-in reality of their inhabitants.

Needleman, former editor-in-chief of Domino and T: The New York Times Style Magazine, builds the book around a series of playful yet insightful chapters—A Bit of Quirk, A Touch of Glamor, Useful Things, and Cozifications—which serve as building blocks for creating warm, character-rich spaces. Her writing is informal yet sharp, guiding readers to value authenticity and intuition in their design choices.

This book’s implicit critique of over-designed environments makes it particularly valuable for architects and interior designers. Needleman reminds us that true comfort and beauty often emerge from contrast, irregularity, and personal expression. She argues that design is not just about harmony and visual logic but also cultivating a sense of belonging and joy.

Illustrated with whimsical watercolors by Virginia Johnson rather than high-gloss photography, the book reinforces its message: homes should be felt, not staged. It’s a handy reminder for those working at the intersection of architecture and interior design, encouraging a balance between professional rigor and emotional resonance.

“In Praise of Shadows” is an eloquent and thought-provoking essay by Junichiro Tanizaki, first published in 1933. The work explores the aesthetics of darkness and shadows and their integral role in traditional Japanese architecture, arts, and culture. Tanizaki contrasts the subdued, nuanced beauty found in the soft shadows of Japanese design with the bright, stark illumination favored in the West. He delves into various aspects of Japanese culture – from lacquerware, interior design, and theater to cuisine, paper, and even complexion – illustrating how the interplay of light and darkness is cherished and capitalized upon. This insightful essay is a reflection on the cultural differences between East and West and a lament for the fading of traditional Japanese aesthetics in the face of rapid modernization.

Steven Holl’s House: Black Swan Theory is a profoundly introspective and conceptual exploration of domestic architecture. Unlike traditional interior design books, this work sits firmly within architectural thought, blending poetic speculation with rigorous design methodology. It offers a rare look at how one of the most philosophical architects of our time approaches the most intimate scale of architectural intervention: the home.

The book combines drawings, watercolors, photographs, and reflective essays documenting thirteen of Holl’s house projects, both built and unbuilt. Each project is treated as a theoretical investigation—sometimes into light, other times into topography, tactility, or memory. Holl’s “Black Swan Theory” (a term borrowed from Nassim Nicholas Taleb) represents his embrace of the rare and unpredictable in design: the spatial anomaly that disrupts the expected and introduces meaning through surprise.

This book is invaluable for architects. It challenges readers to rethink the house not just as a programmatic container but as a site of phenomenological experience. Holl’s interest in perception, movement, and atmosphere transcends conventional stylistic categories, proposing that interior space be sculpted as carefully as any façade.

House: Black Swan Theory also emphasizes drawing as a medium of design thought, making it an inspiring read for architects who still value hand sketching and conceptual diagramming as part of their process. It’s not a book for clients or decorators—it’s for architects and spatial thinkers seeking to deepen their understanding of domesticity through theory and imagination.

Modernist Design Complete by Dominic Bradbury is an authoritative compendium that captures the full scope of modernist thinking across architecture, interior design, furniture, lighting, and decorative arts. Rather than isolating modernist interiors as a niche category, Bradbury positions them within the broader sweep of 20th-century design ideology—showing how interiors evolved with technological innovation, social reform, and shifting modes of living.

Structured as both a reference and a visual archive, the book covers seminal figures such as Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Eileen Gray, Marcel Breuer, Charlotte Perriand, and Mies van der Rohe. It also highlights important regional movements, from Scandinavian modernism to the Bauhaus, the International Style, and American mid-century. Through hundreds of photographs and richly annotated entries, the book reveals how interiors became sites of radical spatial experimentation—where form followed function, ornament was stripped away, and space was engineered to enhance clarity and freedom.

This book is a foundational resource for architects and interior designers alike. It connects material choices and spatial planning to ideological frameworks, illustrating how furniture and interiors were never afterthoughts in modernism but integral to architectural vision. Bradbury also includes lesser-known designers and artisans, making this an inclusive and nuanced look at the era.

Whether used for research, inspiration, or curatorial thinking, Modernist Design Complete is essential for any designer engaging with modernism—not as a style to imitate, but as a philosophy to reexamine and reinterpret in contemporary practice.

The Phaidon Atlas of Interior Design is an ambitious global survey of over 400 contemporary interiors, making it one of the most comprehensive resources available for professionals and students in architecture and interior design. As with Phaidon’s acclaimed architectural atlases, this volume prioritizes breadth, diversity, and critical documentation over stylistic homogeneity, offering readers a rich panorama of spatial innovation across typologies, geographies, and design philosophies.

Each project featured, from private homes and hotels to boutiques, galleries, and institutional spaces, is accompanied by high-resolution photographs, concise project descriptions, and essential data, including architect/designer credits, location, year of completion, and floor plans. This atlas is particularly valuable because it doesn’t merely celebrate aesthetic spectacle; it showcases interiors that reveal a more profound logic of use, materiality, and context.

For architects, the Atlas is a vital reference. It allows for comparative spatial reading across cultures and climates, highlighting how different traditions, constraints, and narratives shape interior architecture. The inclusion of projects by emerging voices and established studios also makes it a dynamic reflection of the field’s current landscape.

More than just a source of visual inspiration, this book functions as a professional tool—ideal for benchmarking, programming, and design strategy. Whether used in the early concept phases of a project or as an academic reference, the Phaidon Atlas of Interior Design is a must-have in any serious design library.

This landmark volume—Charlotte Perriand: Complete Works, Volume 1—is the first in a meticulously documented series that traces the life and work of one of the most influential yet long-underrecognized figures in 20th-century design. Spanning Perriand’s formative years up to 1940, this book offers a richly illustrated and academically grounded account of her pioneering approach to interiors, furniture, and integrating design with everyday life.

Best known for her collaborations with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, Perriand’s vision was anything but subordinate. Her work brought a sense of softness, tactility, and user-centered thinking to the otherwise austere vocabulary of early modernism. This volume includes her iconic tubular steel furniture—such as the LC4 chaise longue—and documents her role in shaping some of the most iconic interiors of the interwar period, including the interiors of the Unité d’Habitation prototypes.

But the book goes beyond objects and rooms. It includes photographs, drawings, letters, and essays that reveal Perriand’s political convictions, deep appreciation for craft, and early interest in Japanese aesthetics. Her commitment to egalitarian design and modular functionality prefigures many concerns that still define socially conscious architecture and interior design today.

For architects, this book is more than a historical record—it’s a call to reconsider modernism’s gendered authorship and to recognize interiors not just as applied art but as architectural acts in their own right. It’s essential reading for those seeking to understand how modern interior spaces came to be and how they can evolve.

Atmospheres is Peter Zumthor’s poetic and philosophical reflection on the sensory and emotional impact of architecture, particularly the interior experience. Based on a lecture delivered in 2003, the book is not a manual or a catalog of work, but rather a stream of meditative insights that explore how buildings feel, how they move us, and how the invisible qualities of a space can be designed with great intentionality.

Zumthor unpacks what he calls “atmospheres”—those intangible qualities that make a space resonate with memory, sensuality, silence, or presence. He discusses the orchestration of light, materiality, acoustics, proportions, smells, and even the patina of age as tools that shape emotional perception. His reflections are grounded in practice but expressed with the cadence of poetry, making this book a rare hybrid of architectural treatise and artistic manifesto.

For interior designers and architects alike, Atmospheres reminds them that beyond technical precision and spatial logic, the true power of design lies in its capacity to elicit feeling. It’s a book about how we experience space—not in theoretical abstraction but in the tactile and temporal unfolding of real life.

Zumthor doesn’t offer diagrams or floor plans—he offers sensibilities. This book invites readers to slow down and reflect on the spaces they’ve loved and why. It encourages designers to think beyond composition and functionality and consider architecture as a vessel for lived experience.

Essential for architects who strive to design spaces with soul, Atmospheres is a timeless meditation on presence, intention, and the essence of spatial beauty.

Published in 2024, Stillness is a contemplative and exquisitely composed work by Copenhagen-based Norm Architects. It explores how Japanese aesthetic principles have shaped not only their design language but also a broader global movement toward introspective, mindful spaces. Rooted in wabi-sabi, shibui, and ma, the book bridges the Danish design ethos of restraint and naturalism with Japanese philosophies of stillness, imperfection, and spatial silence.

Visually, the book is as meditative as the spaces it showcases—warm wood tones, diffuse light, and meticulously framed emptiness. But what elevates Stillness beyond a photobook is its philosophical core: essays and reflections delve into how architecture and interiors can foster mental clarity, emotional equilibrium, and a deeper relationship with the everyday.

This is not merely inspiration for architects and designers—it’s a guide to designing atmospheres rather than objects. Norm Architects emphasize tactility, acoustic softness, sensory modesty, and material aging as tools to foster well-being. It’s also a subtle critique of overstimulation in contemporary life, advocating for spaces inviting pause, contemplation, and slowness.

Stillness belongs alongside works by Axel Vervoordt and Peter Zumthor, but with a distinctly Nordic-Japanese synthesis. It’s essential reading for those working on hospitality, wellness, or residential projects that seek to go beyond form into emotional and psychological experience.