To mark World Book Day 2026, the UIA presents a selection of recently published books from across its regions. The titles included here were published between mid-2025 and mid-2026 and reflect the diversity of voices, languages, and perspectives within the UIA community. This selection offers a brief glimpse of the ideas and stories currently emerging from different parts of the world.
These titles cover a broad thematic and geographical arc — from monographs on canonical figures and landmark buildings, to photographic surveys of socialist-era housing, post-Biennale publications on climate and identity, studies of traditional craft, critical analyses of luxury urbanism, and reflections on living heritage.
Africa’s Buildings
Itohan I. Osayimwese · Princeton University Press · 2025
Region: Region V — Africa
Curatorial argument
An indispensable reference for the UIA, this work offers a rigorously documented account of colonial architectural plunder and makes a compelling case for the repatriation of stolen heritage. It aligns directly with the organisation’s resolutions on cultural rights and the decolonisation of architectural knowledge. Its geographical scope — spanning Egypt to Zimbabwe — lends it genuine continental representativeness.
Thematic axes: Heritage, decolonisation, cultural justice, restitution
Our World in Ten Buildings
Michael Murphy · 2026 · 2026
Region: Region IV — The Americas
Curatorial argument
The founder of MASS Design Group advances the most accessible and compelling argument in this selection: that architecture is, at its core, a political and social act. Using ten buildings as a guiding thread, the book translates complex concepts — health, dignity, justice — into narratives accessible to a broad readership, making it the ideal title for public outreach on World Book Day.
Thematic axes: Architecture and public health, social impact, spatial justice, the right to dignified living
A Moratorium on New Construction
Charlotte Malterre-Barthes · Sternberg Press · 2025
Region: Region I — Western Europe
Curatorial argument
A rigorously argued, radical thesis that directly challenges the profession: should architecture continue to build? Its place within the Critical Spatial Practices series and its Swiss-German academic grounding lend it considerable intellectual authority. As a body engaged in debating the future of the discipline, the UIA cannot afford to overlook this argument — if only to interrogate it. The book provokes a necessary conversation about the climate responsibility of the construction sector.
Thematic axes: Climate change, global crisis, professional responsibility, critical pedagogy
RE-DWELL: Transdisciplinarity for Affordable and Sustainable Housing
Leandro Madrazo (ed.) · Zenodo · 2026
Region: Region I — Western Europe
Curatorial argument
An open-access publication arising from a European research network, this volume advances a transdisciplinary approach connecting design, public policy, and community participation. Its collective authorship and commitment to affordable housing place it in close alignment with the UIA’s mission. The open-access format facilitates broad global dissemination, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
Thematic axes: Affordable housing, citizen participation, public policy, transdisciplinarity
Shifting Grounds: The Ground Between Form and Practice in Beirut
Carla Aramouny · Actar · 2025
Region: Region II — Eastern Europe & Middle East
Curatorial argument
Beirut as an extreme laboratory for architectural practice in conditions of political crisis, reconstruction, and collective memory. This book articulates questions that speak directly to architects working in conflict and post-conflict settings worldwide. Its relevance to the UIA lies in its capacity to interrogate architectural form through the lenses of ethics and memory, resisting the temptation of formal resolution in the face of ongoing trauma.
Thematic axes: Architecture and conflict, urban memory, reconstruction, professional ethics
Assemble: Building Collective
Aaron Betsky · Thames & Hudson · 2025
Region: Region I — Western Europe
Curatorial argument
The first monograph on Assemble, the Turner Prize-winning collective whose practice fundamentally redefines the relationship between architecture, community, and participatory process. Its significance for the UIA resides in its proposal of an alternative model of professional practice — collaborative, community-driven, anti-specialist — that stands in sharp contrast to the dominant paradigm of the architect-as-author, and broadens the question of who, in fact, makes architecture.
Thematic axes: Participatory architecture, collectives, social engagement, alternative practice
Design-Build Studios in Latin America
Felipe Mesa (ed.) · ORO Editions · 2025
Region: Region IV — The Americas
Curatorial argument
A documentation of a transformative pedagogical practice: fourteen Design-Build Studios across Latin America over two decades, gathering 39 projects with direct social impact. For the UIA, this title is of interest as an exportable model of community-centred architectural education rooted in territorial responsibility — one that stands in frank opposition to the individualist norms that govern much of global professional practice.
Thematic axes: Architectural education, participatory design, social impact, Latin America
Modern Architecture in Africa: Practical Encounters with Intricate African Modernity
Antoni Folkers & Belinda van Buiten · Springer · 2025–2026
Region: Region V — Africa
Curatorial argument
One of the most current scholarly examinations of contemporary African architecture in practice, with updated chapters addressing infrastructure development, urban resilience, and the complex negotiations between local building traditions and modernist cultures across East Africa. Its ongoing revision throughout 2025–26 renders it a living reference — of particular value to UIA members on the African continent.
Thematic axes: African architecture, modernity, urban resilience, cultural identity
The House of Dr. Koolhaas
Françoise Fromonot · Park Books · 2025
Region: Region I — Western Europe
Curatorial argument
A meticulous, detective-novel-style reading of Villa dall’Ava, the first building completed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA. Fromonot unpicks layers of history, cinema, and art to reveal the hidden logic of a canonical house. Its contribution to the UIA agenda is more methodological than political: it models how architectural criticism can operate as a form of narrative investigation, rather than advancing an immediate debate on justice or territory. For this reason, it functions as a complementary rather than a central reference for World Book Day.
Thematic axes: Architectural criticism, authorship, narrative analysis, canonical modernism
The Life and Work of Jerzy Sołtan: The Last Modernist Architect
Szymon Ruszczewski · Routledge · 2025
Region: Region II — Eastern Europe & Middle East
Curatorial argument
A monograph on the Polish architect and Harvard professor who collaborated closely with Le Corbusier, tracing his trajectory from communist Poland to the United States. The book interrogates canonical modernist histories and restores Sołtan’s place in architectural scholarship. Its value for the UIA lies in its contribution to the pluralisation of modernist genealogies beyond the usual Western canon; it remains, however, a specialised scholarly work, which explains its complementary rather than central position in the selection.
Thematic axes: Historiography, modernism, Cold War architecture, biographical scholarship
Eastern Blocks Vol. 2
Zupagrafika · Zupagrafika · 2025
Region: Region II — Eastern Europe & Middle East
Curatorial argument
A photographic survey documenting socialist-era collective housing from Ukraine to Georgia and from the Baltic to the Balkans. The volume offers a critical and affectionate reading of an often-maligned housing heritage, and raises pressing questions about the stewardship of mass housing legacies. Its predominantly visual and documentary character, rather than analytical one, places it as a secondary but nonetheless valuable reference alongside the main selection.
Thematic axes: Socialist housing, photographic documentation, urban heritage, Eastern European cities
Heatwave: The National Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain
Andrea Faraguna (ed.) · Various · 2025
Region: Region II — Eastern Europe & Middle East
Curatorial argument
The companion publication to Bahrain’s Golden Lion-winning pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, addressing climate, culture, and spatial identity in the Gulf. Functioning simultaneously as exhibition document and critical essay, it offers a compelling contribution to the climate-adaptation debate in extreme environments. Its specific connection to a single pavilion gives it a circumscribed scope, which explains its complementary status within this selection.
Thematic axes: Climate adaptation, Gulf architecture, Venice Biennale, spatial identity
The House That Kahn Built: The National Assembly Building in Dhaka
Kashef Chowdhury · Quart Verlag · 2025
Region: Region III — Asia & Oceania
Curatorial argument
A photographic essay in which Bangladeshi architect Kashef Chowdhury revisits Louis Kahn’s masterpiece in Dhaka, exploring how geometry, water, and light articulate the aspirations of a nascent independent nation. The book is of interest to the UIA as a decentred reading of a landmark of global modernism, voiced from within the South Asian context. Its focus on a single canonical building, however, makes it a complementary rather than central contribution to the principal selection.
Thematic axes: Post-colonial modernism, civic architecture, South Asia, photographic essay
The Joinery Compendium: Learning from Traditional Woodworking
Ruby Press · 2025
Region: Region III — Asia & Oceania
Curatorial argument
A DAM Architectural Book Award-winning study of Japanese joinery, demonstrating how premodern craft techniques offer enduring lessons for contemporary tectonics, sustainable construction, and material thinking. The book aligns with UIA priorities on low-impact, culturally rooted construction. Its primarily technical and pedagogical orientation gives it a specialist readership, which places it in a complementary position to the broader debates that structure the main selection.
Thematic axes: Traditional craft, tectonics, sustainable construction, material culture
Gated Luxury Condominiums in India: A Socio-Spatial Arena for New Cosmopolitans
Dhara Patel · Routledge · December 2025
Region: Region III — Asia & Oceania
Curatorial argument
A critical examination of gated luxury condominiums in contemporary India, analysing their role in shaping elite power and identity under neoliberalism. The work offers a sharp reading of how architecture mirrors and reinforces social stratification in one of the world’s fastest-urbanising countries. Its strongly specialised register — rooted in urban sociology rather than in professional practice — positions it as a complementary reference alongside the main selection, which prioritises works of broader disciplinary reach.
Thematic axes: Urban inequality, neoliberalism, gated communities, socio-spatial analysis
Cooking Up Dinner Speeches: Ise Gropius in Japan
gta Verlag · 2025
Region: Region III — Asia & Oceania
Curatorial argument
A DAM Architectural Book Award-winning volume exploring the cross-cultural exchange between Bauhaus heritage and Japanese architectural culture through the figure of Ise Gropius. The book illuminates how modern ideas travel, transform, and take on new meaning across contexts. Its interest for the UIA lies in foregrounding the often-overlooked female and biographical dimensions of modernism; its monographic scope, however, places it as a complementary rather than central reference.
Thematic axes: Bauhaus legacy, gender and modernism, cross-cultural exchange, intellectual history
Ecomuseums and Living Heritage in China: Reclaiming Memory and Identity
Meng Li & Gehan Selim · Routledge · 2026
Region: Region III — Asia & Oceania
Curatorial argument
A forthcoming study of Chinese ecomuseums as community-based spaces for cultural preservation, examining how living heritage practices can restore collective memory and local identity in rural regions under pressure from rapid urbanisation. The volume resonates with UIA commitments to community-led heritage and to counterbalancing top-down development logics. Its relatively specialised readership in the heritage field places it in a complementary position to the main selection.
Thematic axes: Living heritage, community-based preservation, rural China, cultural memory
Albert Kahn Inc.
Claire Zimmerman · MIT Press · 2025
Region: Region IV — The Americas
Curatorial argument
A forensic analysis of the firm behind Ford’s industrial architecture, theorising the intertwined development of building and capitalism in twentieth-century America. Richly illustrated, the book connects industrial architecture to natural resource extraction and the expansion of US global power. Its critical perspective on the political economy of building makes it highly pertinent to UIA debates; its scholarly register and specifically American frame, however, situate it as a complementary rather than central reference for World Book Day.
Thematic axes: Industrial architecture, political economy, capitalism and building, twentieth-century USA
