RIBA Bookshop

The bookshop has a great selection of books and manuals for the architect and urban planner.

Frank Gehry
Le Corbusier
William Cody
Antoni Gaudi
Norman Foster
Eileen Gray
Richard Rogers
Walter Gropius
Frank Lloyd Wright
Theodore Link
Richard Morris Hunt
Arata Isozaki
Alvar Aalto
If you recognise most of the people above, chances are you’re already visited RIBA bookshop. Based in the same space as the excellent CUBE Gallery, it’s a spacious and inspiring bookshop that specialises in architecture, furniture and design. There’s gigantic books on individual designers from desert modernists like Donald Wexler and Albert Frey to pioneering contemporary designers like Zaha Hadid. There’s also slim and weighty tomes on certain styles and periods of architecture from city skyscrapes to ranch houses.
A gem of a shop, half an hour in RIBA makes me want to buy a plot of land and build my own house in the middle of nowhere. The only question is, which architect to employ?!

RIBA Bookshops, for all your architectural needs! This bright airy bookshop sits within Manchester’s CUBE Gallery, selling all manner of architectural tomes for actual architects, and a lot of cool magazines and books for those who just like nice buildings.
Because its clientele are mainly architects, there’s a quiet air of intelligence here. I like to wander from shelf to shelf, perusing and flicking through books, making little «hmm» noises. Basically, pretending I am an architect, when really I am just looking at the pictures. The boyf is a big fan of modern architecture, and this place is great for grabbing stylish ‘coffee table’ books. They ain’t cheap, sure, the sumptuous and cool Mapping New York will set you back £30. But it is a great book. Their ‘gift’ books do start at £5 for Wallpaper City Guides, or you could splash out £650 on Taschen’s definitive guide to Zaha Hadid’s 30 year career. Anyone who knows art books, knows that Taschen means high quality (and priced!) books.
The books also include innumerable actual proper hardcore architecture books, for proper actual architects. While this is not of any use to the average shopper, it’s a fantastic resource. So if you are an architecture student, get yerself down here. Maybe you’ll find something that’ll inspire you to build something to rival the Beetham!