The most recommended construction books

Franz Karg's book is a challenge: Design and build cabinets without any sheet goods—all solid wood— and make the designs exciting, the joinery accommodate stress and expansion and contraction while adding to the quality of design, or even inspiring the design. Working your way through these designs will kick your thinking and your construction approach up a notch!

Michael Murphy is one of the co-founders of MASS Design Group, who may have seen profiled on 60 Minutes or in the Wall Street Journal. This design firm and nonprofit probably does some of the best and broadest work in health and justice-centered design, in projects from the United States to Haiti to Rwanda. I began my career in hospital design, and this book is both a history of innovative healthcare facilities but also provides an introduction to MASS Design’s incredibly innovative work in this sector and is beautifully and richly illustrated to boot.

This is a key book on the mountain railways of India. While all other history books look at the overall context of Indian Railways, this one, in particular, focuses on the “Ghat sections” of Indian Railways that were built as early as the 1860s with primitive technology, labour and sheer hard work. I personally recommend this work because it explores a not-so-popular yet very important part of the construction of the first railway lines in India. The book has minute details of the labour numbers, the various communities involved, and how work went ahead in the difficult most terrain and tropical weather. I am also proud to be associated with late Kerr during his research visits to India and assist him in his work.

Whether starting from scratch or expanding into new woodworking ventures, correctly setting up your shop can spell the difference between success and failure. Here’s where to come for information on electricity and lighting, tools, heating and ventilation, dust collection, benches, shop layout, and even safety. You’ll know what to buy, what to avoid, and what to do to make your workspace as efficient and comfortable as possible, no matter what flights of woodworking fancy you pursue. 

Much of the literature about British scientific instrument making focuses on the London trade. This book explores the history of British provincial instrument making from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century. A.D. Morrison-Low places this trade in the context of the London market, as well as examining the social and economic factors, the origins of the provincial trade, the nature of their market, and how industrialisation impacted the instrument makers. A substantial appendix contains a directory of the provincial makers, their addresses, and business successions. This is not only an in-depth and interesting historical account, it’s also a valuable reference.

St. George Reef Lighthouse is located about six miles off Point St. George on the coast of Northern California, not far from the Oregon border. It is built atop, and partly chiseled into, a massive wave-swept rock. Finished in 1892, St. George Reef took roughly a decade to build, at a cost of $752,000, making it far and away the most expensive lighthouse ever built in the United States. The dramatic history of this iconic lighthouse—replete with engineering feats and tragic deaths—is well-told by Powers, who provides one of the best profiles of a single lighthouse ever written. 

Airports are important parts of our urban transportation infrastructure and are shaped by regional and municipal planning efforts. Bednarek uses excellent examples and careful analysis to show how building and managing airports has been a great challenge for cities and counties.

In addition to the difficulties of financing them, local governments have had to address the rapid growth of air travel, pressure from powerful corporations (i.e., airlines), changing technologies, transformations in the economy, complaints from neighbors about traffic and noise, and other phenomena that dramatically transformed American urban environments after the Second World War. This book was very helpful to my understanding of how elements of SFO’s development fit into a larger national story.

Richly illustrated, this tender book depicts a conversation between a father and daughter; the promises he makes to her, the worries and reassurances, and the hopes and dreams. Oliver Jeffers books are always wonderfully unique and beautifully lyrical.

A father and daughter set about laying the foundations for their life together. Using their own special tools, they get to work; building memories to cherish, a home to keep them safe, and love to keep them warm. A heartfelt poignant story.

What shall we build, you and I? 

I’ll build your future and you’ll build mine. 

We’ll build a watch to keep our time. 

Christopher Dunn's research is impressive, as he shares over 30 years of study and nine trips to Egypt in Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt.

He explains the unique marks left by skilled craftsmen that today, with modern technology, we would have great difficulty reproducing. Dunn writes about the precision found in the monuments of Egypt. He uses digital photography and computer-aided design software to give the reader an appreciation for the ancient Egyptians' remarkable achievements.

He includes over 280 photographs of Egyptian monuments to support his theories, and his examination of the underground tunnels of the Serapeum is worth the price of the book alone. His explanation of the precision engineering achieved by our ancient ancestors leads the reader to question long-held beliefs about ancient people. 

We live in suburbs, high-density downtown cities, exurbs, rural areas – but most of us don’t really think about the way that things around us have been designed.

Especially for those of us with children, whole schools of thought have been created, designed a variety of chairs, tools, blocks, and play spaces, and then been replaced by other ways of doing the same materials. This book tackles jungle gyms, school classrooms, EPCOT, and a variety of other places that are all too familiar to us, but in new and creative ways.

It is easy to read with lots of images – highly recommended.