World Architecture

You used to live in a quiet room. Then we took the walls down. Today we live exposed: notifications, news cycles, endless urgency, and the low-grade hum of a thousand open tabs in our heads. Our nervous systems are on fire, our attention is public property, and peace feels like a luxury we can’t afford. The Architecture of Silence is not another book telling you to meditate for an hour or move to a monastery. It is a practical, nervous-system-first blueprint for rebuilding the walls around your attention, your energy, and your life —no matter how loud the world gets.

This stunning book by renowned television historian Dan Cruickshank tells the history of architecture through the stories of 100 iconic buildings. Journeying through time and place, from the ancient Egyptian pyramids to the soaring skyscrapers of Manhattan, renowned architectural historian Dan...

The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . . From the author of Children of Time, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Shards of Earth is the first high-octane, far-future space adventure in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture trilogy. The series is read by Sophie...

He's found a way to end their war, but will humanity survive to see it? Lords of Uncreation is the final high-octane instalment in the Final Architecture space opera trilogy. From Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The series is read by...

What waits in the shadows as we fight our greatest foe? Eyes of the Void is the second high-octane instalment in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture space opera trilogy. From the author of the thrilling science-fiction epic Children of Time, which won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award...

Brought to you by Penguin. Construction is the most important industry in the world. The homes we wake up to, the schools we raise our children in, the transport infrastructure we all use, the hospitals we rely on – all of it was built and enabled by construction. In Mega Builds, YouTube...

How the world broke—and how we can still save it The liberal world order that emerged after World War II—and expanded triumphantly following the Cold War—is unraveling. Multilateral cooperation is giving way to multipolar rivalry and conflict. Global norms are eroding. What comes next will...

A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege.

Discover the Hidden Power of Subtle DesignIn a world that equates "loud" with "impactful," The Architecture of Quiet Innovation serves as a vital manifesto for the creators, engineers, and leaders who understand that the most profound changes often happen in silence. This book strips away the noise of modern "hustle culture" to reveal a more sustainable, intentional path toward groundbreaking progress. What Lies Beneath the Surface? True innovation isn't always a flashy product launch or a viral headline.

Shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New Republic “Consistently entertaining and often downright funny.” —The New Yorker “Wry and revelatory.” —The New York Times "A romp, packed with tales of anger, violence, theft...

99% Invisible is a big-ideas podcast about small-seeming things, revealing stories baked into the buildings we inhabit, the streets we drive, and the sidewalks we traverse. The show celebrates design and architecture in all of its functional glory and accidental absurdity, with intriguing tales of both designers and the people impacted by their designs.

“Barbie and her creator, the sharp-elbowed gal who built the biggest toy company, have a story to tell.” —Time Barbie and Ruth is the remarkable true story of the world’s most famous toy and the woman who created her. It is a fascinating account of how one visionary woman and her product...

A “thrilling” (Financial Times) fly-on-the-wall account of the ferocious ambition, greed, and one-upmanship behind the most expensive real estate in the world: the new Manhattan megatowers known as Billionaires’ Row—from a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal “Deeply informative...

Landscape designer and historian Wade Graham follows the acclaimed American Eden with a lively, accessible cultural history of modern cities—from suburbs, downtown districts, and exurban sprawl, to shopping malls and “sustainable” developments—seen through the lens of planning, design...

In this companion volume to The Discoverers, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin brings to life more than three thousand years of human artistic achievement, examining painting, sculpture, architecture, theology, philosophy, history, poetry, drama, literature, dance, music, and film.

What is your home like? Is it big or small? Is it made of concrete, straw, wood, or clay? Step inside homes from around world and learn how different people live in this engaging series that develops kids' understanding of our diverse global community and their place in it.

In the tradition of Elizabeth Kolbert and Michael Pollan, The Nature of Our Cities is a stirring exploration of how innovators from around the world are combining urban nature with emerging technologies, protecting the planet’s cities from the effects of climate change and safeguarding the...

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and LitHub Winner of the 2021 Science in Society Journalism Book Prize A fascinating and provocative new way of looking at the things we use and the spaces we inhabit, and a call to imagine a better-designed world for us all. Furniture and tools, kitchens and...

The great pyramids of Giza have intrigued humanity for thousands of years. Questions about the construction and the purpose of these majestic monuments have existed since the middle period of ancient Egyptian civilization; in the sixth century B.C., Herodotus was the first of generations of explorers to travel to Egypt in an attempt to unlock their secrets. Recent cutting-edge research has uncovered information, unimaginable to previous generations, about how and why they were built.

From the international bestselling author and notable journalist Aldo Cazzullo comes a brilliantly researched and extremely accessible journey through the history and legacy of the Roman Empire. “The only way to narrate over a thousand years of history is to understand what it has left us. To...