Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, by Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy / DESIGN EARTH, Actar Publishers. I first learned of this book when Rania Ghosn delivered a lecture at Rice Architecture, and I was instantly captivated by the drawings included in this book. Geostories offers both an incredibly thorough representation of our planet, including the undesirable byproducts of our human impact, and ambitious proposals for the way forward for more earth-friendly design. In their research, DESIGN EARTH delves into the complexities of the Earth's systems as well as the harmful infrastructures that we have established, emphasizing a utilization of these systems to combat the degradation of the planet. Described by the authors as a "manifesto for the environmental imagination," I admire the book's capacity to balance geographic fiction with an ultra-realist understanding of human technology.

The Akari Paper Sculptures by Isamu Noguchi. I haven't chosen a specific model - partly because there have been over 200 different variants on the original - but what I appreciate most about this series of lamps by Noguchi are their materiality. Made from paper, wood, and bamboo, these are lightweight, accessible, and adaptable objects. When turned on, they dissipate a gentle light, and when turned off, their presence persists as a sculpture.