a few sources from andy shanken

Here are a number of things I might study in preparation for studio.
1. I would learn one of the classical forms of sonnet and write one. It provides a rigorous structure within which one can be infinitely creative. The applications to architecture should be evident.
2. Kevin Lynch, Image of the City. A classic, which provides both a way of seeing the city and something rather easy to argue against.
3. Alan Colquhoun, Essays in Architectural Criticism, especially "The Modern Movement in Architecture," and "Symbolic and Literal Aspects of Technology" (since we are currently in a mood of technophilia).
4. Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings. This is a smart book, although it is frankly Anglocentric, which means that there is room to apply his approach to whatever local rhetorical environment you might like.
5. Reyner Banham, "A Black Box" and "1960-Stocktaking," in Banham, A Critic Writes. Or anything by him, b/c he's one of the most insightful critics.
6. John Summerson. Perhaps the most fluid architectural historian. Try "The Case for a Theory of 'Modern Architecture," in Unromantic Castle or The Classical Language of Architecture, which is formalist and thus a good way of seeing the formalist sympathies of the present moment.
7. The campus guide to Berkeley. Every architect should know her local environment and look at it.