The Architect & Designer Birthday Book is a beautifully curated collection that honors the birthdays of famous, infamous, and often-overlooked designers and architects, packaged in a stunning book.

This gift book is a must-have for design and architecture professionals and students alike—something they didn’t know they needed but won’t want to live without. Inspired by architect James Biber’s captivating Instagram project, where he shared a birthday bio of a designer or architect every day for a year during the pandemic, The Architect and Designer Birthday Book is packed with personal, witty, and insightful reflections on both well-known and lesser-known figures.

Inside, readers will find mini-biographies that span a diverse range of architects, designers, and artists from around the world, including:

• Architects from Aino and Alvar Aalto to Peter Zumthor
• Rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini
• Photographers such as Lee Miller, Vivian Maier, and Judith Turner
• Midcentury modernists like Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, and Florence Knoll
• Visionary women like Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich, and Denise Scott Brown

These brief profiles are more like anecdotal snapshots than formal biographies, offering sharp, entertaining commentary on how these creatives influenced one another and shaped design history. The book offers a unique blend of Biber’s personal journey and the broader history of architecture and design.

Hardcover
5 x 10 inches
384 pages

Launched in 2008 by the Pictet Group, the Prix Pictet has become the world’s leading photography and sustainability award. The latest volume, Prix Pictet: Human, features more than 100 outstanding works of contemporary photography by many of the world’s most acclaimed photographers.

Hardcover
9″ x 11.5″
144 pages
100 color.

This title presents more than 80 of Foster’s key projects, each illustrated with drawings, sketches and photographs, placed alongside insightful text.
The book also features an essay by Frédéric Migayrou, curator of an attendant Centre Pompidou exhibition on Foster; a biography by celebrated architectural critic, Philip Jodidio; and an extensive interview with Foster himself.

Hardcover
9.5″ x 11″
264 Pages

Named one of NPR’s Books We Love, Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed is the captivating retelling of One Thousand and One Nights.

In Ahmed’s rendition Shaherazade uses her wit and storytelling to navigate palace intrigue, betrayal, and the perils of the Third Crusade. After witnessing the Malik’s wife’s infidelity, Shaherazade sparks a brutal cycle of nightly marriages and executions. To save herself and her people, she marries the Malik and tells him a new story each night, stopping just short of the end to prolong her life.

As rebellions brew and enemies close in, Shaherazade and her father persuade the Malik to join Saladin’s crusade. Set in twelfth-century Persia, this richly imagined novel brings Shaherazade to life as a brilliant storyteller who fights for survival and peace with her tales. Jamila Ahmed’s debut is a tribute to the art of storytelling and the medieval Islamic world.

Every Rising Sun is the November 2024 selection for SDMA’s  Art of Reading book club.
Hardcover
432 pages

Sterling Silver Bracelet Inspired by SDMA’s 17th-Century Jali Screen

This exquisite sterling silver bracelet captures the intricate beauty of the Museum’s 17th-century sandstone Jali screen. Specially commissioned for SDMA, it features exceptional craftsmanship that makes it a timeless accessory. The delicate 1.4 x 1-inch design is paired with a 7.5-inch chain, creating a piece that is both elegant and wearable for any occasion.

Islam in Europe surveys artistic production in the medieval Islamic world and examines the many ways it altered the trajectory of European visual culture. It reveals this interconnectedness through works of art that reflect the contact, influence, and exchange that developed during the medieval period and Renaissance. It also explores the reception of the image of Islam in Europe.

Hardcover
240 Pages