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Dear colleagues: I would like to follow up Dick Buchanan's remarks about a set of core readings for a PhD program in design. I like the idea very much but I believe the issue is more complicated than simply selecting a few books. First, I would like to make a distinction between core readings in the field of design and core readings for good intellectual citizenship, as Ken Friedman notes. I think it particularly important to think about core readings in design if we are going to talk about a field of design studies. I would be happy to talk about design studies rather than design and think of it as a broadly constituted field with many subfields. Thus, design studies would have clusters of core readings in many of its subfields. I would also like to bring up the issue of what to do with important books from the past. Does one consider them to be part of the core readings in design history as a subfield or are they books that explain design in some particularly powerful way such that they cut across subfields. I think both categories are possible. For example, I believe that Pevsner's Pioneers of Modern Design is an important book for design historians but is dated such that its argument is of less interest and value to the field as a whole. On the other hand, Gideion's Mechanization Takes Command is a book that raises issues that are still of great value and significance today and I would consider it to be a core book. Among the sub-fields of design studies that I see are design history, design thinking, ecodesign, design management, artificial intelligence and design. I am sure there are others. Each of these sub-fields no doubt has important texts that are central to those engaged with it. I thus envision clusters of core texts. In a doctoral program, one should expect a doctoral student to be familiar with the core texts in most of these subfields. In fact, a doctoral program could offer a design studies component that would include courses in ecodesign, design history, etc. This would make the curriculum look something like the curriculum in anthropology, art history, history etc. I do agree with Dick Buchanan that every doctoral program (and MA program too) in design, whether or not it is practice-based, should have a design studies component. As Dick notes, there is also room for specialized PhD programs in design studies. Someone with such a degree would have written a dissertation in one of the design studies sub-fields and would have an extensive familiarity with the literature in the entire field. There might also be specialized PhDs in design history or AI, cognition, and design (as there is already at the University of Sydney). Regarding the texts in my essay, "Postwar Design Literature: A Preliminary Mapping," Ken Friedman is right. Many of them would not constitute core texts for a doctoral program. Like Pevsner's Pioneers, they have historical value but do not transcend their moment to become core design studies texts. However, some that I believe do include: Moholy-Nagy's Vision in Motion (1947) Gyorgy Kepes Language of Vision Gyorgy Kepes 6 volume Vision and Value series George Nelson. Problems of Design and George Nelson on Design One of Buckminster Fuller's books. I don't know which is best Ivan Illich. Tools for Conviviality (I would not include Papanek's Design for the Real World, which is quite dated now) Though I would add another book by Papanek, perhaps Design for Human Scale Martin Krampen, Design and Planning, 2 v. writings in German by Gert Selle Karl Gerstner and Markus Kutter, Die Neue Graphik Gerstner. Designing Programmes Gerstner. compendium for Literates Muller Brockmann. The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems Books on typography by Armin Hoffman, Emil Ruder, Manfred Meier The Black Papers on Design: Selected Writings of Mischa Black Design by Choice, a collection of Reyner Banham's writings Some writings of Bruce Archer Chris jones, Design Methods some books by Nigel Cross David Pye. The Nature and Aesthetics of Design books in Italian by Gillo Dorfles Tomas Maldonado, Design, Nature, and Revolution Andrea Branzi.the Hot House the work in French of Gilbert Simondon (cited by all authors who write about design in French) Jean Baudrillard. The System of Objects Czikszentmihalyi and Rochberg Halton. The Meaning of Things writings in English by Kenji Ekuan books and articles by Gui Bonsiepe Herbert Simon.The Sciences of the Artificial A book by Wilhelm Flusser The question of what belongs to design studies and what belongs to related literature should also be addressed. Since designers take knowledge and information from many different fields, we might think about texts in related fields that would be essential to any designer.Related fields include technology studies, material culture, engineering and architecture, urban planning, sociology, philosophy. For me, the purpose of reading many of the above is core texts is that they raise issues about design and design studies. We should move away from the narrow pragmatic approach to reading that one hears about often; i.e. how will this book help me design? Like any field, design studies is textured and nuanced and the issues are not simply spelled out in lists. To become aware of the issues in all their subtleties, one needs to read widely and engage with writers who have grappled with design themes. From that wide reading, one forms one's own sensibility as a design thinker. Well, this is enough for openers. I guess my inclination to write something has been building up as I have read all the other posts over the last couple of months. Victor Margolin University of Illinois, Chicago %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%