The Tocco Library 2025

16 Must-Read Books to Design What's Next

Materials operate quietly yet decisively at the core of how we build, manufacture, and imagine. The Tocco Library Report presents a curated bibliography that examines this material condition with both precision and curiosity. Moving beyond trendspotting, the selection engages with the intricate dialogues between design, science, and cultural context—foregrounding materiality not as backdrop, but as a central actor in systems of production and thought.

From critical investigations into waste revalorization to measured explorations of biomimetic principles, the texts challenge linear narratives and propose alternate frameworks for how we might relate to and work with matter. Whether articulated through technical research, design theory, or experimental practice, each volume in the collection acts as a lens through which to observe emerging shifts in material ethics and applications.

The library is not prescriptive—it is an invitation. For those navigating the fields of design, science, architecture, or adjacent disciplines, it offers a considered starting point to reassess assumptions, confront contradictions, and engage more deliberately with the textures and tensions that shape material futures.