Sim Van der Ryn is the author of seven books and numerous articles on sustainable design and planning.

 
Design for Life: The Architecture of Sim Van der Ryn.  Gibbs-Smith Publishers.  2005.

 
Design for Life: The Architecture of Sim Van der Ryn surveys the work and principles of Sim. Sharing his years of experience as a teacher and using his building designs as examples, the author shows us that buildings are not objects but organisms, and cities are not machines but complex ecosystems.

A Place in the Sun: The Evolution of the Real Goods Solar Living Center. Chelsea Green Press. 1997. (edited by John Schaeffer)

Ninety miles North of San Francisco, Van der Ryn Architects designed a cutting-edge solar living center using sustainable building materials, landscaping techniques and futuristic renewable energy technologies. A Place in the Sun is the exciting and fascinating story of how the people and ideas came together to bring the center from conception to a functioning, tangible reality. The story of how it came to be is both hopeful and inspiring.



Ecological Design. Island Press. 1995. (with Stuart Cowan)

Ecological Design ... is not a book about things, but rather one about systems, patterns, context, integration and ultimately about vision, which is where good design begins. To say that Ecological Design deserves a large readership in the late years of the twentieth century is a bit like saying that folks on the Titanic needed lifeboats.

- David Orr, Whole Earth Review

In the spirit of such ecological thought as Ian McHarg's Design with Nature and David W. Orr's recent Ecological Literacy ... the authors argue that sustainability must be integrated into the very fabric of our daily experience.... By expanding our awareness of our cognitive blind spots, and giving us the tools to discern new questions, the authors have shed light on a model of sustainability that seems at once exciting and attainable.

- American Planning Association Journal



Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Towns and Suburbs. Sierra Club Books. 1986. (with Peter Calthorpe)

A practical vision of how different types of communities can make the transition to a way of life that encourages sustainability, reduces resource waste, balances consumption and production and produces long term social and ecological health.



The Toilet Papers: Recycling Waste and Conserving Water. Capra Press. 1978.
(1995 edition from Ecological Design Press)

...Sim Van der Ryn and the waste users he speaks for will have the comfort of being right. They are working at the beginnings of an authentic sanity.

- Wendell Berry



The Integral Urban House: Self Reliant Living in the City. Sierra Club Books. 1978. (with Farallones Institute Staff)
NOT CURRENTLY IN PRINT

A magnificent, inspiring record of eco-technically effective intelligent human cooperation.... This is magnificent news for humanity. We are on our way.

- Buckminster Fuller



Farallones Scrapbook: Making Places and Changing Spaces In Schools, At Home, and Within Ourselves. Random House. 1971.
NOT CURRENTLY IN PRINT

A visual journal of building projects done with kids in public schools with a focus on transforming industrial style classrooms into project based learning centers.



Dorms at Berkeley: The Ecology of Student Housing. Educational Facilities Laboratories. 1968. (with Murray Silverstein)
NOT CURRENTLY IN PRINT

A groundbreaking study of how people actually inhabit a building, compared to the designer's assumptions.... The beginning of post occupancy evaluation of buildings and user based architectural programming.