Neufert Architects’ Data for Rs. 999?? Come on!

If you are an Architect, you must know about the importance of the book Architects’ Data by Ernst Neufert, commonly referred to as ‘Neufert’. Through 6200+ illustrations and tables, it covers planning criteria, considerations of function and sitting, data on spatial requirements and much more.

It is an excellent resource for architects, building surveyors, space planners, and design and building contractors worldwide. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Neufert is to Architecture as a map is to a tourist.

But, if this book is really this important, shouldn’t everyone have a copy?

Yes, they do, but in the form of a photo-copy or a pirated soft copy of the book. Let’s look at the Amazon page for this book and try to come up with the reason:

Source: https://www.amazon.in/Neufert-Architects-Data-International-1991-01-15/dp/B01FGNR242/

I’m guessing you found it (the big red circle gave it away?) - the price tag of Rs. 9875.  This book is not an exception by any means - most books considered exemplary are in the 5000 rupees price range. Let’s explore some of the reasons behind this:

Limited Demand

Architecture, in its current form, is a really hectic course. It's laden with classes, assignments, exams, thesis and what not. Students who enroll with the belief that Architecture is a creative field are soon to realize that the creative part is probably just 20%, the rest of it being laborious, back-breaking work. For this reason, reading is largely limited to reference books, and supplementary books get very few takers.

This limited demand forces publishers to price the books higher to recover their costs in the few books they hope to sell.

But, the problem of limited demand is not applicable to Neufert given the ubiquity enjoyed by the book. This brings me to the second reason. 

Dominance of international publishers and the new normal

A vast majority of the popular architecture books are published by international book houses. Often, these books aren’t priced-adjusted for the Indian market. Importing books drives the prices further (because of import duties and such).

Exorbitant prices seem to be favored by tailwinds in pricing trends though. Even domestic publishers are pricing their books in the 5000 rupees range. Is this the new normal which we’re expected to accept? Skepticism aside, there’s another reason.

Printing Costs

Architecture books have a lot of pictures of drawings, buildings and landscapes. These pictures pop out when they’re printed in high resolution on glossy paper, which can easily be 10 times more expensive than regular paper. To support the weight of heavy, glossy sheets, books need to be hard-bound, increasing the printing costs even more.

Is there any hope in this dystopian setting? Probably.

The industry would benefit from more quality books from domestic authors. But given that producing top-notch quality educational content requires people with varied qualifications and experiences to come together, a collaborative effort would be required. Incentivizing this via awards and prizes would help authors to write individually and collaboratively. Bodies like COA, IIA and ISOLA could spearhead these incentive programs.

Secondly, domestic publishers could buy rights from the international publishers to reproduce the original content for the Indian subcontinent. Shroff Publishers & Distributors, a Mumbai based publishing house, does this for Engineering books. This cuts down prices in half.

Lastly, publishers could release the ebook version of the books. These e-books can be far superior to their printed counterparts  as they can support hyperlinks, dynamic and multimedia content. E-books solve the problem of distribution for publishers, but they’ll need to invest a little in tech to be able to crack this.

This brings us back to the original question - Can we get Neufert (or Neufert like books) for Rs 999? It’s technically feasible, but would require efforts from publishers, governing bodies and most importantly, all of us!