Morphosis: Buildings and Projects, by Peter Cook & George Rand (Rizzoli 1989), documents the work by avant-garde architects Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi.
Winners of numerous awards and the subject of exhibitions from Tokyo to Berlin, Los Angeles to New York, Morphosis architects Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi are leaders in the avant-garde movement of the new architecture of California. Through their association with SciArc (Southern California Institute for Architecture), of which Mayne was a founding member and where Rotondi is the present Director, they have also been a leading force for the younger generation of California architects.
The works of Morphosis have encompassed a wide range of building types, including the single-family house and multiple-unit housing, medical facilities and offices, restau- rants and retail spaces. In all projects, a hallmark of their work is always a clean, crisp coolness expressing their almost uncanny ability to turn the most ordinary materials into surfaces and details of astonishing power and grace. The effect of this activity is inten- sified through structural ambiguity and shifting harmonies, in an architecture of econ- omy and of extraordinary sophistication.
One of the unique features of the methods of design of Morphosis Architects is the way in which they use models and drawings. Unlike most architects, after a building is com- pleted Mayne and Rotondi go back to the drawings and models, reworking and analyz- ing them as sources of inspiration and generation for new designs. It is through this activity of creating and re-creating that the name Morphosis is derived.
– Peter Cook & George Rand, Morphosis: Buildings and Projects (Rizzoli, 1989), excerpt from the book description
The text is in English. The book is profusely illustrated with photographs, model photos, renderings, and architectural drawings.
Our current copy is in good condition. The pages are clean; no markings except for the previous owner’s name sticker and a small note on the first flyleaf. The glueing of the binding is fine The covers only show some small signs of shelf wear.
