Author Description

The work of Pritzker Prize–winning architect Thom Mayne and that of the firm Morphosis at its most pure is best seen in the models that preceded the buildings, masterworks made at scale, for the first time comprehensively gathered—and shown here. Thom Mayne is a deeply theoretical and conceptual architect whose built work and that of the firm Morphosis can be seen worldwide. On the cutting edge of exploration and discovery in design, the architecture is marked by complexity, disruption, ambiguity, and power. In each case, prior to the building came the model, which may serve as a key to understanding and appreciation; models express purely the basis of Mayne’s theory and intention. This volume offers, for the first time ever, an exhaustive look at the models upon which all the rest has been built, and is, as well, an essential history of the work of Mayne and Morphosis. A forty-plus-year office retrospective and a love letter to models, their process and concepts, and those that made them, the book considers at once the evolution of the model and that of the work of the firm. It features small-scale dwellings, such as the early and award-winning Sedlack Residence in Venice, California—a single room and study set atop a one-car garage—to Unicorn Island, a mixed-use master plan including a transit station, university campus, commerical and office buildings, parks, and green space in Chengdu, China. In addition to models never before documented, the book includes outside commentary from architecture historians, critics, and practicing architects, such as Kenneth Frampton, Steven Holl, and Wolf Prix.