Morphosis: Buildings and Projects [Vol. 1]

by Peter Cook, George Rand

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, restaurants 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 intensified through structural ambiguity and shifting harmonies, in an architecture of economy 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 completed Mayne and Rotondi go back to the drawings and models, reworking and analyzing 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.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Edward Cook was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishment comedic movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s.
Born in Torquay, he was educated at the University of Cambridge. There he became involved with the Footlights Club, of which he later became president. After graduating, he created the comedy stage revue Beyond the Fringe, beginning a long-running partnership with Dudley Moore. In 1961, Cook opened the comedy club The Establishment in Soho. In 1965, Cook and Moore began a television career, beginning with Not Only... But Also. Cook's deadpan monologues contrasted with Moore's buffoonery. They received the 1966 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance.
Following the success of the show, the duo appeared together in the films The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). Cook and Moore returned to television projects continuing to the late 1970s, including co-presenting Saturday Night Live in the United States. From 1978 until his death in 1995, Cook no longer collaborated with Moore, apart from a few cameo appearances, but continued to be a regular performer in British television and film.
Referred to as "the father of modern satire" by The Guardian in 2005, Cook was ranked number one in the Comedians' Comedian, a poll of more than 300 comics, comedy writers, producers and directors in the English-speaking world.

Reviews

[chris]

This is post modern architecture at its finest and most direct. There is such an impressive and expressed sense of spatial organization and these drawings and writings display how intentional that all is. The orrery in the Mantilini restaurant stands out to me as a highlight of this book, earning its place on the cover and as a major point of discussion. Such odd layouts but they thoroughly intrigued me.

I am stuck with the hardcover edition of this but one day I will get my hands on a paperback edition.

[sang rupawan]

morphosis... bacaan wajib bagi para tukang dekon, siapa mau di dekontruksi :P
kekekekekek...

rahasia moephosis lihatlah koordinat-koordinat diluar gambar desain bangunannya, repetisi datum etc...

yang jelas selamat berdekon ria. kekekekek...

desain adalah menyelesaikan masalah, selama masalah itu timbul desain tidak akan pernah berhenti.

[Michael]

I can't remember if the written component offers much, but great projects from their "paper" days.

[Yusita]

good book for literature!

best regards,
YP