Thom Mayne

This is the second book I got on Morphosis, following Connected Isolation, a book that came out in 1993 and served as a constant studio companion in architecture school. A lot changed in ten years: partners Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi split; accordingly the design direction shifted toward more aggressive but less tectonic forms; and Mayne's Morphosis completed more and larger projects. The last is most apparent in this Phaidon book, which is made up of 268 pages of completed buildings and interiors documented with large photos and a few small drawings; Connected Isolation, on the other hand, is mainly unbuilt projects presented through collages of drawings and model photos. Since I'm more partial to the earlier book, I find the Phaidon book lacking, although the photos are beautiful and they do a good job of taking the "reader" on a journey, through their reverse-chronological ordering, from then-recent projects to early ones. Only a ten-page essay by Mayne, with commentary by Val Warke, adds some depth to the photo-saturated coffee table book.… (mais)