MORPHOSIS

Founded in 1972, Morphosis is an interdisciplinary practice involved in rigorous design and research that yields innovative, iconic buildings and urban environments. Today, as the scale and sophistication of the California-based firm’s projects continue to grow, Morphosis consists of a group of more than 50 professionals, who remain committed to the practice of architecture as a collective and interdisciplinary enterprise. Morphosis is a dynamic and evolving practice that responds to the shifting social, cultural, political, and technological conditions of modern life. With projects worldwide, the firm’s work ranges in scale from residential, institutional, and civic buildings to large urban planning projects. The firm also invests significant creative energy in drawing and in the design of functional objects and furniture. Thom Mayne was named the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, the profession’s highest honor, and Morphosis has been the subject of extensive publications and exhibitions throughout the world.

Firm Background

Morphosis was founded in 1972 in Los Angeles as an interdisciplinary and collective practice involved in experimental design and rigorous research. Today, the firm consists of a group of more than 40 professionals, who remain committed to the practice of architecture as a collaborative enterprise.
Named after the Greek term, morphosis, meaning to form or be in formation, Morphosis is a dynamic and evolving practice that responds to the shifting and advancing social, cultural, political and technological conditions of modern life. A critical practice where creative output engages contemporary society and culture through architectural design and education, Morphosis is a process driven firm that seeks new and different design challenges and has resisted becoming specialized in any particular building type. With projects worldwide, the firm's work ranges in scale from residential, institutional, and civic buildings to large urban planning projects. The firm also invests significant creative energy in drawing and in the design of functional objects and furniture.
With founder Thom Mayne serving as design principal, Morphosis typically generates its ideas through brain-storming sessions, in which designers question all prior assumptions about a project and intensively test and refine different avenues toward a solution.
Collaboration with the client is an essential part of this process. Morphosis works closely with its clients to help them define the ethical and functional goals of the project, then translates those goals into a design that satisfies the unique requirements and aesthetic opportunities of the program, site and context. The ultimate goal is to produce an architecture that surprises and inspires-a critical architecture that contributes to the conversation about how we live today.
Over the past 30 years, Morphosis has received 25 Progressive Architecture awards, 60 American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards and numerous other honors. Most recently, Thom Mayne was named the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, the profession's highest honor, and the firm was also selected as the 2005 Firm of the Year by the AIA California Council. Morphosis has been the subject of group and solo exhibitions around the world, and Morphosis buildings and projects are published extensively in prominent architectural publications worldwide. Drawings, furniture and bmodels produced by Morphosis are in the permanent collections of institutions including MoMA, New York; SF MoMA, San Francisco; the MAK, Vienna; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and FRAC Centre, France. From March 8, 2006 until July 17, 2007, Continuities of the Incomplete, the largest ever exhibition of Morphosis' work, is running at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. The studio has been the subject of 18 monographs, including four published by Rizzoli and a 2003 monograph from Phaidon.