Morphosis- Diamond Ranch High School: Source Books in Architecture

"Diamond Ranch High School: Source Book in Architecture" is perhaps one of the best books to have if you want to know the process of which great projects come to be. Divided into three sections, the first section is a documented transcript of Thom Mayne of Morphosis, critic Jeffrey Kipnis, and lecturer Todd Gannon during the Baumer Lecture Series at The Ohio State University. Mr. Kipnis and Mr. Gannon provide some of the best questions to Mr. Mayne - questions that many of us would actually want to ask Mr. Mayne. Likewise, Mr. Mayne's responses are eloquent and insightful. His honesty removes the aura created by his computer renderings and makes you realize that this is simply an individual who loves what he does. The second section of the book documents the drawings that Morphosis developed for the Diamond Ranch High School. Let's face it - we are usually presented with either a project proposal or a professional finished photograph and drawings are typically excluded from any typical documentation. The third section contains photos of the project under construction to the final construction photos. From the Mayne's discussion, to the drawings, and to the photographs, you gain a valuable insight into the true design and development of 'Diamond Ranch High School' that other publications simply gloss over. This series of books are simply one of the best in contemporary architectural writing and documentation today.

As an architect, I have followed Thom Mayne's work for a long period of time. I have collected most of his books and have always admired their production quality and most importantly, the depth of the work produced by this firm. They have been and will remain at the forefront of the architectural profession. Despite reading and studying Mayne's work and philosophies in other books, I have always been left unsatisfied, not knowing exactly how the firm works and how a project comes together within their office. The interview with Jeffery Kipnis and Todd Gannon at the front of the book enters into this territory, although I would have liked it to be much longer. The rest of the book is much like other Morphosis' books; full of beautiful sketches, computer renderings and drawings. Images walk the reader from schematic design through completion.