Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form

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Thom Mayne

Stray Dog Cafe, 2011, English

Nonfiction, Architecture; Nonfiction, Urban Design

9 x 7 x 2 inches, flexibound, 448 pages

ISBN: 9780983076308

Suggested Retail Price: $39.95

From Morphosis. For the past 40 years Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis, have been engaged with projects that exist in the hybrid space between architecture and urban planning. Against this backdrop, Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form surveys 12 urban projects that range in scale from a 16-acre proposal for rebuilding the World Trade Center site after the 2001 terrorist attacks to a 52 thousand-acre redevelopment proposal for post-Katrina New Orleans. This book and the proposals found within, posit an alternative to traditional end-state planning solutions, while attempting to not only illuminate but also explicate Mayne’s own work and critical processes. Combinatory Urbanism represents a departure from previous Morphosis publications. Both a manifesto on urbanism and a comprehensive presentation of Morphosis urban design projects, many of which have never before been published; this book fills a void in the world of architectural and urban design publications. Foreword by Stan Allen.

Available from Stray Dog Cafe.

On 2 book lists

John Hill

On John Hill’s Notable Books of 2011 list

This collection of a dozen urban design projects by Morphosis is elegantly designed and illustrated, a visual feast. But it is also theoretically intriguing, in the way Mayne uses the computer for exploring the evolution of urban form.

Thom Mayne

On list of Books by Thom Mayne

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