Thom Mayne

Thom Mayne founded Morphosis in 1972. As design director and thought leader of Morphosis, Mayne provides overall vision, project leadership, and direction to the firm. With Morphosis, Mayne has been the recipient of the 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize, 25 Progressive Architecture awards, 102 American Institute of Architecture awards, and numerous other design recognitions.

Throughout his career, Mayne has remained active in the academic world. In 1972, he helped to found the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Since then, he has held teaching positions at Columbia, Yale (Eliel Saarinen Chair in 1991), the Harvard Graduate School of Design (Eliot Noyes Chair in 1998), the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, and many other institutions around the world. Currently, he holds a tenured faculty position at the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture.

Classes (Selected)

  • ARCH 5115 Vertical Design Studio: Combinatorial FormThe New York City vertical studios engage contemporary issues through examining urban and infrastructural issues in relation to ecological, technical, and cultural practices.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • Member, American Academy of the Arts and Letters (2010)
  • Member, President Obama Committee for the Arts and Humanities (2010)
  • Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008)
  • Pritzker Architecture Prize (2005)
  • Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA) (2004)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • Centre Pompidou Installation: Continuities of the Incomplete (2006)
  • Gallery MA Exhibition
  • Silent Collisions Installation at the Netherlands Institute of Architecture

Publications (Selected)

  • Morphosis 1999–08 (2008)
  • Combinatory Urbanism: The Complex Behavior of Collective Form (2011)
  • Architecture of Change, with editors Kristin Feireiss and Lukas Feireiss (2008)
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