Michael Sorkin Studio

This monograph documents over a decade's worth of projects from this important New York-based firm. Although urban areas are most frequently the subject of the Studio's iconoclastic rejuvenation, an attention to nature and natural form is nonetheless ubiquitous.

From the biomorphic Governor's Island proposal to the unabashed representationalism of the Beached Houses, from the luminescent tubers of the Miira installation to the neurological networks of the Neurasia project, the Studio combats the sprawl of automobile-centric urbanism with a decidedly organic vocabulary.

In the able hands of the Michael Sorkin Studio, progressive strategies of urban intervention and biological reinjection - as Tokyo's Godzilla and the East New York projects testify - are given innovative architectural form.

Beyond the strength and breadth of the projects themselves, the work is enhanced by this volume's dramatic graphic presentation. Produced by the Studio, the "exquisite corpse" layout literally intertwines the projects, illustrating both their kinship and their strong contextual affiliations. With over two hundred color images, this book serves as an appropriate forum for the Studio's production and its increasing use of sophisticated imaging technologies.