From the Center: Design Process at SCI-Arc

Part experimental laboratory, part alternative institution, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is one of the world's most vital and innovative schools. Known for its cutting-edge working methods and pioneering use of materials, SCI-Arc continues to revolutionize architecture, urbanism, design, research, and teaching through its remarkable work. This inventively designed and beautifully produced book brings together for the first time both built and theoretical projects -- previously unpublished recent work -- by SCI-Arc's celebrated faculty. Its members are a dynamic mix of architects, designers, theoreticians, and critics, echoing the rich environmental and cultural diversity of the surrounding Southern California region. Reflecting SCI-Arc's rigorous dedication to a working methodology, each project presented here reveals the ever-evolving design process itself. This analytical visual vocabulary combines sketches, study models, paintings, computer renderings, prototypes, and construction documents with explanatory illustrated texts by past and present faculty members.

Michael Rotondi, director of SCI-Arc and principal of ROTO, is an award-winning architect and teacher. He has been a faculty member at SCI-Arc since the school was founded in 1972. He was a principal of Morphosis from 1973 to 1991.

Margaret Reeve, director of publications at SCI-Arc, was curator of exhibitions at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where she produced twenty-three exhibition catalogs.