New York-based architecture firm MOS, the experimental and ‘willfully strange’ bureau headed by architects Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, is fast approaching its landmark ten-year anniversary of being in business. To celebrate this milestone in their career, they are releasing their first ever monograph, entitled MOS: Selected Works, a book and visual guide that chronicles their evolution, as well as presenting a careful selection of their best projects to-date.
The firm is well known for its joyful and experimental approach to design development and its ‘off-kilter’ methodologies. Through their work, the pair has dabbled in different mediums, arguably inserting an element of fun and playfulness into their vision of what an architectural practice should be.
The book’s thirty-two projects cover the firm’s diverse body of work. This includes a selection of projects that are still in progress, with notable examples such as the Museum of Outdoor Arts commission for the Element House, the Puppet Theatre at Harvard's Carpenter Center and their work for the Chamber design gallery and store in Manhattan.
Meredith and Sample, who teach at the prestigious Princeton University and Columbia University respectively, alongside managing their joint practice, like to inject humour into their work. Their unique ‘office policy’, included in this publication, is a testament to that. This unorthodox office guidebook features quirky advice, such as ‘you are asked to remember that one aim of the office is to get it “exactly wrong”’ and provides readers with a unique insight into the firm's lighthearted approach and sense of humour.
Highlighting the work of arguably one of the country’s leading young architectural practices, MOS: Selected Works offers valuable insight into the pair's life and philosophy, not only as architecture professionals, but also as state-of-the-art designers and thinkers.
Published by Princeton Architectural Press, the book will feature 32 projects, which show the evolution of the practice's work and cover its diverse and playful portfolio
Pictured here is the Puppet Theater Pavillion, constructed in 2004. This project was built for a Pierre Huyghe performance. It was designed to be able to be assembled and disassembled quickly and efficiently. Photography: Florian Holzherr, Michael Vahrenwald
This pavillion, constructed from polycarbonate panels, was built to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center at Harvard University. Photography: Florian Holzherr
One of the firm's earlier works, this is House No. 2, also known as Floating House. Photography: Florian Holzherr
The firm's Pavilion No. 4 at PS1 was called Afterparty. Photography: Florian Holzherr
INFORMATION
MOS: Selected Works by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, £25, is published by Princeton Architectural Press.
For more information, visit the publisher's website
-
Seven designers rethinking wood at London Design FestivalAt this year’s London Design Festival, wood proves itself anything but static. We highlight seven designers shaping, colouring, and engineering it in surprising ways
-
Inside Kazakhstan’s brutalist Tselinny cinema – now a hub for contemporary cultureTselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, a modernist landmark redesigned for its new purpose by Asif Khan, gears up for its grand opening in Kazakhstan
-
Oliver Spencer’s orbiting installation offers a meditative shopping experience during London Design FestivalAt Oliver Spencer’s Shoreditch store, a sensory light installation by Studio Rhythmics offers a calming moment during LDF
-
Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf unveil Calder Gardens in PhiladelphiaThe new cultural landmark presents Alexander Calder’s work in dialogue with nature and architecture, alongside the release of Jacques Herzog’s 'Sketches & Notes'. Ellie Stathaki interviews Herzog about the project.
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
-
How LA's Terremoto brings 'historic architecture into its next era through revitalising the landscapes around them'Terremoto, the Los Angeles and San Francisco collective landscape architecture studio, shakes up the industry through openness and design passion
-
A new photo book explores the symbolic beauty of the Japanese garden‘Modern Japanese Gardens’ from Thames & Hudson traces the 20th-century evolution of these serene spaces, where every element has a purpose
-
Inside a Donald Wexler house so magical, its owner bought it twiceSo transfixed was Daniel Patrick Giles, founder of fragrance brand Perfumehead, he's even created a special scent devoted to it
-
The Pagani Residences is the latest ultra-luxe automotive apartment tower to reach MiamiRising up above Miami, branded apartment buildings are having a renaissance, as everyone from hypercar builders to crystal makers seeks to have a towering structure bearing their name
