Landmarks in 21st Century Architecture: Thom Mayne (2009)

The reluctant iconoclast Thom Mayne and his Santa Monica collective Morphosis have been redefining architecture since the 1970s. In this free form documentary, Mayne takes viewers on a tour of his controversial San Francisco Federal Building, floor by floor, innovation by innovation. In the process we also learn about the works that preceded it. What naysayers overlook is how the structure operates almost entirely without HVAC or lighting. Mayne's building miraculously heats, ventilates and lights itself (with the assistance of SF's temperate climate). He explains the steps that inspired him to create a unique interplay between site orientation, robotics, ethics and materials, and a building that consumes a fifth of the energy of conventional designs. But the most revolutionary thing revealed in Mayne's tour might just be how he reclaims the choicest office space for workers, not management.