RoTo Sketches: Postcard Book Series

Michael Rotondi has practiced and taught architecture locally and internationally for over forty years, always operating from his base in Los Angeles. Digitizing these sketchbooks is a process that stretches back to the late 70s and early 80s, through the early days of SCI-Arc (Arch. '75, Director 1987-1997) and seminal projects from Morphosis (1975-1991) and RoTo Architects (1991-present) up to more recent times. The online archive, to be updated and added to periodically, includes selections of scans from the collection, descriptive texts, and audio recordings discussing the books and their contents.

POSTCARD SERIES

The Postcard Book Series, or Postcards to Benji, were done in 4" x 6" postcard-style books purchased in the art supply store at Kyoto Seika University. Intended to be individual postcards sent from Michael to his son as he traveled throughout the late 1980s-1990s, he decided instead to keep and deliver them as completed books. The drawings within were prompts for longer conversations on his return.

42 slides (click to expand)

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AUDIO

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/915b73_32a66090bfd04b15867eb6c350102587/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

"...that was the beginning of me exploring the word 'lightness' in other literature as well as in objects, and eventually led to what I think of as matter transforming to light, or light transforming into matter..."