MASTER ARCHITECTS

http://www.complex.com/style/2012/05/25-architects-you-should-know/

1.0 Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) A Finnish architect.

He is known as the father of modern Scandinavian design,and also became famous for his
furniture and glassware.

His works are modernist and functional, yet classically-inspired.

Alvar Aalto received international acclaim with the completion of the Paimio Tuberculosis
Sanatorium,Paimio, Finland.

Paimio Sanatorium is a former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland

- The Sanatorium building established Aalto's dominance of the International style

and, more importantly, emphasized Aalto's attention to the human side of design.
The patients' rooms, with their specially designed heating, lighting and furniture, are
models of integrated environmental design. Alvar Aalto's Paimio chair (1932)
assisted patient breathing.
 - The term Nordic Classicism has been used to describe some of Alvar Aalto's work. Many of
his buildings combined sleek lines with richly textured natural materials such as stone, teak,
and rough-hewn logs. Nordic Classicism was regarded as a mere interlude between two far
more well-known architectural movements, National Romanticism or Jugendstil (often seen
as equivalent or parallel to Art Nouveau) and Functionalism (aka Modernism).

2.0 Le Corbusier ,the pseudonym for Charles Édouard Jeanneret-Gris. (1887-1965)

A Swiss-born French architect and city planner.

- He is a pioneer of modern architecture that led him as a major proponent of the Bauhaus
movement and the International Style.

Ground Floor,Entrance
Villa Savoye, Poissy, France,1928-1931

- The building design incorporates the five tenets of his architecture: the piloti
(freestanding structural column), the independence of the structural frame from
the external skin( free façade) , the free plan of the interior accommodation, the
free elevation, and the roof garden.

- He declared that a house would be a "machine for living," which means not reducing man
to the level of an automaton but uplifting him by as precise an environment in totality as the
precision of an automobile brake. Ventilation, sound insulation, sun-traps in winter, and sun
shields (brises-soleil) in summer were all a part of this precision and of Le Corbusier's ideals
for a total environment.
- His later works include the Unit d'Habitation and the lyrical chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut
at Ronchamp, France.
 Unité d'Habitation, Marseilles, France, 1946-1952
- A modernist residential housing design principle
- One of Le Corbusiers's most famous works, it proved enormously influential and is often
cited as the initial inspiration of the Brutalist architectural style and philosophy.
- The building is constructed in béton brut (rough-cast concrete), as the hoped-for steel frame
proved too expensive in light of post-War shortages.[1] The Unité in Marseille is pending
designation as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

Notre Dame du Haut, or Ronchamp, Ronchamp, France

- Expressionist Modern Style
- The structural design of the roof was inspired by the engineering of airfoils.

3.0 Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) A Barcelona-based Spanish architect whose free-flowing works
were greatly influenced by nature. Spanish architect

 His distinctive style is characterized by freedom of form,

voluptuous colour and texture, and organic unity.
 Gaudí worked almost entirely in or near Barcelona.
 Much of his career was occupied with the construction of the
Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family (Sagrada
Família),Barcelona,Spain which was unfinished at his death in
1926.
 Sagrada Família),Barcelona,Spain

4.0 Walter Gropius. (1883-1969) A German Architect and art educator

- He founded the Bauhaus school of design, which

became a dominant force in architecture and the
applied arts in the 20th century.
- He believed that all design should be functional as well
as aesthetically pleasing. His Bauhaus school pioneered
a functional, severely simple architectural style,
featuring the elimination of surface decoration and
extensive use of glass.

The Bauhaus Dessau architecture department from

1925, Weimar, Germany. The Bauhaus school, founded
in Weimar, Germany in 1919, redefined the
architectural bounds prior set throughout history,
viewing the creation of a building as the ultimate
synthesis—the apex—of art, craft, and technology.

5.0 Louis Isadore Kahn - Born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky (1901 – 1974)

An American architect based in Philadelphia. One of the most influential architects of the mid-
twentieth century.

- He was a visionary architect, an expert manipulator of form and light,

a creator of uniquely dramatic buildings, and a highly complex individual

- He realised relatively few buildings, yet the formal restraint

and emotional expressiveness of his Jonas Salk Institute,
Kimbell Art Museum and the Capital Complex in Dhaka
are regarded as an inspired interpretation of Modernism.
 Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth,
Texas, USA

- Kahn's architecture is notable for its simple, platonic forms and compositions. Through the
use of brick and poured-in place concrete masonry, he developed a contemporary and
monumental architecture that maintained a sympathy for the site. While rooted in the
International Style, Kahn's architecture was an amalgam of his Beaux Arts education and a
personal aesthetic impulse to develop his own architectural forms.

- His philosophical concepts, "silence and light." Silence represents the darkness of the
beginning, and light symbolizes the source of life, the inspiration of the creative act.

6.0 Adolf Loos (1870-1933). An Austrian and Czechoslovak architect.

- He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime
he abandoned the aesthetic principles of the Vienna Secession. In this and many other
essays he contributed to the elaboration of a body of theory and criticism of Modernism in
architecture and design.

- Ranks as one of the most important pioneers of the modern

movement in architecture.
- Adolf Loos 's buildings were rigorous examples of austere beauty,
ranging from conventional country cottages to planar compositions
for storefronts and residences.
- In his 1898 essay entitled "Principles of Building," Adolf Loos wrote
that the true vocabulary of architecture lies in the materials
themselves, and that a building should remain "dumb" on the
outside. In his own work, Adolf Loos contrasted austere facades
with lavish interiors.
- Adolf Loos 's private residential works were characterized by
unembellished white facades. As a result, these buildings have
routinely been associated with the work of Le Corbusier, J. J. Oud,
and others.
Café Museum,1899
- It is a traditional Viennese café located
in the Innere Stadt first district in
Vienna, Austria
- The original interior was designed by
renowned architect Adolf Loos.
 - Among the more famous were the
much published Steiner House (1910)
and Scheu House (1912), both in Vienna

Steiner House (1910), A Rationalist Architecture Scheu House (1912)

7.0 Ludwig Mies Ven Der Rohe (1886-1969) A German-born architect and educator, is widely
acknowledged as one of the 20th century's greatest architects. By emphasizing open space and
revealing the industrial materials used in construction, he helped define modern architecture.

- He is commonly referred to and was addressed as Mies, his

surname. Along with Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright,
he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of
modern architecture.

- He called his buildings "skin and bones" architecture. He

sought a rational approach that would guide the creative
process of architectural design, but he was always
concerned with expressing the spirit of the modern era. He
is often associated with his quotation of the aphorisms,
"less is more" and "God is in the details".

Mies made a dramatic modernist debut with his stunning competition proposal for the faceted
all-glass Friedrichstraße skyscraper in 1921, followed by a taller curved version in 1922 named
the Glass Skyscraper

He designed the The Seagram Building, a skyscraper, located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd
Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
 Seagram Building Farnsworth House
The only residence built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
in America, Farnsworth House exemplifies both the
central tenet of the International Style by inverting the
conventions of traditional architecture, and of Mies'
own design philosophy as it had evolved over the
preceding four decades.
8.0 Aldo Rossi (1931 – 1997) An Italian architect and designer who accomplished the unusual feat
of achieving international recognition in four distinct areas: theory, drawing, architecture and
product design.

- He advocated the use of a limited range of building

types and concern for the context in which a building is
constructed.
This postmodern approach, known as neo-rationalism,
represents a reinvigoration of austere classicism. In
addition to his built work, he is known for his writings,
numerous drawings and paintings, and designs for
furniture and other objects.

- The Architecture of the City’ was firstly published in

1966 by Aldo Rossi, based on his notes and lectures,
when functionalism predominated. As Rossi stated, this
book did not cover new issues, but it was sensational
for architects in that era because it gave them a chance
to rethink architecture with respect to the city as a
meaning of collective life, history, and reality instead
of from a functional aspect.

- Rossi gained international attention at the Venice

Biennale in 1979 when he designed the Teatro del
Mondo, a floating theatre. The wood-clad structure,
featuring an octagonal tower, recalled the Venetian
tradition of floating theatres
9.0 Carlo Scarpa (1906 – 1978) An Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape, and the
history of Venetian culture, and Japan.Scarpa was also a glass and furniture designer of note.

- He was a virtuoso of light, a master of detail, and a

connoisseur of materials. Today he is known as a 20th-
century master of architecture.

- His first important commission was the

1935 restoration and renovation of the
School of Economics at the University of
Venice, in the Ca Foscari. This project was a
portrait of the future, with elegant glass,
metal, and wood details subtly integrated
into the architecture of medieval Venice.

10.0 James Stirling (1926 – 1992) A British architect. Among critics and architects alike he is generally
acknowledged to be one of the most important and influential architects of the second half of
the 20th century.

- Stirling's early designs, especially for Cambridge and Oxford, often

emphasized concept over aesthetic and utilitarian needs. His later
works appeared more formal due to their influence from Post-
Modern classicism. Criticized for his ability to continually alter his
fundamental architectural principles, Stirling uses an experimental
design approach that shows little commitment to one particular
style.

His works
1968 Cambridge University: Faculty of History

Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany

11.0 Louis Henry Sullivan (1856 – April 14, 1924) An American architect, and has been called the
"father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He is considered by many as the creator of
the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a
mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have
come to be known as the Prairie School.

- The notable 19th-century architect of skyscrapers who promoted an

overriding precept to architectural design: "Form follows
function".

Prudential Building, also known as the Guaranty Building,

Buffalo, New York, 1894

Sullivan's design for the building was based on his belief that
"form follows function". He and Adler divided the building into
four zones. The basement was the mechanical and utility area.
Since this level was below ground, it did not show on the face of
the building. The next zone was the ground-floor zone which
was the public areas for street-facing shops, public entrances
and lobbies. The third zone was the office floors with identical
office cells clustered around the central elevator shafts. The
final zone was the terminating zone, consisting of elevator
equipment, utilities and a few offices.

12.0 Christopher Wren (1632 – 1723) One of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.

He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches in the

City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his
masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in
1710.

St Paul's Cathedral, London

London's most iconic building
 Wren was a notable anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist, as well
as an architect

13.0 Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, 1867 – 1959) An American architect, interior
designer, writer, and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures, 532 of which were
completed.
- Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony
with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called
organic architecture.

- This philosophy was best exemplified by Falling water (1935),

which has been called "the best all-time work of American
architecture".[1] Wright was a leader of the Prairie School
movement of architecture and developed the concept of the
Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the
United States.

Fallingwater,
- Frank Lloyd Wright created this unique design for the
Kauffman family in 1934
- Applied Organic architecture, in which the form was defined
by its environment and purpose, with an aim to promote
harmony between human habitation and the natural world

Robie House,
- A U.S. National Historic Landmark on the campus of the
University of Chicago in the neighborhood of Hyde Park
in Chicago, Illinois, at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue on the
South Side.
- It was designed and built between 1908 and 1910 by
architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the
greatest example of the Prairie School style, the first
architectural style that was uniquely American.

14.0 Tadao Ando Born September 13, 1941 . A Japanese self-taught architect whose approach to
architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as
"critical regionalism".

- Ando's architectural style is said to create a "haiku" effect,

emphasizing nothingness and empty space to represent the
beauty of simplicity.
- He favors designing complex spatial circulation while
maintaining the appearance of simplicity.
 - A self-taught architect, he keeps his Japanese culture and language in mind while he
travels around Europe for research.
- As an architect, he believes that architecture can change society, that "to change the
dwelling is to change the city and to reform society". "Reform society" could be a
promotion of a place or a change of the identity of that place.
- The simplicity of his architecture emphasizes the concept of sensation and physical
experiences, mainly influenced by the Japanese culture.
- The religious term Zen, focuses on the concept of simplicity and concentrates on inner
feeling rather than outward appearance.
- Zen influences vividly show in Ando’s work and became its distinguishing mark. In order
to practice the idea of simplicity, Ando's architecture is mostly constructed with
concrete, providing a sense of cleanliness and weightlessness at the same time. Due to
the simplicity of the exterior, construction, and organization of the space are relatively
potential in order to represent the aesthetic of sensation.

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas

15.0 Gottfried Böhm (born January 23, 1920) is a German architect. He is currently the only German
architect to be honored with a Pritzker Prize.

Famous buildings:
- St. Columba Church, in Cologne, Germany (1947-1950)
- Pilgrimage Church, in Neviges, Germany (1968-1972)
- Christi Auferstehung (Church of Resurrection), in Cologne
(1968-1970)
- Bensburg Town Hall, Germany (1964-1969)

Bensburg Town Hall, Germany

Deutsche Bank
The building surrounded on its outside by sandstone
pillars welcomes its visitors inside with a spacious,
open and translucent hall topped by a spectacular
glass dome.
 In the following decades Böhm constructed many buildings around Germany, including
churches, museums, civic center, office buildings, homes, and apartments. He has been
considered to be both an expressionist and post-Bauhaus architect, but he prefers to define
himself as an architect who creates "connections" between the past and the future, between
the world of ideas and the physical world, between a building and its urban surroundings.

In this vein, Böhm always envisions the color, form, and materials of a building in relationship
with its setting. His earlier projects were done mostly in molded concrete, but more recently he
has begun using more steel and glass in his buildings, due to the technical advancements in both
materials. His concern for urban planning is evident in many of his projects, again showing his
concern for "connections".

16.0 Mario Botta (born April 1, 1943) A Swiss architect and a contemporary architect

- Considered one of the century’s most fundamental

contributors to postmodern classicism, Swiss architect
Mario Botta is respected particularly for his sensitivity to
regional vernacular and to the building’s relationship with
the land. He is the designer of the Bechtler Museum of
Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
– the only commissions he has accepted in the United
States.

Bechtler Museum of
Modern Art
- Charlotte, North Carolina is
a 36,500 square feet (3,390
m2) museum space
dedicated to the exhibition
of mid-20th-century
modern art.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

San Francisco, California, 1995
- An image-oriented design for a prominent building,
a strictly symmetrical composition of Platonic
masses with stripes.
17.0 Daniel Burnham (1846 – 1912) was an American architect and urban designer.

- Burnham took a leading role in the creation of master plans

for the development of a number of cities, including
Chicago, Manila and downtown Washington, D.C.
- He also designed several famous buildings, including the
Flatiron Building of triangular shape in New York City, Union
Station in Washington D.C., the Continental Trust Company
Building tower skyscraper in Baltimore (now One South
Calvert Building), and a number of notable skyscrapers in
Chicago.
- Burnham and Root were the architects of one of the first
American skyscrapers: the Masonic Temple Building in
Chicago. Tallest in Chicago from 1895 to 1899.

Masonic Temple Building

18.0 Santiago Calatrava (born 28 July 1951). A Spanish neo-futuristic architect, structural engineer,
sculptor and painter.
As both Engineer and Architect, his works take materials like
concrete, glass and steel beyond the normal bounds.

Milwaukee Museum of Art building,

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The PATH Terminal at the World Trade Center site in

New York is the final building design for the rebuilding
project. In the days immediately following the reveal, it
is clear that this building has captured the favor of the
general public.

Santiago Calatrava Bridge

19.0 Peter Eisenman born 1932. An American Architect

He first rose to prominence as a member of the New York Five (also known as the Whites, as
opposed to the Grays of Yale: Robert A.M. Stern, Charles Moore, etc.), five architects (Eisenman,
Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk, Richard Meier, and Michael Graves) some of whose work was
presented at a CASE Studies conference in 1967. These architects' work at the time was often
considered a reworking of the ideas of Le Corbusier. Subsequently, the five architects each
developed unique styles and ideologies, with Eisenman becoming more affiliated with
Deconstructivism.

- He is one of the foremost practitioners of

deconstructivism in American architecture.
- Eisenman's fragmented forms are identified with an
eclectic group of architects that have been, at times
unwillingly, labelled deconstructivists.

- His theories on architecture pursue the emancipation

and autonomy of the discipline and his work represents
a continued attempt to liberate form from all meaning,
a struggle that most find difficult to understand. His
controversial buildings appear disconnected from
surrounding structures and historical context.

He always had strong cultural relationships with European intellectuals like his English mentor
Colin Rowe and the Italian historian Manfredo Tafuri. The work of philosopher Jacques Derrida is
a key influence in Eisenman's architecture.

His focus on "liberating" architectural form was notable from an academic and theoretical
standpoint but resulted in structures that were both badly built and hostile to users. The
Wexner Center, hotly anticipated as the first major public deconstructivist building, has required
extensive and expensive retrofitting because of elementary design flaws (such as incompetent
material specifications, and fine art exhibition space exposed to direct sunlight).

The Wexner Center for the Arts

SANAA WINS TAICHUNG CITY
CULTURAL CENTER COMPETITION

Third Prize: Peter Eisenman Architects,

PC (USA) with joint tenderer Fei &
Cheng Associates (Taiwan)

Aronoff Center for Design and

Art, Cincinnati, OH. 1988-1999.
Jeff Goldberg/Esto.

Peter Eisenman New Housing Complex

in Milan, Italy
20.0 Norman Foster Born 1935. An English architect. His company has an international design
practice. He is the United Kingdom's biggest builder of landmark office buildings.
- His remarkable buildings and urban projects have transformed
cityscapes, renewed transportation systems and restored city
centres all over the world. Many of these aesthetically and
technologically groundbreaking projects are based on ecology -
conscious concepts, setting new standards for the interaction of
buildings with their environment.
- Among his recent projects are some of the most remarkable
architectural projects of the last years
- Reconstruction of the Reichstag in Berlin,
- Design of the Great Court at the British Museum in London,
- The Millennium Bridge (the first new Thames Crossing for more
than 100 years)
- New Hong Kong International Airport - the world’s largest
airport terminal.

High Tech Modern Style. The Swiss Re tower, nicknamed the

Gherkin for its tall, rounded, pickle-like shape.

View of 30 St Mary Axe. The building serves as the London

headquarters for Swiss Re and is informally known as "The
Gherkin".

Chek Lap Kok Airport

Hong Kong International Airport. High
Tech Modern Style.
The major new airport in Hong Kong,
highly regarded for its clear layout and
natural lighting.