Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi

BORN: August 26, 1967 ( 92 years old), Pune, Bombay Presidency, British
India

NATIONALITY: Indian

ALMAMATER: J. J. School of Architecture, Mumbai

OCCUPATION: Architect

Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, OAL, (born 26 August 1927) is an Indian architect.[1] He is

considered to be an important figure of Indian architecture and noted for his contributions
to the evolution of architectural discourse in India.[2] Having worked under Le
Corbusier and Louis Kahn, he is a pioneer of modernist and brutalist architecture in India.
His more noteworthy designs include the IIM Bangalore, IIM Udaipur, NIFT Delhi, Amdavad ni
Gufa, CEPT University, and the Aranya Low Cost Housing development in Indore which was
awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.[3]
In 2018, he became the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which
is considered one of the most prestigious prizes in architecture.[4][5] He was also awarded
the Padma Shri.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

Architecture is both poetic and functional

Doshi’s architecture is both poetic and functional. The Indian Institute of Management in
Bangalore, completed in 1983, is inspired by traditional maze-like Indian cities and temples,
organized as interlocking buildings, courts and galleries. It also provides a variety of spaces
protected from the hot climate.

The scale of masonry and vast corridors infused with a campus of greenery allow visitors to be
simultaneously indoors and outdoors. As people pass through the buildings and spaces, Doshi
invites them to experience their surroundings and also suggests the possibility of transformation.

PHILOSOPHY
The Design Philosophy of B.V. Doshi, 2018 Pritzker Prize Laureate
Professor Balkrishna Doshi, also known as B. V. Doshi, has been an architect, urban planner, and
educator for 70 years. Throughout his long career, he has been a proactive advocate of
shaping the discourse of architecture in his country, India. Doshi’s architecture explores the
relationships between the fundamental needs of human life, connectivity to self and culture,
and respect for social traditions, with a response that is grounded in context and exhibiting a
localized Modernist approach. It is wholly fitting, therefore, that he was finally awarded
architecture’s highest honor, the 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Here’s an insight into the design
philosophy of one of India’s most celebrated contemporary architects.
“Architecture is ethical and personal”
My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams trying to create a treasury of the
architectural spirit. I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to
question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary
expression for a sustainable holistic habitat,” says Doshi, “I believe Life celebrates when lifestyle
and architecture fuse.'”

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

Childhood recollections, from the rhythms of the weather to the ringing of temple bells, inform
Doshi’s designs. He describes architecture as an extension of the body, and his ability to
attentively address function while regarding climate, landscape, and urbanization is
demonstrated through his choice of materials, overlapping spaces, and utilization of natural and
harmonizing elements

LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECT

ECIL TOWNSHIP at HyderAbad

1969-1971

SANGATH, B.V DOSHI’S OFFICE at Ahmedabad

1979-1980

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY at Delhi

1962-1974

AWARDS
In recognition of his distinguished contribution as a professional and as an academician, Dr. Doshi
has received several international and national awards and honours.

 Pritzker Architecture Prize, 2018 [4]

 Padma Shri, Government of India, 1976
 Honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
 France's highest honour for arts the 'Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters', 2011.[7]
 6th Aga Khan Award for Architecture for Aranya Community Housing, 1993-1995.

Balkrishna Doshi is the 45th Pritzker Prize Laureate, and the first to hail from India. The 2018 Pritzker
Architecture Prize ceremony commemorates the 40th anniversary of the accolade, and will take
place at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, this May. The Laureate will present a public
lecture, in partnership with the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
at the University of Toronto on May 16, 2018.
Other notable works include academic institution Centre for Environmental Planning and
Technology (CEPT University) (Ahmedabad, 1966-2012); cultural spaces such as Tagore Memorial
Hall (Ahmedabad, 1967); housing complex Vidhyadhar Nagar Masterplan and Urban Design
(Jaipur, 1984); and private residence Kamala House (Ahmedabad, 1963), among many others.

SYNTHESIS

Arata Isozaki
BORN: JULY 23, 1931 ( Age 88), Oita, Japan

NATIONALITY: Japan

ALMAMATER: University of Tokyo

OCCUPATION: Architect

Arata Isozaki (磯崎 新, Isozaki Arata; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer,
and theorist[3] from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 2019. Isozaki was born in Oita on the island of Kyushu and grew up in the era
of postwar Japan. [3]
Isozaki completed his schooling at the Oita Prefecture Oita Uenogaoka High School (erstwhile
Oita Junior High School). In 1954, he graduated from the University of Tokyo where he majored in
Architecture and Engineering. This was followed by a doctoral program in architecture from the
same university.[1] Isozaki also worked under Kenzo Tange before establishing his own firm in
1963.[1]

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Isozaki's early projects were influenced by European experiences with a style mixed between
"New Brutalism" a "Metabolist Architecture" (Oita Medical Hall, 1959-1960), according to Reyner
Banham. His style continued to evolve with buildings such as the Fujimi Country Club (1973–74)
and Kitakyushu Central Library (1973–74). Later he developed a more modernistic style with
buildings such as the Art Tower of Mito (1986–90) and Domus-Casa del Hombre (1991-1995) in
Galicia, Spain.
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, completed in 1986, was his first
international project and his best known work in the U.S.[3] In 2005, Arata Isozaki founded the
Italian branch of his office, Arata Isozaki & Andrea Maffei Associates. Two major projects from
this office include: the Allianz Tower CityLife office tower, a redevelopment project in the former
trade fair area in Milan, and the new Town Library in Maranello, Italy.[4]
Despite designing buildings both inside and outside Japan, Isozaki has been described as an
architect who refuses to be stuck in one architectural style, highlighting "how each of his designs
is a specific solution born out of the project’s context." [5] Isozaki won the Pritzker Architecture
Prize in 2019.

PHILOSOPHY

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPTS

LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECTS

OITA PERFECTURAL LIBRARY at Oita Japan

1962-1966

KITAKYUSHU MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF ART at Fukuoka

Japan
(1972-1974)
 KITAKYUSHU CENTRAL LIBRARY OF ART at Fukuoka Japan
(1972-1974)

AWARDS

 Annual Prize, Architectural Institute of Japan in 1967 and 1975[7]

 Mainichi Art Award in 1983
 RIBA Gold Medal in 1986[7]
 International Award "Architecture in Stone" in 1987
 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in
1988
 Chicago Architecture Award in 1990
 Honor Award, the American Institute of Architects in 1992
 RIBA Honorary Fellow in 1994
 Golden Lion, 6^ Venice Biennale of Architecture in 1996
 The ECC Award in 2012 for his Venice installation Zhongyuan.[8][9]
 Pritzker Prize in 2019[7]

Arata Isozaki has officially received the 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize, in a ceremony at the
Château de Versailles in France. Isozaki, who has been practicing architecture since the 1960s,
has long been considered an architectural visionary for his transnational and fearlessly futurist
approach to design. With well over 100 built works to his name, Isozaki is also incredibly prolific
and influential among his contemporaries. Isozaki is the 49th architect and eighth Japanese
architect to receive the honor.

SYNTHESIS

Alejandro Aravena
BORN: June 22, 1967 ( Age 52), Santiago, Chile

NATIONALITY: Chilean

ALMAMATER: Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

OCCUPATION: Architect
Alejandro Gastón Aravena Mori (born 22 June 1967) is a Chilean architect from Santiago. He is
executive director of the firm Elemental S.A. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016.[1] He
was the director and curator of the Architecture Section of the 2016 Venice Biennale. Aravena
graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1992 and established Alejandro
Aravena Architects in 1994.[3] Aravena was a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of
Design from 2000–05 and is the Elemental-Copec Professor at Universidad Católica de Chile.
Aravena co-authored Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (ARQ, 1999), El Lugar de la
Arquitectura (ARQ, 2002) and the monograph Elemental: Incremental Housing and Participatory
Design Manual (Hatje-Cantz, 201).[4] He was a member of the Pritzker Prize Jury from 2009 to
2015, and is an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.[3]

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

His architectural style is more 'incremental' style of architecture where the power to shape
peoples surroundings is taken away from the designers and their a priori visions, and put in the
hands of the users who will develop the structures into the places that they want and need over
time, with their own investment and without someone from outside dictating this for them.

PHILOSOPHY

“We don’t think of ourselves as artists. Architects like to build things that are unique. But if
something is unique it can’t be repeated, so in terms of it serving many people in many places,
the value is close to zero.”

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

At his Quinta Monroy social housing project, Aravena implemented for the first time one of his
signature ideas: the concept of “incremental housing." Given a minuscule budget, instead of
designing row houses or small detached houses he proposed to build "half a good house" for the
same cost. ELEMENTAL provided a basic house with the necessary sanitary equipment and two
rooms for an overall floor space of 40 square meters. With this frame, families took over to build
the rest of the house after saving enough money, and progressively changed their homes from
low-end social housing to a more desirable unit.

LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECTS

UC INNOVATION at Santiago
 QUINTA MONROY HOUSING PROJECT in Iquique

VILLA VERDE HOUSING PROJECT in Constitucion

AWARDS

Aravena won the Silver Lion prize at the XI Biennale in Venice, the Erich Schelling Architecture
Medal in 2006 and was a finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Award (2000) and the Iakhov
Chernikhov Prize (2008).[7] He received a Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2008. He
was a 2011 Index award winner and won a Holcim Awards Silver for Sustainable
Construction (region Latin America[8]). Exhibitions of his work have included a showing at
Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2004, the São Paulo Biennale in 2007, the Triennale di
Milano in 2008 and the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2008 and MoMA, New York in
2010.[citation needed]
In 2016, he was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize—the most prestigious recognition to
architects.[1] From 2009 to 2015, he was a member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury

SYNTHESIS

Frei Otto
BORN: May 31, 1925 , Siegmar, Germany

DEATH: Mar h 9, 2015 ( Age 89)

NATIONALITY: German

ALMAMATER: Berlin School of Architecture

OCCUPATION: Architect

Otto was born in Siegmar, Germany, and grew up in Berlin. He studied architecture in Berlin
before being drafted into the Luftwaffe as a fighter pilot in the last years of World War II. He was
interned in a prisoner of war camp near Chartres (France) and with his aviation
engineering training and lack of material and an urgent need for housing, began experimenting
with tents for shelter.[1] After the war he studied briefly in the US and visited Erich
Mendelsohn, Mies van der Rohe, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd Wright. He began a private
practice in Germany in 1952. His saddle-shaped cable-net music pavilion at
the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Exposition) in Cassel brought him his first significant
attention. He earned a doctorate in tensioned constructions in 1954.[1]

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

His architectural style would always be a reaction to the heavy, columned buildings constructed
for a supposed eternity under the Third Reich in Germany. Otto's work, in contrast, was
lightweight, open to nature, democratic, low-cost, and sometimes even temporary. His style is
more on tensile structure.

PHILOSOPHY

“The ability to build assumes the knowledge of all architecture and construction forms, as well as
their development. To build means to advance this process, to investigate, and to make. The
development of buildings began over ten thousand years ago and has reached an extremely
high level, but is in no way a closed process. There are still an infinite number of open possibilities,
infinite discoveries to make.”

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

His interests in tensile structures began long before this when he attempted to build lightweight
tents for his fellow prisoners of war in WWII. These experiences made him aware of the
importance of developing architecture capable of operating under great material and
economic constraints, and inspired what would become a life-long career. Hewas a German
architect and structural engineer noted for his use of lightweight structures, in particular tensile
and membrane structures, including the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich for the 1972
Summer Olympics.

LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING BUILDINGS

WEST GERMANY PAVILLION at Expo 67 Montreal

1967
 ROOF FOR OLYMPIC STADIUM in Munich
1972

MULTIHALLE in Mannheim
1975

AWARDS

 1974 – Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture[6]

 1980 – Honorary doctorate of science from the University of Bath[7]
 1996/97 – Wolf Prize in Architecture[7]
 2005 – Royal Gold Medal for architecture by RIBA[8]
 2006 – Praemium Imperiale in Architecture[2]
 2015 – Pritzker Architecture Prize[4][5]

SYNTHESIS

SHIGERU BAN
BORN: AUGUST 5, 1957 (Age 62) Tokyo, Japan

NATIONALITY: Japanese

ALMAMATER: Cooper Union for the advancement of Science and

Art

OCCUPATION: Architect

Shigeru Ban (坂 茂, Ban Shigeru, born 5 August 1957)[2] is a Japanese architect, known for his
innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes used to quickly and
efficiently house disaster victims. He was profiled by Time magazine in their projection of 21st-
century innovators in the field of architecture and design.[3]
In 2014, Ban was named the 37th recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious
prize in modern architecture.[4] The Pritzker Jury cited Ban for his innovative use of material and
his dedication to humanitarian efforts around the world, calling him "a committed teacher who
is not only a role model for younger generation, but also an inspiration
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
From Hejduk (who was a part of the New York Five), Ban gained an interest in "architectonic
poetics" or the creation of "three-dimensional poetry". Hejduk, the most experimentally minded
of the New York Five, dhad a lasting influence on Ban, whose work reflects continuing
explorations into basic geometric elements. Ban fits well into the category of "Ecological
Architects" but he also can make solid claims for being modernist, a Japanese experimentalist,
as well as a rationalist. Natias Neutert, German thinker, critic, and poet, marks Ban in his essay as
"a gentle revolutionary ... guiding contemporary architecture towards transparency, the
spherical and the open".[7] Ban himself quotes: "I don't like waste", summing up his philosophy
and practice, known as "Paper Architecture" Ban uses a paper as his building material.

PHILOSOPHY
Ban himself quotes: "I don't like waste", summing up his philosophy and practice, known as
"Paper Architecture".

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

For Ban, one of the most important themes in his work is the "invisible structure". That is, he does
not overly express his structural elements, but rather chooses to incorporate them into the
design. Ban is not interested in the newest materials and techniques, but rather the expression of
the concept behind his building. He deliberately chooses materials to further this expression.

Ban's work encompasses several schools of architecture. First he is a Japanese architect, and
uses many themes and methods found in traditional Japanese architecture (such as shōji) and
the idea of a "universal floor" to allow continuity between all rooms in a house. In his buildings,
this translates to a floor without change in elevation. By choosing to study under Hejduk, Ban
opted to do something different. Hejduk's rationalist views on architecture provided a way of
revisiting Western modernism and gaining a richer appreciation than the reductive vision of it as
a rationalized version of the traditionalist—yet ultra-modern—Japanese space. With his Western
education and influences, Ban has become one of the forerunning Japanese architects who
embrace the expression of Western and Eastern building forms and methods. Perhaps most
influential from Hejduk was the study of the structure of architectural systems. Ban is most famous
now for his innovative work with paper and cardboard tubing as a material for building
construction. He was the first architect in Japan to construct a building primarily out of paper
with his paper house, and required special approval for his building to pass Japan's building
code. Ban is attracted to using paper because it is low cost, recyclable, low-tech and
replaceable. The last aspect of Ban's influences is his humanitarianism and his attraction to
ecological architecture. Ban's work with paper and other materials is heavily based on
its sustainability and because it produces very little waste. As a result of this, Ban's DIY refugee
shelters (used in Japan after the Kobe earthquake, in Turkey, Rwanda and around the world) are
very popular and effective for low-cost disaster relief-housing
LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECT

CURTAIN WALL HOUSE in Itabashi Tokyo

Japan
1995

NAKED HOUSE in Kawagoe Japan

2000

PAPER DOME in Taiwan

1998

AWARDS

The JIA Prize for the Best Young Architect of the Year, Japan (1997)

 Time magazine Innovator of the Year, USA (2001)

 Prix de l'Académie d'Architecture de France (2004)
 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, American Academy of Arts and Letters,
USA (2005)[14]
 Honorary doctorate degree of Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany (2009)
 Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2010)
 Honorary Doctorate from The New School, USA (2011)[15]
 National Order of Merit, France (2011)
 Auguste Perret Prize for Technology Applied to Architecture (2011)[16]
 Mainich Design Prize, Japan (2012)
 Pritzker Architecture Prize (2014)[4]
 World Economic Forum Crystal Award (2015

SYNTHESIS
 TOYO ITO
BORN: June 1, 1941 (Age 78) Seoul Korea

NATIONALITY: Japanese

ALMAMATER: University of Tokyo

OCCUPATION: Architect

Ito was born in Seoul, Korea to Japanese parents on 1 June 1941. In 1943, he moved to Japan
with his mother and two sisters living until middle school age in rural Shimosuwa, Nagano
Prefecture. Ito attended Hibiya High School in central Tokyo and graduated from the University
of Tokyo's department of architecture in 1965

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Japanese architect known for creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to
simultaneously express the physical and virtual worlds. He is a leading exponent of architecture
that addresses the contemporary notion of a "simulated" city, and has been called "one of the
world's most innovative and influential architects." [1]
In 2013, Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious prizes.[2] He was
a likely front-runner for the Pritzker Prize for the previous 10 years. A recent trend has seen less
experienced and well-known winners, for example Chinese architect Wang Shu in 2012, and the
award to Toyo Ito is seen as recognition of a lifetime's achievement in architecture

PHILOSOPHY
I constantly explore new architecture and this ultimately becomes the source of my creative
energy. Architecture tends to be too conventional and is often out of touch with time and social
context, especially in cases of public buildings. In order to lessen this gap, we must be sensitive
to the air of the era and society.

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

Ito created spaces based on his concept of an “emerging grid,” a complex system of
interconnecting catenoid surfaces, which look like hollow spool shapes. The Sendai Mediathique
completed in 2001 is a cultural media center built on Ito’s concept of “fluid space.” The highly
transparent seven-story glass box is an iconic building that proved its structural integrity when it
survived the devastating earthquake that hit the region in 2011.
LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECT

TOWER OF WINDS in Yokohama Station

1986

OLD PEOPLE’S HOME in Yatsushiro

1994

TEMPORARY SERPENTINE GALLERY PAVILLION in Kesington Gardens,

London
2002

AWARDS1986 – Architectural Institute of Japan Award for Silver Hut

 1992 – 33rd Mainichi Art Award for Yatsushiro Municipal Museum

 1997 – IAA 'Interach ‘97' Grand Prix of the Union of Architects in Bulgaria Gold Medal
 1998 – Education Minister’s Art Encouragement Prize in Japan
 2000 – Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in architecture from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters
 2001 – Gold prize of the Japanese Good Design Award
 2006 – RIBA Royal Gold Medal
 2008 – Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts
 2009 – Asahi Prize
 2010 – Praemium Imperiale
 2013 – Pritzker Prize for Architecture
 2014 – Mathew Art Award in Berlin
 2017 – UIA Gold Medal
 2018 – Person of Cultural Merit

SYNTHESIS
 WANG SHU
BORN: November 4, 1963 (Age 56) Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China

NATIONALITY: Chinese

ALMAMATER: Nanjing Institute of Technology

OCCUPATION: Architect

Wang Shu (Chinese: 王澍, born 4 November 1963)[1] is a Chinese architect based
in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. He is the dean of the School of Architecture of the China
Academy of Art. With his practice partner and wife Lu Wenyu, he founded the firm Amateur
Architecture Studio. In 2012, Wang became the first Chinese citizen to win the Pritzker Prize, the
world's top prize in architecture.[2][3] The award was the subject of some controversy since the
Pritzker committee did not also award Lu Wenyu, his wife and architectural partner, despite their
years of collaboration.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Shu is a local architect. ... Ironically, with his manner of seamlessly meshing the contemporary
with the cultural, innovation with tradition, Shu's work has come to define itself. The work is
infused with fresh material juxtapositions and an expressive quality grounded in traditional formal
proportions and scale. He is a bold new voice in contemporary style of architecture

PHILOSOPHY

You should understand what your workers and your craftsmen do... My way, I call it the 'dirty
way.' A little bit dirty, a little bit imperfect. I like the feeling. I don't like perfect things. The feeling is
perfect, but you can see many small mistakes. That's my philosophy."

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

Wang creates modern buildings making use of traditional materials and applying older
techniques. The Ningbo Museum is constructed of bricks salvaged from buildings which had
been demolished to facilitate new developments. Wang is a keen supporter of architectural
heritage where globalisation has stripped cities of their special attributes.[11]
"In an age where the goal is to offer a distinct, individualized style, Shu has shied away from such
a prerogative. Ironically, with his manner of seamlessly meshing the contemporary with the
cultural, innovation with tradition, Shu’s work has come to define itself. The work is infused with
fresh material juxtapositions and an expressive quality grounded in traditional formal proportions
and scale."[12]
He requires his freshman architecture students to spend a year working with their hands, learning
basic carpentry and bricklaying, and Wang also requires other teachers in the department learn
basic building skills. Because he believes "Only people who understand the nature of materials
can make art using the materials

LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECT

YOUTH CENTER in Haining

1990

LIBRARY OF WENZHENG COLLEGE in Soochow University

1999-2000

CERAMIC HOUSE in Jinhua

2003-2006

AWARD

In 2010, Wang and his wife Lu Wenyu together won the German Schelling Architecture
Prize,[13] and in 2011 he received the Gold Medal from the French Academy of Architecture.[1]
In 2012, Wang won the Pritzker Architecture Prize. In so doing, he became the first Chinese citizen
(second winner of Chinese descent after I. M. Pei) to win this prize, and the fourth youngest
person to win.[2] The jury, which included Pritzker laureate Zaha Hadid and the US Supreme Court
justice Stephen Breyer, highlighted Wang's "unique ability to evoke the past, without making
direct references to history" and called his work "timeless, deeply rooted in its context and yet
universal."[2][9] The chairman of the Hyatt Foundation said Wang's win represented "a significant
step in acknowledging the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals"
going forward.[14] Zhu Tao, a Chinese architectural critic and historian, speculated that the win
could signify a turning point in Chinese architectural history saying the prize "sends a message
that architecture is a cultural enterprise ... that architects are creators of culture." [14]
Alejandro Aravena, a member of the Pritzker Prize jury, stated "Wang Shu’s outstanding
architecture may be the consequence of being able to combine talent and intelligence. This
combination allows him to produce masterpieces when a monument is needed, but also very
careful and contained architecture when a monument is not the case. The intensity of his work
may be a consequence of his relative youth, but the precision and appropriateness of his
operations talk of great maturity.

SYNTHESIS

JEAN NOUVEL
BORN: August 12, 1945 (Age 74) Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne, France

NATIONALITY: French

ALMAMATER: École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts

OCCUPATION: Architect

Jean Nouvel (French: [ʒɑ̃ nu.vɛl]; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at
the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de
l'Architecture. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career,
including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (technically, the prize was awarded for
the Institut du Monde Arabe which Nouvel designed), the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and
the Pritzker Prize in 2008.[1][2][3][4] A number of museums and architectural centres have presented
retrospectives of his work

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
French architect Jean Nouvel (born August 12, 1945 in Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne) designs
flamboyant and colorful buildings that defy classification. Color and transparency are important
parts of his designs. Nouvel is said to have no style of his own, yet he takes an idea and turns it
into his own

PHILOSOPHY
“Architecture is the art of using the force of your opponent against himself,” “It’s like judo. Every
time you have a constraint, you need to use it. You need to push it to its limits; you need to give
it a sense other than the constraint, so that it will look as if you did it on purpose.”
DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT
The winner of the Wolf Prize in 2005 and the Pritzker of 2008, French architect Jean Nouvel has
attempted to design each of his projects without any preconceived notions. The result is a
variety of projects that, while strikingly different, always demonstrate a delicate play with light
and shadow as well as a harmonious balance with their surroundings. It was this diverse
approach that led the Pritzker Prize Jury in their citation to characterize Nouvel as primarily
"courageous" in his "pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of accepted norms in order to stretch
the boundaries of the field."

LIST OF EXISTING PROJECTS

AWARDS
Nouvel was awarded the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour, in 2008, for his work on
more than 200 projects,[8] among them, in the words of The New York Times, the "exotically
louvered" Arab World Institute, the bullet-shaped and "candy-colored" Torre Agbar in Barcelona,
the "muscular" Guthrie Theater with its cantilevered bridge in Minneapolis, and in Paris, the
"defiant, mysterious and wildly eccentric" Musée du quai Branly (2006) and the Philharmonie de
Paris (a "trip into the unknown" c. 2012).[3][8]
Pritzker points to several more major works: in Europe, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary
Art (1994), the Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne (2000), the Opéra
Nouvel in Lyon (1993), Expo 2002 in Switzerland and, under construction, the Copenhagen
Concert Hall and the courthouse in Nantes (2000); as well as two tall towers in planning in North
America, Tour Verre in New York City and a cancelled condominium tower in Los Angeles,[4]
In its citation, the jury of the Pritzker prize noted:
Of the many phrases that might be used to describe the career of architect Jean Nouvel,
foremost are those that emphasize his courageous pursuit of new ideas and his challenge of
accepted norms in order to stretch the boundaries of the field. [...] The jury acknowledged the
'persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative
experimentation' as qualities abundant in Nouvel's work.

OTHER AWARDS

 Honorary degrees from the University of Buenos Aires (1983), the Royal College of Art,
London (2002) and the University of Naples (2002).[5]
 Honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (1993) and of the Royal Institute of British
Architects (1995).[5]
 In 1997, Nouvel was named Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He first joined the
order in 1983. He is also Chevalier de la légion d'honneur.[4]
 2005 – Wolf Prize in Arts[2]
 2008 – Pritzker Prize[3]
SYNTHESIS

ZAHA HADID
BORN: October 31, 1950, Baghdad Iraq

DIED: March 31, 2016 (Age 65) US Florida

NATIONALITY: Iraqi-British

ALMAMATER: American University of Beirut Architectural Association

School of Architecture, London

OCCUPATION: Architect

She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004.[1] She received the UK's
most prestigious architectural award, the Stirling Prize, in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was made
a Dame by Elizabeth II for services to architecture, and in February, 2016, the month preceding
her death,[2] she became the first and only woman to be awarded the Royal Gold Medal from
the Royal Institute of British Architects.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
The architectural style of Hadid is not easily categorised, and she did not describe herself as a
follower of any one style or school. Nonetheless, before she had built a single major building, she
was categorised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a major figure in
architectural Deconstructivism.[84] Her work was also described as an example of neo-
futurism[85][86] and parametricism. An article profiling Hadid in the New Yorker magazine was
titled "The Abstractionist"

She was described by The Guardian of London as the "Queen of the curve",[5] who "liberated
architectural geometry, giving it a whole new expressive identity. During the early 1980s Hadid's
style introduced audiences to a new modern architecture style through her extremely detailed
and professional sketches. At the time people were focused on postmodernism designs, so her
designs were a different approach to architecture that set her apart from other designers. [22]

PHILOSOPHY

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

LIST OF EXISTING MATERIALS
AWARDS

 1982: Gold Medal Architectural Design, British Architecture for 59 Eaton Place, London
 1994: Erich Schelling Architecture Award[107]
 2001: Equerre d'argent Prize, special mention[108]
 2002: Austrian State Prize for Architecture for Bergiselschanze
 2003: European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture for the Strasbourg
tramway terminus and car park in Hoenheim, France
 2003: Commander of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to
architecture
 2004: Pritzker Prize
 2005: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art [109]
 2005: German Architecture Prize for the central building of the BMW plant in Leipzig
 2005: Designer of the Year Award for Design Miami
 2005: RIBA European Award for BMW Central Building[110]
 2006: RIBA European Award for Phaeno Science Centre[111]
 2007: Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture
 2008: RIBA European Award for Nordpark Cable Railway[111]
 2009: Praemium Imperiale
 2010: RIBA European Award for MAXXI[112]
 2012: Jane Drew Prize for her "outstanding contribution to the status of women in
architecture"[113]
 2012: Jury member for the awarding of the Pritzker Prize to Wang Shu in Los Angeles.
 2013: 41st Winner of the Veuve Clicquot UK Business Woman Award[114]
 2013: Elected international member, American Philosophical Society[115]
 She was also on the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

SYNTHESIS

Jørn Utzon
BORN: April 9, 1918 , Copenhagen Denmark

DIED: November 29, 2008 (Age 90) Helsingor, Denmark

NATIONALITY: Danish

ALMAMATER: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

OCCUPATION: Architect

Jørn Oberg Utzon, AC, Hon. FAIA (Danish: [jɶɐ̯n ˈutsɒn]; 9 April 1918 – 29 November 2008)[1] was a
Danish architect, most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia.[2] When it was
declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon became only the second person to have
received such recognition for one of his works during his lifetime, after Oscar Niemeyer.[3] Other
noteworthy works include Bagsværd Church near Copenhagen and the National Assembly
Building in Kuwait. He also made important contributions to housing design, especially with
his Kingo Houses near Helsingør.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

PHILOSOPHY
DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT
Utzon had a Nordic sense of concern for nature which, in his design, emphasized the synthesis of
form, material and function for social values. His fascination with the architectural legacies of the
ancient Mayas, the Islamic world, China, and Japan also informed his practice .[12] This
developed into what Utzon later referred to as Additive Architecture, comparing his approach
to the growth patterns of nature.[13] A design can grow like a tree, he explained: "If it grows
naturally, the architecture will look after itself.

LIST OF EXISTING PROJECTS

AWARDS

 1967 C. F. Hansen Medal[59]

 1973 RAIA Gold Medal from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects[60]
 1978 RIBA Royal Gold Medal[61]
 1980 The Daylight and Building Component Award[62]
 1982 Alvar Aalto Medal[63]
 1987 Nykredit Architecture Prize[64]
 1992 Wolf Prize[65]
 1998 Sonning Prize[66]
 2000 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement[67]
 2003 Pritzker Prize[68]

SYNTHESIS

Glenn Murcutt
BORN: July 25, 1936 ( Age 83, London England)

NATIONALITY: Australian

ALMAMATER:

OCCUPATION: Architect

Glenn Marcus Murcutt AO (born 25 July 1936) is an Australian architect and winner of the
1992 Alvar Aalto Medal, the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 American Institute of
Architects Gold Medal. Glenn Murcutt works as a sole practitioner without staff, builds only within
Australia and is known to be very selective with his projects. Being the only Australian winner of
the prestigious Pritzker Prize, he is often referred to as Australia's most famous architect.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
PHILOSOPHY
DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT
LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECT
AWARDS

 the RAIA Gold Medal of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1992
 the Alvar Aalto Medal in 1992
 Officer of the Order of Australia in 1996
 the Richard Neutra Award for Teaching in 1998[10]
 the 'Green Pin' Award from the Royal Danish Academy of Architects in 1999
 the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Architecture in 2001
 the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2002
 the Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Award in 2003
 the AIA Gold Medal Award in 2009.

SYNTHESIS

Norman Foster
BORN: June 1, 1935 ( Age 84) Reddish, Stockport England

NATIONALITY: British

ALMAMATER:

OCCUPATION: Architect

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM, RA (born 1 June 1935), is an English
architect whose company, Foster + Partners, maintains an international design practice. He is
the President of the Norman Foster Foundation. The Norman Foster Foundation promotes
interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and
urbanists to anticipate the future. The foundation, which opened in June 2017, is based in
Madrid[2] and operates globally.
He is one of the most prolific British architects of his generation.[3] In 1999, he was awarded
the Pritzker Architecture Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

PHILOSOPHY
DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT
LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING BUILDING
AWARDS
 Stirling prize
 Pritzker prize
 Architecture Prize
 Minerva Medal
 Prince of Austrias Awards

SYNTHESIS
FRANK GEHRY
BORN: February 28, 1929 ( Age 90) Canada

NATIONALITY: Canadian-American

ALMAMATER: University of Southern California

OCCUPATION: Architect

A number of his buildings, including his private residence, have become world-
renowned attractions. His works are cited as being among the most important works
of contemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, which led Vanity Fair to
label him as "the most important architect of our age".[2]
Gehry's best-known works include the titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; Walt
Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France; MIT Ray
and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies
on the University of Cincinnati campus; Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle; New World
Center in Miami Beach; Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota
in Minneapolis; Dancing House in Prague; the Vitra Design Museum and the MARTa
Herford museum in Germany; the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; the Cinémathèque
Française in Paris; and 8 Spruce Street in New York City.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Said to "defy categorisation", Gehry's work reflects a spirit of experimentation coupled with a
respect for the demands of professional practice and has remained largely unaligned with
broader stylistic tendencies or movements.[55] With his earliest educational influences rooted
in modernism, Gehry's work has sought to escape modernist stylistic tropes while still remaining
interested in some of its underlying transformative agendas. Continually working between given
circumstances and unanticipated materializations, he has been assessed as someone who
"made us produce buildings that are fun, sculpturally exciting, good experiences" although his
approach may become "less relevant as pressure mounts to do more with less".[55]
Gehry is sometimes associated with what is known as the "Los Angeles School" or the "Santa
Monica School" of architecture. The appropriateness of this designation and the existence of
such a school, however, remains controversial due to the lack of a unifying philosophy or theory.
This designation stems from the Los Angeles area's producing a group of the most influential
postmodern architects, including such notable Gehry contemporaries as Eric Owen Moss and
Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne of Morphosis, as well as the famous schools of architecture at
the Southern California Institute of Architecture (co-founded by Mayne), UCLA, and USC where
Gehry is a member of the board of directors.[citation needed]
Gehry's style at times seems unfinished or even crude, but his work is consistent with the
California "funk" art movement in the 1960s and early 1970s, which featured the use of
inexpensive found objects and non-traditional media such as clay to make serious art.[56] His
works always have at least some element of deconstructivism.[57] Gehry has been called "the
apostle of chain-link fencing and corrugated metal siding".[58] However, a retrospective exhibit
at New York's Whitney Museum in 1988 revealed that he is also a sophisticated classical artist,
who knows European art history and contemporary sculpture and painting

PHILOSOPHY

DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT

LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING PROJECT
AWARDS

 1987: Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Letters

 1988: Elected into the National Academy of Design
 1989: Pritzker Architecture Prize
 1992: Praemium Imperiale
 1994: The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
 1995: American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award[103]
 1998: National Medal of Arts[104]
 1998: Gold Medal Award, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
 1999: AIA Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects
 2000: Cooper–Hewitt National Design Award Lifetime Achievement[105]
 2002: Companion of the Order of Canada[106]
 2004: Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service
 2006: Inductee, California Hall of Fame
 2007: Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology from the National
Building Museum (on behalf of Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies)
 2009: Order of Charlemagne
 2012: Twenty-five Year Award, American Institute of Architects
 2014: Prince of Asturias Award
SYNTHESIS

ALDO ROSSI
BORN: May 3, 1931, Milan Italy

DIED: September 4, 1997 ( Age 66) Milan Italy

NATIONALITY: Italian

ALMAMATER: Polytechnic University if Milan

OCCUPATION: Architect

Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who
achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and
design and also product design.[1] He was one of the leading exponents of the postmodern
movement. [2]
He was the first Italian to receive the Pritzker Prize[3] for architecture.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

PHILOSOPHY
DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT
LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING BUILDINGS
AWARDS
Aldo Rossi won the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1990. Ada Louise Huxtable,
architectural critic and Pritzker juror, has described Rossi as "a poet who happens to be an
architect."

SYNTHESIS
 Sverre Fehn
BORN: August 14, 1924 , Norway

DIED: February 23, 2009 (Age 24) Oslo, Norway

NATIONALITY: Norweigan

ALMAMATER:

OCCUPATION: ARCHITECT

Fehn was born at Kongsberg in Buskerud, Norway. He was the son of John Tryggve Fehn (1894–
1981) and Sigrid Johnsen (1895–1985). He received his architectural education at the Oslo
School of Architecture and Design in Oslo. He entered his course of study in 1946 and graduated
during 1949. Among other instructors, he studied under Arne Korsmo (1900–1968)

ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

PHILOSOPHY
DESIGN AND PLANNING CONCEPT
LIST OF FAMOUS EXISTING BUILDINGS
AWARDS

n 1961, he was awarded the Houen Foundation Award, jointly with Geir Grung, for the design of
the Økern Nursing Home in Oslo. He received the Houen Foundation Award for his design of the
Hedmark Museum at Hamar in 1975. He received the Carnegie Mellon University Distinguished
Professorship in Architecture for 1980. In 1994 he was appointed Commander in the Order of St.
Olav.[4]
In 1998, he was awarded the Norsk kulturråds ærespris. Sverre Fehn was awarded the first Grosch
medal in 2001. In 2003, he was awarded the Anders Jahre Cultural Prize (Anders Jahres
kulturpris). [7] [8]
His highest international honour came in 1997, when he was awarded both the Pritzker
Architecture Prize and the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal (Heinrich-Tessenow-Medaille).

SYNTHESISS