For the longest time in history, architects have defined architecture and the development of human civilization as a whole. From the early Roman temples and arenas in Italy, to the castles in the middle-ages, to the modern-day skyscrapers in Hong Kong – architects have revolutionized the definition of architecture and created the most impressive marks of human life on earth. Architects have consequently had a great impact on society in various ways including religious, economical and cultural impacts. Architects have heavily contributed to defining the Italian Renaissance-style culture, representing religion through art in mosques throughout Turkey and Iran, and even provided countries with mass historic value and consequently tourism such as the long-standing Pyramids of Giza that stood the test of time. This paper will be looking at the greatest architects of all time and their respective accomplishments.
Architects are known to have their own style of designing buildings, but some are known for the uniqueness of their designs and architectural works. A great example of architects that are recognized for their uniqueness is Frank Lloyd Wright. What made him unique and special was the mix between the traditional and modern style in his work. According to Archdaily, he earned the title of “the greatest American architect of all time”. In 1991, by the American Institute of Architects (Stott, 2017). He completed over 500 architectural works which were considered “masterpieces”. Wright's was very driven by nature, he also referred to his architecture as “organic” as a result of them blending in with the aesthetic nature around. His famous “Fallingwater house” is a great example of this approach. The house was built on top of a waterfall, creating beautiful harmony between the house and the natural atmosphere around the house. According to ArchDaily, Weight’s love and interest in Japanese architecture strongly influenced him into designing the “Fallingwater house”, similar to Japanese architecture, he aimed to create harmony between man and nature and succeeded in doing so because of his interrogation of the house along with the waterfall (Perez, 2010). The house became in complete harmony with the surroundings and was considered a great accomplishment because it redefined the relationship between man, architecture, and nature, which turned the house into a National Historic Landmark.
Unlike humans, buildings have no emotions or feelings whatsoever, but Polish-American architect, Daniel Libeskind changed this idea. According to Archdaily, in 1987, the Berlin government organized an anonymous competition for an expansion to the original Jewish Museum in Berlin that opened in 1933. The main goal of the competition was to bring back Jewish presence to Berlin after WWII. In 1988, Daniel Libeskind was chosen as a winner among many other architects, his design was the only project that implemented a radical, formal design as a conceptually expressive tool to represent the Jewish lifestyle before, during, and after the Holocaust (Kroll, 2010). During WWII, the Jewish identity and culture disappeared and to Libeskind, the competition didn't mean as much to him as to bringing back and establishing the Jewish culture within Berlin, he wanted to use his work and architecture to signify feelings like emptiness and absence to resemble the disappearance of the Jewish culture. The atmosphere surrounding the building and the powerful emotions portrayed in the museum turned it into an experience illustrating what most won't understand. The Jewish Museum truly demonstrated Libeskind’s ability to transform human experiences into an architectural composition.
The most important prize in the field of architecture is the Pritzker Prize. The first award was given in 1979 to the architect, Philip Johnson and was awarded for his iconic “House of Glass”. According to Archdaily, the house is considered one of the most brilliant works of architecture due to its simplicity and perfect proportions (Perez, 2010). The house was the first design by Johnson done on a property and was completed in 1994. It is said that Johnson’s mentor was furious because of what he interpreted as lack of thought in the details of the house. The house is made completely out of glass panels that play a series of lively reflections with the interior of the house completely exposed to the outside except for the bathroom. Johnson used the land around the glass house to build 13 more structures including a guest house which is connected to the glass house with a stone path. The house also features an art gallery built underground in order to avoid distracting the guests from the beauty of the house. In 1997, the house was announced as a National Historic landmark and became a great tourist attraction because of the beauty in its composition and the remarkable landscape surrounding it has people visiting it from all over the world to experience it firsthand. This is a great accomplishment for Johnson because a simple house that was greatly architected made it become a great tourist attraction.
While the architecture industry has showed us many unfortunate incidents that suggest the lack of gender equality in the industry, the female architect Zaha Hadid proved otherwise. Although Hadid claimed that she did not want to serve as a symbol of progress for women in her profession, she ended up doing so nevertheless. Hadid stated, “for a woman to go out alone in architecture is still very, very hard, it's still a man's world”. (Robin Pogrebin, 2016). In 2004, she was awarded the Pritzker prize and was the first woman to win this award. She had designed many successful buildings, some of which are still under construction. Unfortunately, Hadid passed away on March 31, 2016, at the age of 65. One of her final projects which is set to be completed by 2018, is the One Thousand Museum. According to the show “Impossible Builds”, the one thousand museum is “one of the most complex skyscrapers to ever make it off the drawing board”. Another great project by her that awarded her the Pritzker prize was the Contemporary Arts Center.
The famous Sydney Opera House, a Danish building, appears frequently in movies, pictures or and attracts many tourists worldwide. This famous building was a Pritzker prize awarded project designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. He was unknown before his entry for the competition the government set up to design two performance halls. Utzon ended up winning the competition and the construction of the Sydney Opera house began in 1959. When the project was completed, it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973 (Perez, 2010).Unfortunately, Utzon wasn't able to attend the opening of his own project. During the opening ceremony, his name was not mentioned. He never came back to Australia to witness his project due to the political issues that drove him to resign his position and leave the country back in 1966 (Fessenden, 2015). Eventually, things started to take a turn for the better as he won the Pritzker prize in 2003 and took on two other architectural projects, the Bagsværd Church and the Kuwait National Assembly.
Modern architecture is a fast-developing style that is very common architectural and is often more preferred by the millennium generations. And a great example of an iconic figure in modern architecture is the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei. According to Archdaily, Pei is arguably the greatest living member in the modernist generation of architects and upon winning the Pritzker Prize in 1983, the jury citation stated that he "has given this century some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms."(Stott, 2017). One of his well-known works is his crystalline extension to the Louvre in Paris. in 1981, the newly elected French president, Francois Mitterrand, propelled a campaign to renovate cultural institutions all through France. A standout and the most advantageous amongst those projects was the redesign and reorganization of the Louvre. And in 1983, President Mitterrand commissioned I.M. Pei. Pei was the first ever foreigner that got the chance to work on the Louvre museum. He designed the main court for the Louvre and designed a new underground system of galleries, storage, and preservation laboratories. His modern design received criticism because Most felt that Pei’s modern design would conflict with the Louvre’s Classical architecture. Nonetheless, as the decades have passed and as Paris modernized Pei's plan has turned out to be rooted in the Parisian culture.
Most children eagerly rush home from school to watch their favorite Disney cartoon but never actually take the time to admire or appreciate the founder of Disney, Walt Disney. However, Frank Gehry, an architect who has designed several successful buildings before stepped up along with many other architects to design the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The purpose of this theater was to honor Walt Disney. Gehry’s design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall was chosen amongst numerous other candidates because according to ArchDaily, his design was focused mainly towards the public and he had a similar mind to Walt, “a sense of wonder” (Jones,2013). His design had public gardens on the outside and labyrinthine-like lobbies that lead to the main theatre. The theatre is designed to amplify sound to the many seats arranged in a vineyard pattern. Walt’s wife, Lillian Disney, funded fifty million dollars to construct the concert hall, however, the project was unfortunately shut down in 1994 due to planning and management problems. Two years later, with the help of the press and fundraising campaigns, the construction of the Walt Disney Concert Hall resumed. Today, the concert hall is a great tourist attraction that not only attracts people who adore Walt’s work but also people who admire the art of music and architecture.
It's no surprise that many people are fascinated and interested in ancient Greek architecture. Its designs are heavily incorporated with its rich historic culture. American architect, Louis Kahn is was deeply interested in and influenced by ancient architecture. Kahn admired Greek architecture and Roman temples and was often inspired by them and this can be seen in many of his designs and works. His designs were particularly unique because of the fusion between modernism and ancient architecture in his work. Kahn’s visit to Greece and Egypt was the source of his inspiration in using classical forms in his designs. One of his most famous works and masterpieces is his Kimbell Art Museum. The buildings focal point was natural lighting, which creates beautiful spaces that are perfectly fitted for the art that it holds. According to Archdaily, Kay Kimbell and his wife Velma Fuller organized the Kimbell Art Foundation in 1935 as an established art institute, Kimbell indicated that "natural light should play a vital part" in the design, he interviewed various architects including Marcel Breuer, Mies van der Rohe, Pier Luigi Nervi, Gordon Bunshaft, and Edward Larrabee Barnes, but commission was awarded to Kahn in late 1966. (Fracalossi, 2011). Kahn’s particular interest in natural light and his emphasis on it helped him in winning the commission.
September 11th, 2001 is a day that went down in history. It was the day a terrorist group by the name of Al-Qaeda attacked the twin towers in New York City. Santiago Calatrava is a Spanish architect that used his architectural skills to design a building primarily for remembering the unfortunate victims of the 9/11 attacks. The World Trade Center Transportation Hub is a terminal station that focuses on lighting to symbolize the “dove released from the child's hand”. This symbolizes a link between heaven and Earth. Every year on September 11th at exactly 10:28 am a beam of light would pass down the center of the roof lighting through the whole interior. He called this “The Wedge of Light” and it takes true architectural skills to pull this off (Lynch,2016). This creates a holy atmosphere and as Calatrava states, “this a memorial that will never be forgotten”. This is a great architectural achievement because not only was Calatrava able to pull off the perfect angle and positioning of the building to achieve the “Wedge of Light”, but he was able to bring back the memory of all the victims who had their lives taken away from them on the tragic morning of September 11th, 2001.
Shifting our focus to the Senora desert, an article on ArchDaily stated that the Kaufman House was a house built in the desert so that Edgar J. Kaufmann and his family could escape the harsh winters of the northeast. An architect called Taliesin West first designed the Kaufmann house which implemented an Earth-like atmosphere. However, Kaufmann wanted this house to be perfect and Richard Neutra, the architect of the Kaufman house, proposed a design that fit Kaufmann’s needs perfectly. Neutra typically designs residential houses and has his own signature design, a glass, steel and a light-colored stone that he calls “Utah buff” combination. Neutra used the same combination to build the Kaufman House by making glass and steel walls to light up the house naturally, make it airier and giving it a modern look, he also used the light colored stone to maintain the Earthly atmosphere and to blend in with the desert surrounding the house. The Kaufman house is considered an architectural landmark and one of the most important houses of the 20th century (Kroll, 2011). Residential houses that Neutra designed sell for millions of dollars today, even though he passed away in 1970 his work is still considered valuable and it’s an honor living in a house designed by him.
La Sagrada Familia is probably the most known structure around the world, attracting millions of visitors yearly to witness the masterpiece firsthand. And the mastermind behind this masterpiece is the Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi was known for developing his own style of architecture. According to an article by HowStuffWorks, Gaudi was a passionate Catholic with a belief that he could glorify God by deriving his inspiration from nature (McGrath, 2012). The construction of this building started over a century ago in 1882 and is still under construction, Gaudi viewed his project as “collective work of generations since the building is expected to finish in 2026 and anticipated he won’t live on to see it complete. La Sagrada Familia has 18 towers:12 represent apostles, 4 represent evangelists, 1 represents Virgin Mary and the last one (biggest one) represents Jesus Christ. This building was a tremendous accomplishment for a variety of reasons, however, the most significant would be the way in which it brought together believers of Christ and generations of architects.
Some places on this planet make it difficult for people to build civilization in. Although dense environments led to many people moving or leaving the country due to overpopulation, the architect Moshe Safdie found a solution to this problem with his design Habitat ‘67. This design was meant to be as an experiment to create and design high-quality housing for dense urban environments. Safdie’s tactic for building in dense environment was to stack one to four 600 square foot boxes on top of each other in irregular configurations. According to Archdaily, Safdie stated that Habitat ‘67 is really two ideas in one. One is about prefabrication, and the other is about rethinking apartment-building design in the new paradigm (Gili Merin, 2013). Habitat ‘67 started off as a university project at the McGill University in Montreal which led to it being his first built and raking in fame at the age of only 29. Habitat ‘67 is not only a revolution but is also an influence on architecture throughout history.
Architecture has various styles, one of which is the Palladian style. This style of architecture evolutionized from the Italian Architect Andrea Palladio 500 years ago. According to BBC, chief curator of collections at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Charles Hind, stated that Palladio was influenced by Roman architecture and reinterpreted it in his own style believing that the Roman culture can be adapted to fit all social classes (Kerley, 2015). Palladio was strongly inspired by classical architecture, and his reinterpretation of Roman and Greek architecture is what initiated the “Palladian” style. He was well known for his country houses that were distinct because of their simplicity.
All these remarkable architects contributed to what makes up modern-day architecture. Whether it was styles, techniques, revolutionary ideas or concepts – it is all used when designing buildings all over the world today. With the increasingly fast-paced advancement of technology, there is a lot to look forward to in regards to the evolution of architecture. Moreover with the uncontrollable population growth that is becoming more and more of a serious issue of concern, there comes the opportunity for architects to further contribute to helping design space-efficient structures. This is something that will no doubt make a powerful impact to the people of tomorrow.