Right from the time of Imhotep and old architects to the times of Gehry, the world has seen many famous architecture by famous architects, RTF here has tried to list down some of these icons with no intention to rank their work since each one of them has their own styles and are known for their individuality. We’ve included the Educational Institutes, notable works, and a quote by all of these famous architects.
Adolf Loos | Famous Architects in the World
Education: the Dresden University of Technology (Drop out)
Notable works: Steiner House, Looshaus, Villa Müller
Quote: “Supply and demand regulate architectural form” Adolf
First, in the list of famous architects, Loos was an architect who grew up in Germany and was the leading critic of the use of decoration and style in architecture, which he argued needed to be functional which we still have in his writing “Ornamentation and Crime”. Loos viewed the use of design and ornament as childish and backward. He frequently railed against the idea that buildings should be made visually pleasing in anyways, which did not add to the function of the structure.
Álvaro Siza | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Fine Arts of the University of Porto
Notable works: Iberê Camargo Foundation, the Serralves, New Orleans building.
Quote: “Architects don’t invent anything, they just transform reality”
Álvaro Siza is a Portuguese architect and architectural educator. In his childhood, he wanted to become a sculptor which is reflected in his architecture practice. His most buildings are a representation of sculptural works that have been described as “poetic modernism.” This sculptural architecture he knits into its context, connecting his buildings with the site and the culture masterfully.
Alvar Alto
Education: Helsinki University of Technology and University of Jyvaskyla
Notable works: Viipuri Library, Villa Mairea, Baker House, Finlandia Hall
Quote: “Architecture belongs to culture, not to civilization.”
Our next famous architect, Alvar Alto was part of the Modern Movement of Architecture, but he developed his own style, based on modernist architecture combined with the usage of local materials and his own personal expression. He practiced an organic modern style that would equip the functionality of the building during his mature years. Although Aalto was from a younger generation, he is considered one of the master architects of Modern Architecture, along with Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, and Walter Gropius.
Antoine Predock | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Columbia University
Notable works: Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, Trinity River Audubon Center, Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Quote: “Architecture is a ride – a physical ride and an intellectual ride.”
Antoine Predock is an American architect based in New Mexico. He is the principal of Antoine Predock Architect PC. His buildings appear to have been organically grown out of the earth. He actually begins his building designs in clay and then bonds his creations with the modern world of computer design. Many of Predock’s designs have clearly been influenced by his time in New Mexico. Experts have said he brings a sense of connection and force to his work, with spiritual interaction, movement, the natural environment, and technology.
Antoni Gaudí | Famous Architects in the World
Education: ETSAB Barcelona School of Architecture
Notable works: Sagrada Família, Casa Milà, Casa Batlló
Quote: “There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners.”
One of the great and most famous architects in the world, Antoni Gaudí’s works reflect an individualized and distinctive style. His work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and integrated into his architecture such crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging, and carpentry. He also introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís(broken tile mosaics) which used waste ceramic pieces.
Arne Jacobsen | Old Architects
Education: RoyalDanish Academy of Fine Arts
Notable works: Bellavista residential complex, Bellevue Teatret, Stelling House, Soholm Row Houses
Quote: “Clearly, if a building is not functionally and technically in order, then it isn’t architecture either, it’s just a building”
Arne Jacobsen is noted for his sense of proportion. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural Functionalism as well as for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple but effective chair designs.
Ben Van Berkel | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Rietveld Academy, then diploma from the Architectural Association in London
Notable works: Moebius House, Erasmus Bridge, Mercedes-Benz Museum
Quote: “Architecture falls between art and airports. Its pragmatic-it helps you get from point A to point B. But it also works as art. It makes you think twice. It inspires you. It brings you back to yourself.”
World-famous architect, Ben Van Berkel is a Dutch architect. He is the founder and principal architect of the architectural practice UNStudio, they present themselves as a network of specialists in architecture, urban development, and infrastructure. Ben van Berkel attempts to develop the broadest possible vision of the construction site, analyzing the issues involved and the potential for use and development of the land. He places conceptual discipline and social formations above technology.
Bernard Tschumi
Education: ETH Zurich
Notable works: Parc de la Villette, Acropolis Museum Athens, Blue Condominium
Quote: “Architecture is not so much a knowledge of form, but a form of knowledge.”
Tschumi has argued that there is no fixed relationship between architectural form and the events that take place within it. He emphasized the establishment of a non-hierarchical architecture to achieve balance through programmatic and spatial devices. His designs strive to integrate into the environment they encompass in a way that they work functionally and visually portray his design intentions and not in a way that they blend in the surroundings. Tschumi’s style of design is often an integration of linear and curvature forms in his architecture.
Bjarke Ingels | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Notable works: VM Houses, Mountain dwellings, 8 House, Amager Bakke
Quote: “For me, architecture is the means, not the end. It’s a means of making different life forms possible.”
The next famous architect, Bjarke Ingels is a Danish Architect, founder, and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), widely known for buildings that defy convention while incorporating sustainable development principles and bold sociological concepts.
César Pelli | Famous Architecture
Education: Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Master of Science in Architectural Degree from University of Illinois School of Architecture
Notable works: Porta Nuova Garibaldi Complex, Petronas Towers, Pelli’s Torre de Cristal
Quote: “The desire to reach for the sky runs very deep in the human psyche.”
César Pelli came to recognize the need to steer away from the architectural fixation on creating an individual style and instead be adaptive, altering his designs depending on the place and purpose at hand. His aim was to create a new type of architecture that responded to new functions, materials, technologies, and social systems of the time. Pelli was known for the lightweight, almost tent-like appearance of his buildings, which were often surfaced in glass or a thin stone veneer. His projects displayed a fascination with abstract, crystalline glass shapes shot through with lines of colored stone or metal.
Charles Correa | Famous Architects in the World
Education: the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Notable works: Jawahar Kala Kendra, National Crafts Museum, Bharat Bhavan
Quote: “Market forces do not make cities, they destroy them”
Charles Correa, widely known for his works in contemporary architecture, played an important and vital role in the development of architecture in India. Correa’s early work combined traditional architectural values—as embodied in the bungalow with its veranda and the open-air courtyard—with the Modernist use of materials exemplified by figures such as Le Corbusier, Louis I. Kahn. In particular, Correa was influenced by Le Corbusier’s use of striking concrete forms. The importance of the site was a constant in Correa’s approach. In his works, he tries to complement the Indian landscape.
Daniel Libeskind
Education: Cooper Union for architecture
Notable works: Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, Imperial War Museum North in England, Michael Lee-Chin Crystal in Toronto
Quote: “To provide meaningful architecture is not to parody history but to articulate it.”
Our next famous architect, Daniel Libeskind is renowned for his ability to evoke cultural memory in buildings. Inspired deeply by music, philosophy, literature, and poetry, he aims to create architecture that is resonant, unique, and sustainable. His work is often described as Deconstructivist, a style of postmodern architecture characterized by fragmentation and distortion.
David Childs
Education: Yale School of Architecture
Notable works: Bertelsmann Building, Worldwide Plaza, Time Warner Center, 7 World Trade Center
Quote: “It was a strange building because it had to go ahead right away. It didn’t wait for any approvals or master plans.”
Another famous architect, David Magie Childs is an American architect and chairman emeritus of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He is still a consulting partner at the firm and he is currently responsible for the redesign and construction of the new One World Trade Center in New York.
Eero Saarinen | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Yale School of Architecture
Notable works: Kleinhans Music Hall, Gateway Arch, Christ Church Lutheran, TWA Terminal
Quote: “Function influence but does not dictate form”
Eero Saarinen’s work was a series of dramatically different designs that displayed a richer and more diverse vocabulary. He had to be included in the famous architect’s list as he introduced sculptural forms that were rich in architectural character and visual drama in contrast to the existing modern architecture. Saarinen’s keen grasp of history and culture helped him understand the context in which his buildings would be inserted, and the strong connections that they make with their surroundings point to why nearly all of his major buildings have survived nearly unchanged to the present day.
Frank Gehry
Education: Bachelor of Architecture from University of Southern California; Graduate studies in City planning from Harvard school of Design but left before completion
Notable works: The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Der Neue Zollhof in Düsseldorf and the Marqués de Riscal Vineyard Hotel in Elciego
Quote: “I don’t want to do architecture that’s dry and dull”
Frank Owen Gehry is a Canadian architect born in Canada, currently a United States resident based in Los Angeles. His Architectural creations are the most distinctive, and innovative and deconstructive forms are iconic phenomena around in this century in this architecture world. His ability to create spaces that manipulate forms and surfaces is his most notable feats and his unique uses of materials almost defy all logic in how they work together.
Frank Lloyd Wright | Famous Architects in the World
Education: University of Wisconsin–Madison(drop out)
Notable Works: Guggenheim Museum New York City, Falling water, Imperial hotel
Quote: “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own, we have no soul of our own civilization.”
Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. Wright also helped create the open floor plan—designing rooms that flow and open out into each other. His appreciation of nature is apparent in his work and most of his works were inspired by nature and how to settle his creation with harmony in the environment.
Harry Seidler
Education: the University of Manitoba, Harvard Graduate school of Design
Notable works: Rose Seidler House, Blues Point Tower, Australia Square Tower, Harry and Penelope Seidler House, Hong Kong Club Building
Quote: “Architecture is not an inspirational business, it’s a rational procedure to do sensible and hopefully beautiful things; that’s all.”
Harry Seidler, was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism’s methodology in Australia. His work was greatly influenced by his four mentors: Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Josef Albers, and Oscar Niemeyer. The form of Seidler’s work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960–1980s and the development of curves (in plan shapes) with advances in concrete technology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved roofs in the 1990s onwards.
I M Pei | Famous Architecture
Education: Graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then studied at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Notable works: John F Kennedy Library, Louvre Pyramid, Museum of Islamic Art
Quote: “A lasting architecture has to have roots.”
Ieoh Ming Pei was a Chinese American Architect. Pei’s style was described as thoroughly modernist, with significant cubist themes. He was known for combining traditional architectural principles with progressive designs based on simple geometric patterns—circles, squares, and triangles are common elements of his work in both plan and elevation.
Jean Nouvel | Famous Architects in the World
Education: École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
Notable works: Louvre Abu Dhabi, Agbar Tower, One central Park, National Museum of Qatar
Quote: “Each new situation requires a new architecture.”
While many architects develop a unique style that allows their buildings to be instantly identified, Jean Nouvel continually defies easy classification. He doesn’t limit himself to one style. His projects are experimental and boundary-pushing designs, which frequently combine high-tech advancements and brilliant colors.
Kenzo Tange
Education: University of Tokyo
Notable works: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Plan for Skopje, Tokyo Olympic arenas, St Mary’s Cathedral
Quote: “Designs of purely arbitrary nature cannot be expected to last long.”
Kenzo Tange was the lead architect in the movement of modernism in Japan. Tange didn’t disregard the traditional architecture of Japan though, and he often made a point to incorporate traditional and modern together in his designs. He considered his design of “transitional architectural expressions”.
Louis Kahn | Famous Architects in the World
Education: University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts.
Notable works: Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban,
Yale University Art Gallery, Salk Institute, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad,
Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Kimbell Art Museum
Quote: “Architecture is the reaching out for the truth.”
Kahn’s buildings share a common solidity and heaviness in contrast to other architect contemporaries where they prefer light and airy structures by using glass and metals. Kahn used stone and concrete to make monumental buildings. Many of his structures look more ancient than modern. He paid attention to the look and feel of the materials he used, the use of proper sunlight. He liked natural light to enter his buildings through interesting kinds of windows and openings. He used brick and concrete in new and special ways. Kahn’s work can also be identified by his creative use of geometric shapes. Many of his buildings use squares, circles, and triangles.
Louis Sullivan | Famous Architects
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (drop out)
Notable works: Prudential Building, Sullivan Centre, Auditorium Building
Quote: “Form follows function.”
He was known as Chicago’s “Father of Skyscrapers. Sullivan is best known for his influence on the modernists that followed him. Though he is known for his beautiful use of ornament, his true innovation came in the way he adapted previous ornamental styles to the newly emerging tall buildings of the late 19th century, using it to emphasize a building’s verticality. It is this principle that led to his famous tenet of “form follows function”.
Le Corbusier | Great Architects
Education: Didn’t receive any formal education
Notable works: Esprit Nouveau Pavilion in Paris, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, Villa Savoye in Paris, City of Chandigarh
Quote: “To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.”
Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now called modern architecture. Corbusier theorized five points that supported his modernist style of architecture: pilotis, free façade, open floor plan, open views, and roof garden. Many of Corbusier’s designs were airy and open, connecting the visitor to nature and creating a bridge between the structure and the outside world.
Marcel Breuer | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Bauhaus
Notable works: IBM La Gaude, Hooper House (Baltimore County, Maryland), Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center
Quote: “I am as much interested in the smallest detail as in the whole structure.”
Marcel Breuer was an architect and designer, one of the most influential architects in the modern movement. He was concerned with applying new forms and uses to newly developed technology and materials in order to create an art expressive of an industrial age.
Michael Graves
Education: Bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, Masters degree from Harvard graduate school of Design
Notable works: Portland Building, Humana Building, Denver Public Library
Quote: “I don’t believe in morality in architecture.”
Michael Graves practiced modern architecture. His early architecture includes white geometric volumes composed of clean, sparse lines with no ornamentation. Some of his designs were famous for their hulking masses and for his highly personal Cubist interpretations. Though sometimes perceived as awkward, these structures were acclaimed for their powerful and energetic presence.
Mies Van Der Rohe | Famous Architects in the World
Education: No formal education
Notable works: Farnsworth House, Seagram Building, Chicago Federal Complex
Quote: “Less is more.”
World-famous architect, Mies established his own particular architectural style in the modern era. His style was based on extreme clarity and simplicity. His buildings made use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to define interior spaces. Mies strove toward an architecture with a minimal framework of structural order balanced against the implied freedom of unobstructed free-flowing open space. He called his buildings “skin and bones” architecture. His creative approach in architectural design led him to become one of the pioneers of a modern Architect.
Moshe Safdie | Great Architects
Education: McGill University
Notable works: Habitat 67, Virasat-e-Khalsa, Marina Bay Sands, National Gallery of Canada
Quote: “There is a profound ethic to architecture which is different from the other arts.”
Moshe Safdie is an Israeli-Canadian architect, urban designer, educator, theorist, and author. His works are known for their dramatic curves, arrays of geometric patterns, use of windows, and key placement of open and green spaces. His writings and designs stress the need to create meaningful, vital, and inclusive spaces that enhance the community, with special attention to the essence of a particular locale, geography, and culture.
Norman Foster
Education: Graduation degree from Manchester School of Architecture and Masters from Yale School of Architecture
Notable works: 30 St Mary Axe in London, Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters in Ipswich, and Wembley Stadium in London
Quote: “As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.”
Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNxgv9Rak0
The next famous architect, Sir Norman Foster’s work is often sleek, modern, and high-tech that creates cinematic backdrops to everyday life. His firm, Foster + Partners, has projects all over the world and they continue to create progressive works of High-Tech architecture incorporating Sustainable Design.
Oscar Niemeyer | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Graduated from Escola Nacional de Belas Artes at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1934
Notable Works: Contemporary Art Museum in Rio de Janerio, Natal City Park, and the Ravello Auditorium.
Quote: “Form follows beauty”
Oscar Niemeyer was a Brazilian architect specializing in modern architecture. He was instrumental in reshaping Brazil’s identity in the field of architecture. In addition to making important contributions to his country, he was also a pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete used solely for aesthetic impact. He was criticized as well as celebrated for being a “sculptor of monuments”. Niemeyer was most famous for his use of abstract forms and curves. He wrote in his memoir-“I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves”. He was influenced by Le Corbusier Architecture style but that didn’t empower his vision.
Peter Behrens
Education: School of Art in Karlsruhe
Notable works: AEG Turbine Hall, the Mannesmann-Werke
Quote: “Design is not about decorating functional forms – it is about creating forms that accord with the character of the object and that show new technologies to advantage.”
Peter Behrens was a German architect and designer. He was one of the important members which led to modernism in architecture. He was a pioneer of corporate design as well as modernist architecture. He was known for his modern-style factories and office buildings.
Philip Johnson | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Harvard University
Notable works: Glass House in Connecticut, 550 Madison Avenue, 190 South La Salle Street in Chicago.
Quote: “Architecture is the art of how to waste space.”
Project Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnCwPZifJ9w
Philip Johnson had been a client, critic, author, historian, museum director, but not an architect until the age of 36 when he designed his first building. His style was inspired by his mentor Mies van der rohe’s work, by the 1960s he had turned to a more individual style that incorporated historical elements. His greatest influence as an architect was his use of glass. He eventually rejected much of the metallic appearance of earlier international-style buildings and began designing spectacular, crystalline structures uniformly sheathed in glass.
Pietro Belluschi
Education: Graduated in civil engineering from the University of Rome and then went to Cornell University as an exchange student
Notable works: Equitable Building, Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption
Quote: “We never could design Building as beautiful as trees”
Pietro Belluschi was an internationally known architect and a key innovator in the development of elegant modernism and his awareness of the technological opportunities of new materials in accordance with the climate of the region. Belluschi’s churches and residences differed from his commercial works. Although of Modern design, they fit within the development of the Pacific Northwest regional Modern idiom as they frequently used regional materials (particularly wood) and were often integrated with their suburban or rural sites.
Peter Zumthor | Famous Architecture
Education: Studied industrial design and architecture as an exchange student at Pratt Institute in New York
Notable works: St. Benedict Chapel, Therme Vals, Kolumba.
Quote: “Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough, it can assume a quality that bears witness to a past life.”
Peter Zuthmor’s work is described as uncompromising and minimalist. As his practice developed, Zumthor was able to incorporate his knowledge of materials into Modernist construction and detailing. His buildings explore the tactile and sensory qualities of spaces and materials while retaining a minimalist feel.
Rafael Moneo
Education: Technical University of Madrid
Notable works: Kursaal Palace, Valladolid Science Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College
Quote: “Buildings are always better than drawings and models.”
Rafael Moneo always mixed his love of design with scholarly research and teaching, there is something measured and mathematical in his works. His buildings often feature clean, straight lines which run in grid-like or parallel formations, as though his academic mind filters into his creative one to produce buildings with a powerful graphic basis. By fusing the contemporary trends of the ’70s and ’80s with traditional Nordic styles and materials, Rafael Moneo has created his own unique design concepts.
Rafael Viñoly
Education: University of Buenos Aires
Notable works: Tokyo International Forum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, David L. Lawrence Convention Center
Quote: “Buildings are forms of performances.”
Rafael Viñoly Beceiro is an Uruguayan architect. He is the principal architect of Rafael Viñoly Architects. He doesn’t have a recognizable style and he believes that no one should impose their style on the building. The main factors he considers while designing a building are local issues, issues of technology, and cost.
Rem Koolhaas | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Graduated from Architectural Association, London, and after that attended Cornell University, New York.
Notable works: McCormick Tribune Campus Center, CCTV Headquarters, Casa da Música, De Rotterdam
Quote: “A building has at least two lives – the one imagined by its maker and the life it lives afterward – and they are never the same.”
World-famous architect, Rem Koolhas is known for his gravity-defying structures. Koolhaas first achieved recognition not as an architect but as an urban theorist. The combination of Koolhaas’s theoretical writings with his fondness for asymmetry, challenging spatial explorations, and unexpected uses of color led many to classify him as a deconstructivist. However, his work, unlike that of other deconstructivists, does not rely heavily on theory, and it is imbued with a strong sense of humanity and a concern for the role that architecture plays in everyday life, particularly in an urban context.
Renzo Piano
Education: Milan Polytechnic University
Notable works: Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City
Quote: “Architects have to dream. We have to search for our Atlantises, to be explorers, adventurers, and yet to build responsibly and well.”
He is an Italian Architect. Renzo Piano’s architecture exhibits sensitivity to the environment, attention to the user experience, and futuristic design. He delights in solving problems of space and continuity with intelligence. His works have been called “high-tech” and bold “postmodernism” and it is considered elegantly distinctive and socially responsible.
Richard Meier
Education: Cornell University
Notable works: Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, and San Jose City Hall.
Quote: “An important work of architecture will create polemics.”
Richard Meier’s structures are characterized by geometric clarity and order, which are often punctuated by curving ramps and railings, and by a contrast between the light-filled, transparent surfaces of public spaces and the solid white surfaces of the interior, private spaces. His architecture style is considered as the formal base modern movement. He works with volume and surface that manipulate forms in light, changes in scale and view, movement, and stasis. Although some critics have found these structures too strict and resemble past architectural achievements, others have applauded their formal beauty and welcomed their purity.
Richard Neutra
Education: Vienna Institute of Technology, Private college of Architecture by Adolf Loos
Notable works: Lovell House, Scheyer House, Neutra/Maxwell House, Kauffmann Desert house
Quote: “Architects must have a razor-sharp sense of individuality.”
Richard Neutra combined Bauhaus modernism with Southern California building traditions, creating a unique adaptation that became known as Desert Modernism. Neutra’s houses were dramatic, flat-surfaced industrialized-looking buildings placed into a carefully arranged landscape. Constructed with steel, glass, and reinforced concrete, they were typically finished in stucco. He was famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the size of the project, in contrast to other architects eager to impose their artistic vision on a client. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape, and practical comfort.
Richard Rogers
Education: Architectural Association School of Architecture and masters from Yale School of Architecture
Notable works: Centre Georges Pompidou, Millennium Dome, London Heathrow Terminal 5
Quote: “Architecture is measured against the past; you build in the future, and you try to imagine the future.”
World-famous architect, Richard Rogers had a very environmental conception of designs. The notion of social integration is one of the other most important points of his architectural concept. His architectural philosophy’s topics are legible, transparent, lightweight, systems, urban, public and green. He designed the Pompidou Centre with architect Renzo Piano. This building established Rogers’s trademark of exposing most of the building’s services (water, heating and ventilation ducts, and stairs) on the exterior, leaving the internal spaces uncluttered and open for visitors to the center’s art exhibitions. This style, dubbed “Bowellism” by some critics, was not universally popular at the time.
Robert Stern | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Graduated from Columbia University and received masters from Yale University
Notable works: Comcast Tower, 15 Central Park West, Pauli Murray College, and Benjamin Franklin College
Quote: “To be an architect is to possess an individual voice speaking a generally understood language of form.”
Stern developed a reputation as a postmodern architect for integrating classical elements into his designs for contemporary buildings, but in the mid-1980s, his work became more traditional, more in keeping with the then-emerging New Classical architectural movement. He denied these characterizations, arguing that his projects draw on vernacular context and local traditions. In recent years, the work of Stern’s office has ranged from traditional to modernist, depending on the building type and project location, and is best characterized as eclectic and contextual.
Robert Venturi
Education: Princeton University
Notable works: Gordon Wu Hall, Sainsbury Wing, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Vanna Venturi House
Quote: “Less is Bore”
Robert Venturi was an architect who is often considered the father of postmodernism who rejected glass-cube structures in favor of an inclusive, eclectic style that embraced community values and a touch of vulgarity. Together with his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, he helped shape the way that architects, planners, and students experience and think about architecture and the American-built environment. Their buildings, planning, theoretical writings, and teaching have also contributed to the expansion of discourse about architecture.
Santiago Calatrava | Famous Architecture
Education: the Polytechnic University of Valencia completed a diploma in architecture then studied urbanism, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology- got his second degree in civil engineering
Notable works: Auditorio de Tenerife, Alamillo bridge, Athens Olympic Sports Complex, Museum of Tomorrow
Quote: “I am always searching for more light and space.”
One of the most exciting innovators of modern architecture, Calatrava takes his inspiration from natural and human forms fusing them with his carefully chosen materials to create aesthetic harmony. His style is both unique and symbolic, recognized all over the world over for the sense of movement that he manages to capture in a stationary object. Having knowledge of engineering and sculpting he uses them as the creation of the basis for his design that makes his structures interesting. White natural flowing shapes are something that can be seen through all of his work.
Steven Holl
Education: the University of Washington, Architectural Association for Architects
Notable works: Simmons Hall of MIT, Kiasma, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Horizontal Skyscraper – Vanke Center
Quote: “Architecture is bound to the situation. And I feel like the site is a metaphysical link, a poetic link, to what a building can be.”
Steven Holl is one of the great contemporary architects. With a career spanning over 40 years, Holl has produced a body of work that has seen his consistent and considered approach to architecture develop into a unique signature style. Although this style is comprised of many different aspects, none is more synonymous than his unparalleled mastery over daylight.
Shigeru Ban
Education: Southern California Institute of Architecture, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
Notable works: Centre Pompidou-Metz, Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch, Aspen Art Museum
Quote: “I’m not inventing anything new, I’m just using existing material differently.”
For Shigeru 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. His formal explorations with basic building materials helped to lead him into unique structural solutions. He still explores basic geometrical elements.
Tadao Ando | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Self-taught, No formal education
Notable works: Row House, Church of the light, Water Temple
Quote: “The speed of change makes you wonder what will become of architecture.”
Tadao 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. The simplicity of his architecture emphasizes the concept of sensation and physical experiences, mainly influenced by Japanese culture. The religious term Zen focuses on the concept of simplicity and concentrates on inner feeling rather than outward appearance. Zen influences in Ando’s work. In order to practice the idea of simplicity, Ando’s architecture is mostly constructed with concrete, providing a sense of cleanliness and weightlessness (even though concrete is a heavy material) at the same time.
Thom Mayne
Education: the University of Southern California, Harvard Graduate school of design
Notable works: Diamond Ranch High School, University of Toronto Graduate House, Caltrans District 7 Headquarters, Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse, San Francisco Federal Building
Quote: “Architecture is a result of a process of asking questions and testing them and re-interrogating and changing in a repetitive way.”
Thom Mayne is an American architect, who’s bold and unconventional works were noted for their offset angular forms, layered exterior walls, incorporation of the giant letter and number graphics, and emphasis on natural light. His design philosophy arises from an interest in producing work with a meaning that can be understood by absorbing the culture for which it was made, and their goal was to develop an architecture that would reject the normal bounds of traditional forms.
Toyo Ito
Education: University of Tokyo
Notable works: Vivo City Singapore, World Games Stadium, Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture Imabari, National Taichung Theater, Nagaoka Lyric Hall
Quote: “I think of architecture as a piece of clothing to wrap around human beings”
Toyo Ito’s style is very modern and known for it is conceptual architecture. He always incorporates a lot of his design as to how it looks to the eye. He thinks that geometry figures are most beautiful. Of the Geometry lines, he likes ones like cubes, he likes smooth lines like spheres and he also lines simple ones like circles. He believes that architecture should be relatable to nature.
Toyo Ito’s style is very modern and known for it is conceptual architecture. He always incorporates a lot of his design as to how it looks to the eye. He thinks that geometry figures are most beautiful. Of the Geometry lines, he likes ones like cubes, he likes smooth lines like spheres and he also lines simple ones like circles. He believes that architecture should be relatable to nature.
Walter Gropius | Famous Architects in the World
Education: Berlin Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich
Notable works: Fagus Factory, Werkbund Exhibition, Bauhaus, Gropius House, University of Baghdad, J.F. Kennedy Federal Building
Quote: “Good architecture should be a projection of life itself, and that implies an intimate knowledge of biological, social, technical, and artistic problems.”
Gropius is credited with the introduction of modernist architecture to the United States through his design of the Gropius House and his teaching at Harvard University. Gropius’s buildings were in stark contrast to previous architectural styles and were characterized by their cubic design, flat roofs, and expanses of glass that allowed for a merging of interior and exterior spaces. He believed that all design should be approached through a study of the problems that needed to be addressed and he consequently followed the modernist principle that functionality should dictate form. He experimented with innovative building and assembly techniques using prefabricated units and new materials such as reinforced concrete.
Zaha Hadid
Education: Architectural Association, London
Notable works: MAXXI, Bridge pavilion, Administration Building of BMW Factory, Heydar Aliyev Center
Quote: “I don’t think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.”
And the last but not the least famous architect, Zaha Hadid was an Iraqi-British Architect. She was known as the “queen of curves”. She was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004. Zaha Hadid’s architecture isn’t easily grouped with one particular architectural style. It was a purposeful choice, as Hadid preferred not to limit her practice to a specific movement. She is well-known for her use of geometric shapes to create dynamic, fluid structures.
