Famous Architects

Antonio Gaudi- Possibly one of my favorite architects. He was a very influential figure in the art nouveau style. Most of his works were created within Barcelona, Spain, which is also where he started designing the Sagrada Familia which was never finished during his lifetime. Eventually this was finished by a later architect. I really enjoy the curves within his architecture, it very dreamlike and thought provoking to me. Then the church he designed just blew me away and the fact that he twisted the rules of architecture and still had people accept his style is an accomplishment in itself.

Aldo Rossi- Another architect who loved city planning. He became more famous for his drawings, and theories developed during the 80s than for his architecture. I feel like it is important however to critically analyze architecture and developed theories, but on the other hand I think that theories are only made to be broken. His civic center in Italy was a big accomplishment, but he had to work a transition between the old historic district into the new. This demonstrated his competence in designing larger plans of work, rather than the singular space.

Tadao Ando- After reading about his childhood I really felt a strong connection to this architect. I saw his water temple and then just fell in love with the design concepts he created. As a kid he learned about construction with wood, and then around the age of 15 he was reading alot about the temples and designs he saw, and then began to trace sketches of them. I really appreciate seeing an architect outside of school, I feel like he really had an affinity for it. That is love for architecture if I've ever seen it.

Paolo Soleri- Much more of an urban designer that took a large approach to designing buildings. He proposed alot of city plans that seemed very furniture-like in their organization. I really like the way he thought of things, the way his cities were organized remind me of some sort of dream scape. Very different in the way he approached architecture, but all the same I like how he thinks architecture is more than just a singular building.

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe- I see him as an architect with the idea of functionality over the actually physical appearance of and object. I really like that about him. In the Tugendhat house their were many open spaces within both the living area and in the kitchen and dining room. This is more reasonable I think in terms of how people like space. Some of his later designs seemed to take on a modern approach, but I can definitely see him as the functional architect that he is.

Gottfried Boehm- He seems to have transversed many different styles over his time. His father was an architect and so are three of his four children. It seems he really has a thing for architecture built in blood. He served in the German army for some time in the 30s and early 40s, after which he went back to school to do architecture at Munich. In the 70s he developed a style similar to architects in the time period, using materials such as galvanized metal. This transition took him away from the old and brought him into modern architecture today.

Frank Owen Gehry- I love the design of the Guggenheim Museum, and his use of metal being woven around the building. I have heard however, much like Frank Lloyd Wright, Gehry did have some structural problems within his buildings. However his designs were unique in that the materials he used were galvanized metal, copper, lead, and cardboard. He had many designs that resembled the snake-like figure, I guess that goes to show he didn't study the snake form all too well if some of his projects are falling apart. Overall a really interesting architect in perspective.

Frank Lloyd Wright- When I think of Frank Lloyd Wright, I think of design as a whole. He was really good at designing his residential houses as a whole, incorporating the chairs and furniture within the space. Everything was custom designed for the house itself. The only downside is that the residence wouldn't use the chairs so he would get really mad at them. He wasn't much a nice guys, and not all of his buildings were very stable.