Architecture is an art that we all would be sorely lost without. It’s a science that helps build the strongest structures ever found, and the most stable of domiciles for those in need of shelter. The architect ensures that the structures they craft with math and logic are safe, secure, and adequate enough to do the job it’s made to do.
As with all professions, not all architects are equal. Some famous architects have made notable achievements in their careers and revolutionized the modern construction management industry as a whole. We will examine five of the most famous architects and their career accomplishments:
1. Frank Lloyd Wright
Born in Wisconsin, Wright is one of the famous architects revolutionized the industry in the 20th century. His mid-western education played a crucial role in crafting his sensibilities. Inspired by the low-rise buildings that peppered the American plains, Wright crafted the Prairie House style in reaction to the predominant Victorian aesthetic, which focuses on the dark decor, and the very crowded decorations both inside and outside.
Instead, Wright employed clean geometries with an emphasis on horizontal planes. Its most famous building, Falling Water, has rectangular stacked balconies that seem to float over the natural waterfall built into the house.
Later in his career, Wright would adopt curvilinear elements, a change that found its most celebrated expression in the Solomon Republic. Guggenheim Museum.
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2. Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan was actually Michelangelo’s contemporary in the Ottoman Empire. Alive in the sixteenth century, this famous architect worked on more than 300 structures, including mostly mosques but also palaces, schools and other buildings. Indeed the most influential Turkish architect in history, Sinan perfected the design of the dominated mosque, which was an important symbol of both political power and Islamic faith in the Ottoman Empire.
Despite being born a Christian, Sinan was recruited into the Janissary Corps and converted to Islam. After climbing quickly into the ranks to reach the artillery chief, he first showed his architectural talent by designing fortifications and bridges. He became Chief of Imperial Architects in 1538 and started building mosques.
Her masterpieces include such pieces as the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne or the Süleymanive Mosque in Istanbul. Selimiye includes a huge central dome supported by eight pillars and covered by four minarets. With inspiration provided by Hagia Sophia, Sinan designed the Süleymanive Mosque with a central dome supported by four domed half-domes. The original structure included not only worship space, but also a hospital, madrasahs, toilets and shops.
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3. Phillip Johnson
During his role as founding director of the Architects Department at MoMA, Phillip Johnson had a huge impact on the entire field of architecture, making him one of the famous architects who helped shape trends starting in 1935.
Johnson was also a designer in his own right, although it is fair to say that he was more refined of other people’s ideas than an innovator. However, his work achieved emblematic status in several cases, especially in the residence he built for himself in 1949.
The house is a distillation of Mies Van der Rohe’s approach, and in fact, Johnson himself noted that it was “more Thoues than Mies.” A transparent box located between exquisitely landscaped grounds, The Glass House dissolves the boundaries between inside and outside, public and private. Its wide use of plaque glass undoubtedly inspired much of the architect for today’s luxurious developments.
Similarly, Johnson swept through the post-modern wave with his now-privately owned AT&T “Chippendale” building, named for his broken-pediment crown resembling the summit of an 18th-century high-boy.
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4. Richard Rogers
When the Pompidou Centre first opened its doors in 1977, The public considered it the epitome of a trend at that time known as High Technology and Structural Expressionism. The famous British architect Richard Rogers was one of the main supporters of said style.
This building, designed as the central institution in Paris for modern and contemporary art, has the appearance of a structure that moves inside, with its heating and plumbing systems used as a façade. However, it also features a glass escalator rising up to the building’s height. Rogers took a similar approach to another of his iconic buildings, the Lloyd’s of London headquarters.
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5. Norman Foster
Influenced by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, British architect Norman Foster worked as a partner of Buckminster Fuller early in his career. Fuller, for those who do not know, is a noted visionary and inventor of the geodesic dome. Fuller’s triangular-shaped skipper must have made an impression on the young Foster, as its most famous buildings offer similar surface treatments for its façades.
For instance, 30 St Mary Ax in London, also known as The Gerkin, a commercial skyscraper in London’s financial district that opened in 2004. Its form of pepinism has become an international icon, as synonymous with London as the Eiffel Tower with Paris.
This beautiful building can typically be seen in any shot of London that has been taken since its erection.
