The world is filled with a number of spectacular architectural building designs, and many times, we tend to wonder who these amazing people who came up with such extraordinary designs are. Let’s celebrate the work of architectural design art by commending these prestigious architects who happen to be one of the very best in their field of work.
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Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry was born in Canada in the year 1929 and moved to the United States when he was a teenager. He has become a leading figure in the deconstructionist and postmodern styles of architecture. Frank Gehry’s work focuses on designing irregular forms and shapes that are radical and expressive as opposed to rigid and utilitarian. He gained popularity around the 1960’s and 1970’s when his furniture line that was made of corrugated cardboard became a hit. He’s designed the Guggenheim Museum branch in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
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Antoni Gaudi
Antoni Gaudi is a Spanish architect who has built the cathedral of the Sagrada Familia, which is his most famous work. The cathedral still remains under construction to date, due to his passing in 1926. Gaudi favoured curves instead of straight lines, and varied textures as well as vibrant colours. His style was unique and bizarre with a mix of Gothic, Baroque, Moorish, and Victorian elements.
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Norman Foster
In his earlier career, Norman Foster worked as an associate of Buckminster Fuller who was a visionary and an inventor of the geodesic dome. Norman Foster’s company, Foster + Partners, has buildings around the world such as the HSBC project in Shanghai that features feng shui-balancing cement canons on its roof, and the Millau Viaduct in Southern France which is one of the world’s tallest buildings. London visitors may be mostly familiar with projects like the Millenium Bridge, the Great Court of the British Museum, the Gherkin and London City Hall.
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Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright’s midwestern upbringing in Wisconsin played a vital role in shaping his architectural sensibility. Wright favoured clean geometrics with an emphasis on horizontal planes. Some of his work include his most famous building, Falling Water, which features a stack of rectangular balconies that seemingly float over the natural waterfall incorporated within the house. He also did the design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York, featuring a rising spiral walkway instead of individual floors.
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Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect who unfortunately passed on at the early age of 51 during a brain tumour operation, before many of his best-known works had been finished. Saarinen studied a sculpture course in Paris and then architecture at Yale University.
His style was often characterized by curvilinear and sculptural forms that were new at that time, much like online Bingo in Australia was in the 1990s. He designed furniture such as the Womb chair and Tulip table. Saarinen’s most iconic work is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and the General Motors Technical Centre which is in Michigan. The Arch and the TWA Flight Centre at John F. Kennedy International Airport were completed after his passing.
