Masters of Architecture
Name Biography Sample Works
Alvar Aalto Born in Finland in 1898. He
graduated with honors from
Helsinki Polytechnic in 1921
after which he opened his
own practice. He held the
position of Professor of
Architecture at MIT 1946 to
1948, and was president of
the Academy of Finland.
Antoni Gaudi Born in Spain in 1852. He
studied at the Escola
Superior d'Arquitectura and
designed his first major
commission for the
Casa Vincens using a Gothic
Revival style.
Frank Gehry Born in Canada in 1929. He
studied at the Universities of
Southern California and
Harvard before he
established his first practice.
Style
Auditorium Generated a style of
University of Helsinki, functionalism which
Finland avoided romantic excess
and neoclassical
Kunsten Museum monotony. He utilized
(Museum of Modern Art) texture, color, and
Aalborg, Denmark. structure in creative new
ways.
Designs were particularly
significant because of
their response to site,
material and form.
La Sagrada Familia Developed a sensuous,
Barcelona,Spain curving, almost surreal
design style which
Casa Batllo established him as the
Barcelona, Spain leader of the Spanish Art
Nouveau movement.
His characteristically
warped form of Gothic
architecture drew
admiration from other
avant-garde artists.
Guggenheim Museum Moved away from a
Bilbao, Spain conventional commercial
practice to an artistically
Dancing House directed atelier.
Prague His deconstructed
architectural style began
Vitra Design Museum to emerge in late 1970s

Frank Lloyd Wright Born in Richland Center,
Wisconsin in 1867. He was
educated at Second Ward
School, Madison and at the
University of Wisconsin
where he took some
mechanical drawing and
basic mathematics courses.
He then departed for Chicago
where he spent several
months in J. L. Silsbee's
office before seeking
employment with Adler and
Sullivan.
I. M. Pei Ioeh Ming Pei, born in China
in 1917. He studied
architecture at MIT and
Harvard. He worked for
several companies and as a
professor at Harvard before
he founded his own
architectural firm in 1960.
Jorn Utzon Born in Copenhagen in 1918.
After studying at the
Germany when he created collage-
like compositions out of
found materials. He
created pieces of
functional sculpture.
Guggenheim Museum Believed in designing
New York City structures that were in
harmony with humanity
Fallingwater and its environment, a
(Kaufmann House) philosophy he called
Pennsylvania organic architecture.
Through experimentation,
developed the idea of the
Prairie house- a long, low
building with hovering
planes and horizontal
emphasis.
Louvre Pyramid Due to his reliance on
Paris, France abstract form and
materials such as stone,
Bank of China Tower concrete, glass, and
Hongkong steel, he has been
considered a disciple of
Essensa Towers Gropius.
Taguig City Pei generally designs
sophisticated glass clad
buildings loosely related
to the high-tech
movement.
Sydney Opera House Created a style which
New South Wales, Australia incorporates the
 Academy of Arts in
Copenhagen, he travelled
through Europe, the United
States and Mexico. He
established his own practice
in Copenhagen in 1950 when
he returned from his travels.
Kenzo Tange Born in Osaka, Japan in
1913. He graduated from the
University of Tokyo in 1938
and studied city planning at
the graduate school at the
University of Tokyo. He
received a degree in
engineering in 1959.
Two years later, he
established his own firm. He
also served as professor or
urban engineering at the
university of Tokyo from 1963
to 1974.
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-
Gris. Born in Switzerland in
1887.
Trained as an artist, he
travelled extensively through
Germany and the East. In
Paris, he studied
sculptural quality of Alvar
National Assembly Building Aalto, and the
Kuwait organic structures of
Frank Lloyd
Wright into his designs.
Influenced by
architectural tradition, he
attempts to create
architecture for living that
adheres to a strict
structural and
constructive process.
St. Mary’s Cathedral Early designs attempted
Tokyo to combine modernism
with traditional Japanese
Peace Memorial Museum forms of architecture.
Hiroshima In the late 1960s he
rejected this earlier
regionalism in favor of an
abstract international
style
Villa Savoye From 1922 Le Corbusier
Poissy, France worked with his cousin
Pierre Jeanneret.
Unite d’Habitation During this time, Le
Marseille, France Corbusier's ideas began
to take physical form,
Notre Dame du Haut mainly as houses which
 under Auguste Perret and
absorbed the cultural and
artistic life of the city
Louis Sullivan Born in Boston,
Massachusetts in 1856. He
studied architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology for one year. He
then worked as a
draughtsman for Furness and
Hewitt in Philadelphia and for
William Le Baron Jenney in
Chicago.
In 1874 he travelled to
Europe where he studied at
the Ecole des Beaux Arts in
Paris. He returned to Chicago
a year later.
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe Born in Aachen, Germany in
1886.He worked in the family
stone-carving business
before he joined the office of
Bruno Paul in Berlin.
He entered the studio of
Peter Behrens in 1908 and
remained until 1912.
Michael Graves Born in Indianapolis, Indiana
in 1934. He studied at the
University of Cincinnati, Ohio
Ronchamp, France he created as "a machine
for living in" and which
incorporated his
trademark five points of
architecture.
Wainwright Building His designs generally
St. Louis, Missouri involved a simple
geometric form decorated
The Sullivan Center with ornamentation based
(formerly Carson, Pirie, Scott on organic symbolism
and Company Building) Form follows function
Chicago
Seagram Building He developed a design
(In collaboration with Philip approach based on
Johnson) advanced structural
New York City techniques. He also
developed a sympathy for
Farnsworth House the aesthetic credos of
Plano, Illinois both Russian
Constructivism and the
Dutch De Stijl group.
Less is more.
Disney’s Hotel He generates an ironic,
New York City vision of Classicism in
which his buildings have
 and at Harvard University.
After working as a
Fellow at the American
Academy in Rome for two
years, he started his own
practice in Princeton, New
Jersey. He became a
professor at Princeton
University in 1972
Norman Foster Born in Manchester, England
in 1935. He received his
architectural training at
Manchester University School
of Architecture and Yale
University. He worked with
Richard Rogers and Sue
Rogers and his wife, Wendy
Foster, as a member of
“Team 4” until Foster
Associates was founded in
London in 1967.
Oscar Niemeyer Born in Rio de Janeiro Brazil
in 1907. He graduated from
the Escola Nacional de Belas
Artas in Rio de Janeiro and
later joined the office of Lucio
Costa. In 1936 he joined the
team of Brazilian architects
collaborating with Le
Corbusier on a new Ministry
of Education and Health in
Rio de Janeiro.
Humana Building become classical in their
Louisville, Kentucky mass and order. Graves
also has become an
opponent of modern
works who uses humor
as an integral part of his
architecture
30 St. Mary Axe The "High Tech"
(The Gherkin) London, vocabulary of Foster
England Associates shows an
Uncompromising
Hearst Tower exploration of
New York City technological innovations
and forms. Their designs
emphasize the repetition
of industrialized
"modular" units in which
Pre-fabricated off-site-
manufactured elements
are frequently employed.
Brasilia Cathedral In his early career, his
Brasilia designs borrowed
extensively from the
Penange State Mosque Brazilian Baroque style of
Jelutong, Malaysia architecture.
In 1956, Niemeyer was
appointed architectural
adviser to the
organization in charge of
implementing Lucio

Philip Johnson Born in Cleveland, Ohio in
1906. He graduated from
Harvard University and
received an A. B. in
architectural history, in 1930
and a B. Arch in 1943.
He served as Director of
Architecture at MOMA. He
worked with Richard Foster
and with John Burgee until
his retirement. He became a
trustee of MOMA in 1958,
received the AIA Gold
Medal in 1978, and received
the Pritzker Architecture prize
in 1979.
Rem Koolhaas Born in Netherlands in 1944.
Koolhaas studied at the
Architectural Association
School of Architecture in
London and at Cornell
University in Ithaca, New
York.
He founded The Office for
Metropolitan Architecture in
1975 together with architects
Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis
and Madelon Vriesendorp in
London
Renzo Piano Born in Genoa, Italy in 1937.
From 1959 to 1964 he
Costa's plans for Brazil’s
new capital.
Glass House As an architect, he is
New Canaan, Connecticut most widely respected for
his work in the early
Sony Tower 1950s.
Formerly AT&T Building He altered his
New York City architectural principles
from Modernist to
Postmodernist to Anti-
Postmodernist.
He showed a
Keen interest in style and
is remembered as a
stimulator of ideas
CCTV Headquarters He has been considered
Beijing, China a noted Deconstructivist
since the major MOMA
Seattle Central Library exhibition in New York.
Seattle, Washington Although Koolhaas tends
toward the more
humanist, less absolute
branch of the
Deconstructivist school.
Centre Georges Pompidou Together, Rogers and
Paris Piano designed a number
 studied at the Milan
Politecnico, where he taught
until 1968. In 1970, Piano
established a partnership with
the English architect Richard
Rogers.
Richard Meier Born in Newark, New Jersey
in 1934. He graduated from
Cornell University in 1957
then worked with a series of
architects, including
Skidmore, Owings, and
Merrill and Marcel Breuer. He
established his own practice
in 1963.
Robert Venturi Born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania in 1925. He
attended the Episcopal
Academy in Philadelphia and
graduated from Princeton
University. He worked with
Eero Saarinen and Louis I.
Kahn before he founded his
own practice in 1958. In 1964
of buildings in Italy and
The Shard England.
(Also referred to as the Their most famous
Shard of Glass, Shard building, the Pompidou
London Bridge and formerly Center in Paris, takes its
London Bridge Tower) form from a metaphor of
London, England the 'cultural machine' with
all color-coded service
elements and structure
emphasized on the
building exterior.
Jubilee Church Meier usually designs
Tre Teste, Rome white Neo-Corbusian
Forms with enameled
The Getty Center Panels and glass. These
Los Angeles structure usually play with
the linear relationships of
ramps and handrails.
Although all have a
similar look, Meier
manages to generate
endless variations on his
singular theme
Vanna Venturi House In contrast to many
modernists, Venturi uses
Allen Art Museum a form of symbolically
Oberlin, Ohio decorated architecture
based on precedents. He
believes that structure
and decoration should
remain separate entities
and that decoration
 he formed a partnership with
John Rausch
Santiago Calatrava Born in Valencia, Spain in
1951. He graduated from the
Institute of Architecture in
Valencia and from the
Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich.
Calatrava opened his own
architecture and engineering
office in Zurich.
Walter Gropius Born in Berlin in 1883. He
studied at the Technical
Universities in Munich and
Berlin. He joined the office of
Peter Behrens in 1910 and
three years later established
a practice with Adolph Meyer.
Zaha Hadid Iraqi-British architect (1950–
2016). Born in Baghdad, Iraq
during a period of prosperity
in which the government
chose to invest in
modernizing the city's
architecture. Her childhood
should reflect the culture
in which it exists.
Turning Torso As both an architect and
Malmo Municipality, Sweden an engineer, Calatrava
easily identifies with both
Auditorio de Tenerife disciplines. He often
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, creates innovative works
Spain that depend on a firm
grasp of both the creative
and structural aspects of
design. His skills as an
engineer allow him to
create sculptural surfaces
and unusual spaces.
Bauhaus School and Faculty Gropius created
Dessau, Germany innovative designs that
borrowed materials and
Fagus Factory methods of construction
Alfeld, Germany from modern technology.
This advocacy of
industrialized building
carried with it a belief in
teamwork and an
acceptance of
standardization and
prefabrication.
Beijing's Galaxy Soho Famous for her intensely
futuristic architecture
Guangzhou Opera House characterized by curving
façades, sharp angles,
Heydar Aliyev Centre and severe materials
such as concrete and
steel. The structures she
saw the completion of
buildings by such iconic
architects as Frank Lloyd
Wright and Le Corbusier.
Hadid attended the American
University in Beirut, Lebanon
where she earned a
bachelor's degree in
mathematics. In 1972, she
moved to continue her
studies at the Architectural
Association in London
designed successfully
accomplished what
mystifies so many when
they observe great
architecture: She took the
strongest materials in the
world and manipulated
them to form objects that
appear soft and sturdy at
the same time