University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines

Alubijid | Cagayan de Oro | Claveria | Jasaan | Oroquieta | Panaon

MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT: RESEARCH

MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURE

By:
Crystal Jean B. Jumawan
BS Architecture 1E

ARCH 126
Theory of Architecture 2
Department of Architecture
College of Architecture and Engineering, USTP-CDO

Antonette Gregorio
Instructor

February 2024
I. MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURE

1. FRANK O. GEHRY

Born in Toronto, Ontario, on February 28, 1929, Frank Gehry is a

Canadian-American architect and designer whose unique, sculptural, and
frequently daring designs brought him recognition on a global scale. Frank
Gehry is included among the most influential architects of the late 20th
century. In 1954, he graduated from the University of Southern California
with a degree in architecture. He then enrolled at Harvard's Graduate School
of Design to study urban planning, but he left the program quickly and
moved back to Los Angeles. He was employed by Gruen Associates there
until 1962, when he started his own company. He became closely involved
with the artists of the Venice and Santa Monica art scenes in the early years
of his solo work, especially Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, and Edward Kienholz.
Gehry's formal language evolved in the 1990s toward more intricate curved
shapes. His 1997 design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is
still his most notable creation. He creates these shapes through a
succession of impromptu hand drawings that, partly because of
advancements in computer software, have become increasingly intricate. His
architecture's formal evolution has come to define his later pieces.

Project: Walt Disney Concert Hall

Location: Los Angeles, California

Famous Dictum:

“I work from the inside out.”

2. LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was an American architect of German descent
whose rectilinear forms, rendered with exquisite simplicity, defined the
International Style of architecture. He was born in Aachen, Germany, on
March 27, 1886, and died in Chicago, Illinois, on August 17, 1969. Son of a
master mason, Ludwig Mies grew up in a small stonecutter's firm. Despite
helping his father on several building projects, Mies never went to
architectural school. At the age of fifteen, he started working as an
apprentice for many Aachen architects, for whom he created broad
architectural decoration drawings that plasterers would later mold into stucco
building accents. His ability to draw linearly was honed by this assignment,
and he would go on to create some of the best architectural representations
of all time.

Following the chaos of World War II, van der Rohe was flooded with
contracts that allowed him to work on his first major projects, such as the
skysrapers he invented, which were made of steel and covered with huge
expanses of glass windows. Van der Rohe kept designing and building
public spaces throughout the 1960s, including libraries and offices
throughout the Americas, Mexico, and Europe, as well as urban
rehabilitation initiatives like Detroit's Lafayette Park (1959) and The Neue
Nationalgalerie (1968) in Berlin. Van der Rohe lived alone in his large
Chicago apartment on Lake Michigan until his death in 1969, even though he
was well-known.

Project: Farnsworth House

Location: Plano, Illinois

Famous Dictum:
“Less is more.”
3. DANIEL LIBESKIND

Born in 1946, Daniel Libeskind is an architect who is of Polish and Jewish

descent. In 1989, he established Studio Daniel Libeskind, an architecture
practice. Architect Libeskind thinks that, with the correct attitude, everyone
can comprehend and create architectural design.

Daniel Libeskind is most recognized for his modern, Deconstructivist

architectural designs. Among his most well-known constructions are the
Imperial War Museum North, the World Trade Center master plan, the
Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the Royal Ontario Museum extention.

The first significant international achievement for Libeskind was the Jewish
Museum in Berlin. Rather of just creating a structure, Liebeskind wanted this
museum to communicate the tale of German-Jewish history. While each
visitor to the museum may perceive things differently, most feel a sense of
uncertainty or bewilderment.

Numerous projects, like the Imperial War Museum North in England and the
Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, were completed after the Jewish Museum.

Project: The Jewish Museum

Location: Berlin

Famous Dictum:
“Life it is not just a series of calculations and a sum total of statistics, it's
about experience, it's about participation, it is something more complex
and more interesting than what is obvious.”
4. ZAHA HADID

Zaha Hadid was born on October 31, 1950 and passed on March 31, 2016.
British architect of Iraqi descent, renowned for her avant-garde
deconstructivist creations. She was the first female recipient of the Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 2004.

In London, she started her own practice in 1980. In 1983, she emerged
victorious in the race to become the Hong Kong Peak Club's leisure and
recreational center. Drawing and painting are crucial research methods for
her design work, particularly during her early years. Her architecture has
been included in exhibits all around the world since her 1983 retrospective
display at the AA in London, and several of her pieces are part of significant
museum collections. With her groundbreaking vision, Zaha Hadid
revolutionized architecture for the twenty-first century and captivated
people's attention worldwide. Every project she worked on changed
perceptions of what could be accomplished with steel, glass, and concrete.

Professional, academic, and governmental organizations all throughout the

world have recognized Zaha Hadid for her extraordinary contribution to the
architectural profession. In the sense that the globe is becoming into a
succession of centers of power and money, each expressing itself by lavish,
unique prizes, Hadid is still ahead of her time and sensitive to new societal
needs.

Project: Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

Location: Michigan, USA

Famous Dictum:
“Architecture is like writing. You have to edit it over and over so it looks
effortless.”
5. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

On June 8, 1867, Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center,

Wisconsin. The son of teacher Anna Lloyd Jones, whose vast Welsh family
had established the valley near Spring Green, Wisconsin, and preacher and
musician William Carey Wright.

After being married to Catherine Lee Tobin in 1889, Wright and Sullivan
worked up a five-year contract for Wright to construct his first home in Oak
Park, Chicago. He played around with volumes and geometric forms to
create a dynamic home. But rising costs forced him to take on independent
residential commissions. He was charged of breach of contract by Sullivan,
which sparked a dispute that didn't get settled for almost 20 years. But the
separation gave Wright the chance he needed to go out on his own. He set
his shop and started designing houses that, in his opinion, would actually fit
in on the American prairie.

Wright's works between 1899 and 1910 may be classified as "Prairie Style"
art. Wright created the first authentically American architecture with the
"Prairie house," a long, low, open-plan building that rejected the conventional
high, straight-sided box in favor of highlighting the horizontal line of the
prairie and domesticity.

Project: Fallingwater
Location: Mill Run, Pennsylvania.

Famous Dictum:
“The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life
more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason,
rhyme, and meaning to life.”
6. ANTONI GAUDI

On June 25, 1852, Gaudí was born in the Spanish province of Catalonia, on
the Mediterranean coast. Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí is known for his
unique style, which is defined by form freedom, luscious color and texture,
and organic unity. Almost all of Gaudí's work was done in or around
Barcelona. Building the Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family (Sagrada
Família) took up a large portion of his career; it was not completed when he
passed away in 1926.

Throughout Gaudí's life, the natural environment inspired him. He drew

inspiration for his designs from the natural world's curves and angles. Rather
of relying only on geometric designs, he mimicked the way humans and
plants grow and stand upright. His designs were able to resemble natural
features because steel rods provided an easy method to reinforce the
hyperbolic and parabolic lines he borrowed from nature.

The Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, Antoni Gaudí's most

well-known creation, is evidence of his devout Catholicism and adherence to
an austere lifestyle. Gaudí's architectural talent has inspired generations of
architects, designers, and engineers despite his dreadful death at the age of
73, making his work an iconic part of Catalonian identity. Even now, Gaudí's
unique designs have a devoted following across the world.

Project: La Pedrera-Casa Milà

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Famous Dictum:
“Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.”
7. RENZO PIANO

Renzo Piano, an architect and Pritzker Prize winner, was born on September
14, 1937. He is renowned for a wide range of distinctive projects that
combine engineering and architecture. Piano has designed futuristic
buildings with an awareness of the environment and the human experience,
ranging from a sports stadium in his home Italy to a cultural center in the
south Pacific.

Renzo Piano was born into a family of builders, which also included his
father, brothers, uncles, and grandparents. When Piano called his
architectural firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) in 1981, he paid
homage to this history, treating it as though it will always remain a modest
family business.

Renzo Piano's multifaceted approach is seen in his 2006 renovation and

extension of the Morgan Library and Museum, which has been dubbed
"high-technology" and bold "postmodernism." The interior is simultaneously
open, bright, contemporary, natural, ancient, and new.

Project: Pompidou Cultural Center

Location: Paris, France

Famous Dictum:
“One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time, it is like life
starting all over again.”
8. EERO SAARINEN

Eero Saarinen was a prominent American designer and architect who was a
member of the modernist movement's second generation. He was born on
August 20, 1910, in Kirkkonummi, Finland. Eero Saarinen was up
surrounded by design as the son of renowned architects and Cranbrook
Academy of Art director Eliel Saarinen and textile artist Loja Saarinen. By the
time Eero reached his teens, it was not surprising that he was assisting his
father in designing fixtures and furnishings for the Cranbrook campus.
Before enrolling in Yale's architecture department the following year, Eero
studied sculpture in Paris after leaving in 1929. He went back to Michigan in
1934 to take classes at Cranbrook, work on furniture designs, and assist his
father in his architectural firm. One of the leading architects from Finland,
Eliel Saarinen, became a lecturer at the University of Michigan after
relocating to the United States and pursuing his architectural career. A
commission was given to Eliel Saarinen in 1925 to construct a collection of
educational facilities that would eventually house Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Saarinen created a fantastic spectrum that varied according to materials,

color, and form. Saarinen demonstrated a clear reliance on avant-garde
shapes and structures, but not at the expense of practical considerations.
With a language of curves and cantilevered shapes, he moved between the
International Style and Expressionism with ease. His architectural
achievement is regarded as the TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in
New York..

When Eero Saarinen was working on the construction of the Dulles

International Airport in Washington in 1961, he suffered a brain tumor that
ultimately claimed his life at the age of 51.

Project: The Gateway Arch

Location: St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Famous Dictum:
“Function influence but does not dictate form.”
9. RICHARD MEIER

American architect Richard Meier was born in Newark, New Jersey, on

October 12, 1934. He is renowned for his rationalist designs and use of the
color white.

He started his own private practice in 1963, operating out of his apartment
after receiving a commission for his parents' home in Essex Fells, New
Jersey. Smith House in Darien, Connecticut, one of his first residential
contracts, launched him into national fame in 1965.In retrospect, Meier
recalled "the clarity of the building, the openness, the direct articulation of
private and public spaces, how it relates to the land and water." He
continued, "It's been over 17 years, and what was innovative and captured a
great many people's imagination and admiration then, is already a part of our
language, and somewhat taken for granted today."

A large portion of Meier's output draws inspiration from early to mid-20th

century architects, namely Le Corbusier and his early work in particular.
Meier developed a number of concepts that were present in Le Corbusier's
work, especially in the Swiss Pavilion and the Villa Savoye.

In addition, other designers like Mies Van der Rohe and, occasionally, Frank
Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragan (excluding the color) may be seen in his
work. His use of white is one of his most well-known stylistic elements.
Throughout history, white has been utilized in significant architectural
structures such as cathedrals and the white-washed villages found in the
Mediterranean area, which includes southern Italy, Greece, and Spain.

Project: Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Famous Dictum:
“The responsibility of an architect is to create a sense of order, a sense of
place, a sense of relationship.”
10. OSCAR NIEMEYER

Oscar Niemeyer was born on December 15, 1907 and died on December 5,
2012, Rio de Janeiro. An architect from Brazil who was a pioneer of modern
architecture in Latin America, he is most known for his creation of Brasília,
the country's new capital.

Niemeyer attended Rio de Janeiro's National School of Fine Arts to study

architecture. He started working for Lúcio Costa, the head of the Modernist
style in Brazilian architecture, just before he graduated in 1934. From 1937
until 1943, he collaborated with Costa on the design of the Ministry of
Education and Health building, widely regarded as Brazil's inaugural
masterpiece of modern architecture.

As one of the most important architects of the 20th and 21st centuries, Oscar
Niemeyer is referred to as the "concrete poet". He is responsible for
designing Brazil's avant-garde civic architecture, particularly in Brasília, the
country's recently established capital. Formerly the arch modernist Le
Corbusier's assistant, he went beyond the "straight" and practical paradigm
set by his instructor to construct contemporary structures characterized by
strikingly flowing lines. Because of this distinguishing invention and his
attempts to push reinforced concrete's aesthetic boundaries, his name
became closely associated with Brazil's post-colonial architectural identity.
His fame was further enhanced by significant works in Africa, Europe, and
the Americas. He was bestowed with several honors and distinctions during
his lengthy life, the most notable of which was the Pritzker Prize (1988),
which confirmed his place among the most significant architects in the world.

Project: Cathedral of Brasília

Location: Brasília, Brazil

Famous Dictum:
“Architecture is invention.”
II. REFERENCES

https://www.moma.org/artists/2108
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-Mies-van-der-Rohe
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zaha-Hadid
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/08/zaha-hadid-serpentine-sackler-pr
ofile
https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoni-Gaudi
https://architectuul.com/architect/richard-meier
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Niemeyer