ARCHIVE ONLINE REVIEW GROUP

THEORY OF
ARCHITECTURE
Presented by Ar. John Arvin E. Chua,
MODULE 6
MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURE
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
Auditorium
University of Helsinki, Finland.

Alvar Aalto generated a style of

functionalism which avoided
romantic excess and neoclassical
monotony. He utilized texture,
color, and structure in creative new
ways.

Aalto’s designs were particularly

significant because of their
response to site, material and form.
Kunsten Museum
(Museum of Modern Art). Aalborg,
Denmark.
ANTONI GAUDI
Born in Spain in 1852. He studied
at the Escola Superior
d’Architectura and designed his
first major commission for the
Casa Vincens using a Gothic
Revival style.
La Sagrada Familia
Barcelona, Spain.

Gaudi developed a sensuous,

curving, almost surreal design style
which established him as the leader
of the Spanish Art Nouveau
movement.

His characteristically warped form

of Gothic architecture drew
admiration from other avant-garde
artists.
Casa Battló
Barcelona, Spain.
FRANK GEHRY
Born in Canada in 1929. He
studied at the Universities of
Southern California and Harvard
before he established his first
practice.
Guggenheim
Museum
Bilbao, Spain.

Gehry moved away from a

conventional commercial practice
to an artistically directed atelier.

His deconstructed architectural

style began to emerge in late 1970s
when he created collage-like
compositions out of found
materials. He created pieces of
functional sculpture.
Dancing House
Prague
Vitra Design
Museum
Germany.
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.
Guggenheim
Museum
New York City,

Wright believed in designing

structures that were in harmony
with humanity and its
environment, a philosophy he
called organic architecture.
Fallingwater
(Kaufmann House) Pennsylvania.

Through experimentation, Wright

developed the idea of the prairie
house – a long, low building with
hovering planes and horizontal
emphasis.
I.M. PEI
Ieoh 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.
Louvre Pyramid
Paris, France.

Due to his reliance on abstract

form and materials such as stone,
concrete, glass and steel, he has
been considered a disciple of
Gropius.

Pei generally designs

sophisticated glass clad buildings
loosely related to the high-tech
movement.
Bank of China
Tower
Hong Kong.
Essensa Towers
Taguig City.
JØRN UTZON
Born in Copenhagen in 1918. After
studying at 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.
Sydney Opera
House
New South Wales, Australia.

Utzon has created a style which

incorporates the sculptural quality of
Alvar Aalto, and the 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.
National Assembly
Building
Kuwait.
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 of urban engineering at
the University of Tokyo from 1963
to 1974.
St. Mary’s Cathedral
Tokyo.

Tange’s early designs attempted

to combine modernism with
traditional Japanese forms of
architecture.

In the late 1960s he rejected this

earlier regionalism in favor of an
abstract international style.
Peace Memorial
Museum
Hiroshima.
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
under Auguste Perret and
absorbed the cultural and artistic
life of the city.
Villa Savoye
Poissy, France.

From 1992 Le Corbusier worked

with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret.

During this time, Le Corbusier’s

ideas began to take physical
form, mainly as houses which he
created as “a machine for living
in” and which incorporated his
trademark five points of
architecture.
Unité d’Habitation
Marseille, France.
Notre Dame du
Haut
Ronchamp, France.
LOUIS SULLIVAN
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in
1856. He studied architecture at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology for one year. He then
worked as 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.
Wainwright
Building
St. Louis, Missouri.

His designs generally involved a

simple geometric form
decorated with ornamentation
based on organic symbolism.

Form follows function.

The Sullivan Center
(Formerly Carson, Pirie, Scott and
Company Building) Chicago.
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.
Seagram Building
In collaboration with Philip
Johnson. New York City.

He developed a design approach

based on advanced structural
techniques. He also developed a
sympathy for the aesthetic
credos of both Russian
Constructivism and the Dutch De
Stijl group.

Less is more.
Farnsworth House
Piano, Illinois.
MICHAEL GRAVES
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in
1934. He studied at the University
of Cincinnati, Ohio 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.
Disney’s Hotel
New York City.

He generates an ironic, vision of

Classicism in which his buildings
have become classical in their
mass and order. Graves also has
become an opponent of modern
works who uses humor as an
integral part of his architecture.
Humana Building
Louisville, Kentucky.
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.
30 St. Mary Axe
(The Gherkin) London, England.

The “High Tech” vocabulary of

Foster Associates shows an
uncompromising exploration of
technological innovations and
forms. Their designs emphasize
the repetition of industrialized
“modular” units in which
prefabricated off-site-
manufactured elements are
frequently employed.
Hearst Tower
New York City.
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.
Brasilia Cathedral
Brasilia.

In his early career, his designs

borrowed extensively from the
Brazilian Baroque style of
architecture.

In 1956, Niemeyer was appointed

architectural adviser to the
organization in charge of
implementing Lucio Costa’s plans
for Brazil’s new capital.
Penang State
Mosque
Jelutong, Malaysia.
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.
Glass House
New Canaan, Connecticut.

As an architect, Johnson is most

widely respected for his work in
the early 1950s.

He altered his architectural

principles from Modernist to
Postmodernist to Anti-
Postmodernist. He showed a
keen interest in style and is
remembered as a stimulator of
ideas.
Sony Tower
Formerly AT&S Building. New
York City.
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.
CCTV Headquarters
Beijing, China.

He has been considered a noted

Deconstructivist since the major
MOMA exhibition in New York.
Although Koolhaas tends toward
the more humanist, less absolute
branch of the Deconstructivist
school.
Seattle Central
Library
Seattle, Washington.
RENZO PIANO
Born in Genoa, Italy in 1937. From
1959 to 1964 he studied at the
Milan Politecnico, where he
taught until 1968. In 1970, Piano
established a partnership with
the English architect Richard
Rogers.
Centre Georges
Pompidous
Together, Rogers and Piano
designed a number of buildings I
Italy and England.

Their most famous building, the

Pompidou Center in Paris, takes
its form from a metaphor of the
‘cultural machine’ with all color-
coded service elements and
structure emphasized on the
building’s exterior.
The Shard
Also referred to as the Shard of
Glass, Shard London Bridge and
formerly London Bridge Tower.
London, England.
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
Merill and Marcel Breuer. He
established his own practice in
1963.
Jubilee Church
Tre Teste, Rome.

Meier usually designs white Neo-

Corbusian forms with enameled
panels and glass. These structure
usually play with the linear
relationships and ramps and
handrails, Although all have a
similar look, Meier manages to
generate endless variations on
his singular theme.
The Getty Center
Los Angeles.
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
he formed a partnership with
John Rausch.
Vanna Venturi
House
In contrast to many modernists,
Venturi uses a form of
symbolically decorated
architecture based on
precedents. He believes that
structure and decoration should
remain separate entities and that
decoration should reflect the
culture in which it exisits.
Allen Art Museum
Oberlin, Ohio.
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.
Turning Torso
Malmö Municipality, Sweden.

As both an architect and an

engineer, Calatrava easily
identifies with both disciplines.
He often creates innovative
works 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.
Auditorio de
Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.
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.
Bauhaus School
and Faculty
Dessau, Germany.

Gropius created innovative

designs that borrowed materials
and methods of construction from
modern technology. This advocacy
of industrialized building carried
with it a belief in teamwork and
acceptance of standardization and
prefabrication.
Fagus Factory
Alfeld, Germany.
END OF MODULE 6
Authorship + Disclaimer
This work is the property of John Arvin E. Chua
For questions, contact the author at
[email protected]