WORLD FAMOUS ARCHITECT-EUROPE

WORKS & LIFE

From 'Time' 2000,'AGRAM' architectural information, Korea 1993, http://my.dreamwiz.com/angeleo/archi/Architect/index.htm, http://www.pritzkerprize.com/Laureates.htm#top

AUSTRIA

Adolf Loos/1870-1933

 In 1870, Adolf Loos was born as the son of a stonemason in Brno Czechia. He started in his father's shop where he learned his materials. He studied architecture in Dresden (1890-93) and afterwards he went to the United States for three years. In the States, he was most impressed by the efficiency in buildings, clothing and household furnishing. He also admired the English house and rejected the German 'Gemütlichkeit.' After the death of his father, his mother wanted him into the family business. As a result of his refusal they broke up and never saw each other again. He always let his customers pay the architect's fee in natural goods. So, even though he had no money, no car, no own house, he lived like a millionaire with several women.
 In 1930, the Czech president, Masaryk, offered him a life pension. During his practice as an architect, he started his own school of architecture. He encouraged his students to go to the United States. Two -now famous- students of his went there without regret: Neutra and Schindler. He wrote articles in newspapers against the Art Nouveau and especially against the Vienna Seccession. He also wrote a study about the relation between ornamentation and crime. Lack of ornament is a sign of spiritual strength he stated. He was a functionalist and opposed the idea of architecture being art. He invented the 'Raumplan' as being the leading idea in designing a house. He had friends among the intellectual elite of the city like Kokoschka, Wittgenstein and Schönberg. In 1932, deafness and other diseases plagued him. In 1933, he could not work anymore and he died in that same year.

Hans Hollein/1934-

 Hans Hollein was born in Vienna, Austria in 1934. From his earliest school days, he manifested a talent for drawing. Although he chose architecture as his profession, his works of art are in many public and private collections around the world. 

Friedensreich Hundertwasser/1928-2000



 Born in Vienna, 15th December 1928, named: Friedrich Stowasser.

Art Work,

Joseph Maria Olblich/1867-1908

 Born in Opava and died in 8.8.1908, Dusseldorf. Joseph Maria Olbrich was born in Silesia, Germany in 1867. He studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and won the Rome Prize in his third year. After working in Otto Wagner's office for a short time, he travelled through Europe. When he returned to Vienna he helped form the Secession, an anti-traditionalist forum. Intent on creating "new" art, the Secessionists looked to British architects like Mackintosh and Baillie-Scott for inspiration and direction.

Josef Franz Maria Hoffmann/1870-1956

 Born in Pirnitz and die in Wien.

Otto Koloman Wagner/1841-1918

ENGLAND

Charles Rennie Mackintosh/1868-1928

 Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in Grassgow. Open in 1899.12.22. of Glasgow School of Art.
 

James Stirling/1926-1992

 James Stirling, 1926-1992, of Great Britain was one of that country's best-known architects particularly since his 1963 project at Leicester University, the engineering building. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he took his architecture degree at Liverpool University, but set up his practice in London.  

Norman Foster/1935-

 Born in Manchester.

Richard Rogers/1933-

 Born 23 July 1933 in Florence, Italy. English citizen. 1959; Received his diploma from the Architectural Association School in London. Worked with the Middlesex County Council's architect's department before going to graduate school. 1961; Graduate studies at Yale University in the United States on a Fulbright scholarship. Moved to San Francisco where he worked at the office of Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill. 1962; Returned to England to establish the firm of Team 4. Team 4 was an architectural office that consisted of husband-and-wife teams. The personnel included Richard and Su Rogers, and Norman & Wendy Foster. 1967; the firm Team 4 was dissolved and the Su & Richard Rogers Partnership was formed. 1971;Rogers formed a partnership with Renzo Piano that ended in 1977. 1977; Formed Richard Rogers Partnership Limited.

William Morris/1834-1896

Zaha M. Hadid/1950-

 Born in Bagdad, Iraq.    

FINLAND

Alvar Aalto/1898-1976

  Born at Kuortane on February 3rd,1916, matriculation from Jyvaskyla Classical Lyceum, 1921 diploma of architecture from the Institute of Technology, Helsinki, 1923-27 private architectural office in Jyvaskyla , 1924 married to architect Aino Marsio (died in 1949), 1927-33 private architectural office in Turku, 1933 private architectural office in Helsinki, 1943-58 Chairman of the Association of Finnish Architects, 1946-48 Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA), 1952 married to architect Elissa Makiniemi, 1955- member of the Finnish Academy, 1963-68 President of the Finnish Academy, 1976 died in Helsinki on May 11th.  

FRANCE 

Christian de Porzamparc/1944-

 Born in Casablanca, Morocco, he is indeed, French, making his home in Paris with his wife, Elizabeth, and two sons, Serge and Philip, aged 11 and 8 respectively. That exotic birthplace came about because his parents were living there in 1944, his father being an officer in the French Army. The family moved to Marseille just a few months after his birth. 

Jean Nouvel/1945-

 Born in Fumel, France.

Le Corbusier/1887-1965

 Le Corbusier at the dining table, seated by his 1939 painting, "Nature morte Vésenay",  Le Corbusier in his "Appartement-atelier" in Paris. Le Corbusier and José Oubrerie outside Le Corbusier's small private office. On the left, the black board running the full height of the room, with the Modulor scale affixed to the right-hand edge. Le Corbusier and Heidi Weber in the Mezzanin gallery's basement, where smaller works where on display. Reception of Le Corbusier in the library of the old Dominican monastery in Eveux. from http://www.birkhauser.ch/books/va1/corbusierpics/corbusiergifs.htm

 In 1887 Le Corbusier was born as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland). He went to an Art School to become a watch engraver in this centre of Swiss watch industry. However, his teacher, L'Eplattenier, persuaded him to become an architect. After having had problems with Schwob he decided to leave Switzerland for France and to adopt the name Le Corbusier. He swore never to come back to Switzerland. After the World War I he totally changed his style to help build up France. This is where he developed the new construction method that he called 'Plan Libre.' He allowed himself some liberty for the first time when designing Ronchamp in 1950. Often he worked together with his nephew Pierre Jeanneret. Undoubtedly one of his greatest works is the design of the city of Chandigar (India). This project included the design of all the public buildings for this city. In 1965 he died while swimming near his Cabanon in Saint Martin (the south of France).  

Paul Andreu/1938-

 Charles De Gaulle Airport, Terminal I, II, III in 1996-87.

Laurent Salomon/1952-



Laurent Salomon with Benedict Byunguhn Yu/2006

 Born in France. Professor at France¡¯s National Paris University. Work Residence in Yangji, Korea and Seoul Performing Arts Center, Korea.

GERMANY

Gottfried Bohm/1920-

 Gottfried Böhm was born in Offenbach-am-Main on January 23, 1920, the son of Dominikus Böhm, one of Europe's most respected architects of Roman Catholic churches and ecclesiastical buildings. Since his paternal grandfather had been an architect as well, it is not surprising that Gottfried started on that path. 

Hans Scharoun/1893-1972

 Hans Scharoun was born in Bremen, Germany in 1893. He studied architecture in Berlin and after World War I helped reconstruct East Prussia. He joined Bruno Taut's Expressionist circle and contributed to the 'Glass Chain' correspondence. His lifelong commitment to socialism dates from this time.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel/1781-1841

 In 1781, Karl Friedrich Schinkel was born as a son of a local church inspector in Neuruppin, a town in the Brandenburg province. After the death of Schinkel's father his mother moved with her five children over to Berlin. He was not a good pupil at school and at an early age after having seen a design by Friedrich Gilly, he expressed the wish to become an architect . He went to the Gilly family and was trained by the father David Gilly together with his son Friedrich Gilly to become an architect. After the death of Friedrich Gilly at the age of 28 in 1800, he finished works that his friend and teacher had started. With the money he earned he went on a study journey to Italy.
 When he returned in 1805, there was no work because Prussia suffered under a Napoleontic occupation so he started painting. In 1810, he was asked, because of the paintings, by the royal family to make acquaintance. This is where his career started. In 1826, he made a journey to England, where he visited the museums and industrial buildings. He was fascinated by the technical progress that was made in Britain. After Prinz Otto of Bayern was chosen as king of Greece, he was asked to build a palace on the acropolis in 1832. He died 9 October 1841 at 2:00 p.m. after having overworked for a long time. He was arguably the most important German architect of the nineteenth century.

IRLAND

Eileen Gray/1887-1976

 On August 9. 1878, Eileen Gray was born to an aristocratic family in Enniscorthy, a small market town in southeastern Ireland, and spent her childhood years there. As a young adult, in order to develop her artistic sensibilities, she entered the Slade School for Fine Arts in London and from there moved to Paris where she would spend most of her working life.  

ITALY

Andrea Palladio/1508-1580

 Remains the most influential architect in the history of architecture. About 450 years ago his country houses -- called "villas" -- began to appear in the countryside of the Veneto, the mainland province around Venice. Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, known to history as "Palladio," was born in 1508 in Padua, a mainland possession of the island-based Republic of Venice. Apprenticed to a stonecutter in Padua when he was 13 years old, Andrea broke his contract after only 18 months and fled to the nearby town of Vicenza. In Vicenza he became an assistant in the leading workshop of stonecutters and masons.

Aldo Rossi/1931-1997

 Aldo Rossi was born in Milan, Italy in 1931. He graduated from the Milan Politecnico in 1959 and joined the Milanese magazine Casabella-Continuita, serving as its editor from 1961 to 1964. Rossi taught at several architecture schools, including Milan's Politecnico, Zurich's ETH, New York's Cooper Union, and Venice's Instituto Universitario di Architettura. Rossi established himself as an architectural theorist in 1966 with the publication of his theoretical treatise L'Architettura della citta'. In this book and in all of his design work, Rossi used the city as his central theme. His dissertations on the city focus on traditional forms and buildings especially within the Lombardy region where he grew up. Although Rossi emphasizes the autonomy of architecture within a given culture, he also stresses the importance of the transformation of Rationalism.

Mario Bellini/1935-

 Born in Milan. Office and Industrial Complex on the  Via Kuliscioff(1988), Office for the Cassano D'Adda Thermoelectric Power Station(19985-1990), Tokyo Design Center(1992), Risonare-Vivre Club Complex(1992), the Portello extention to Milan Trade Fair(1997)

Renzo Piano/1937-

 He was born into a family of builders in Genoa, Italy in September 14,1937. His grandfather, his father, four uncles and a brother were all contractors, and he admits, he should have been one too, but instead chose architecture. Piano declares his architecture has an important legacy - a passion for construction, or more pointedly, a culture of doing, resulting from growing up in a family of builders. From 1959-64 he studied at the Milan Politecnico, where he taught until 1968. In 1970 Piano established a partnership with the English architect Richard Rogers. Renzo Piano was born in Genoa on 1937, from a builder's family. He graduated from the school of Architecture, Milan Polytechnic in 1964; during his studies he was working under the design guidance of Franco Albini, and in the meantime he was attending his father's site. Between the years 1965 and 1970 he worked with Louis I. Kahn, in Philadelphia, and Z.S. Makowsky in London. During this period he met Jean Prouvé, a friendship which was to have a profound influence on his work. His collaboration with Richard Rogers dates from 1971 (Piano & Rogers), from 1977 with Peter Rice (Atelier Piano & Rice), and he runs now the offices in Genoa, in Paris, and in Berlin, under the name Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

NETHERLAND 

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld/1888-1964

 G.T.Rietveld was born in Utrecht.Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands in 1888. After working in his father's joinery business, he apprenticed at a jewellery studio. In 1911 he started his own cabinet-making firm, which he maintained for eight years. In this same period, he studied architecture. Through his studies he became acquainted with several founders of De Stijl.

Herman Hertzberger/1932-

 Born in Amsterdam.Herman Hertzberger was born in Amsterdam in 1932. In 1958, after completing his studies at the Technical University in Delft, he returned to Amsterdam to set up a private practice. From 1965-70, he taught at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam and since 1970 has been a professor at the Technical University in Delft.

Johannes Duiker/1890-1935

 Johannes Duiker was born in the Hague (the Netherlands) in 1890. After his study in Delft he formed a partnership with Bijvoet. Together they won an architectural competition for an art academy in Amsterdam, but this art academy has never been built. They opened an office in Zandvoort and worked together until 1925.
 This is when Bijvoet left for Paris where he associated with Chareau, the person with whom he made the 'maison de verre.' When Bijvoet left, Duiker moved to Amsterdam where Wiebenga helped him with construction for three years. In this period he became one of the leading characters of the modern movement, though he had been a follower of Frank Lloyd Wright before that. Duiker joined the architect circle 'De 8.' He became an editor of the journal 'De 8 en opbouw' in 1932 and continued to fulfil that function until 1935. He was one of the most important functionalist architects in the world. He died after having a severe illness in 1935. As a result, he had not been able to complete some works that he had started, such as Gooiland. For this reason, Bijvoet returned to Holland to finish those works.

Rem Koolhaas/1944-

 Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Sjoerd Soeters/1947-

 Born in Netherlands.

MVRDV/Winy Maas+Jacob van Rijs+Nathalie de Vries



Jacob van Rijs with Benedict Byunguhn Yu/2007

 MVRDV was set up in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in 1991 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. MVRDV produces designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas (1959), Jacob van Rijs (1964) and Nathalie de Vries (1965). Maas and Van Rijs worked at OMA, the office of Rem Koolhaas, De Vries at Mecanoo before starting MVRDV. Their first realised commission was the new offices for VPRO in Hilversum (Netherlands) (1993-1997), Wozoco housing, Amsterdam (1994-1997), Dutch Pavilion at the Hannover World Exhibition Expo 2000 (1997-2000), Barcode House, Munich(2001-2005), Rooftop Village, Rotterdam(2004-2007), Floating Village(2007) Gemini Silo's, Denmark(1999-2005), Mirado Apartment, Madrid(2001-2005), Parkrand(1999-2005), TEDA Town,Tianjing, China, Anyang Peak, Korea & Smart City Plan, Daejeon Korea.

NORWAY

Sverre Fehn/1925-

 Sverre Fehn has long been recognized in Europe as Norway's most gifted architect. Now, as the recipient of the 1997 Pritzker Architecture Prize, his profession's highest honor, the rest of the world will be exposed to his talents. Sverre Fehn was born in Kongsberg, Norway in 1924. He graduated from the Oslo School of Architecture in 1948 and immediately established a private practice in Oslo. He has been a Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture since 1970.

PORTGAL

Alvaro Siza Vieira/1933-

 Siza, whose full name is Alvaro Joaquim de Meio Siza Vieira, was born on June 25, 1933 in the small coastal town of Matosinhos in the mountainous north of Portugal, a country where it is said that every summit has the Atlantic Ocean as the horizon. Matosinhos is near Porto, an important seaport built on the site of an ancient Roman settlement Portus Cole from which the name Portugal was derived. 

RUSSIA

Konstantin Melnikov/1890-1974

 Konstantin Melnikov was born in Moscow in 1890. He studied at the prestigious Moscow school of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he received his diploma in 1917. In 1920, he joined the Soviet parallel to the Bauhaus the school of architecture at Vkhutemas. Tatlin was one of his colleagues during these years. In Paris, in 1925, he received international acclaim for his soviet pavilion. When he returned he got many commissions among which the worker clubs.
 In 1937, the All-Union Congress of Soviet Architects accused him of formalism. Nevertheless, he refused to give up. He was silenced as an architect and was put under house arrest. In 1965 an exhibition of his work was organised in Moscow, but it was forced to close down after four days. He earned his money building tiled stoves as he wasn't allowed to work as an architect. For thirty-seven years he continued to enter competitions, until his death in 1974. Eventually some recognition accorded him, but he did not live long enough to see his name officially cleared.

SPAIN

Antonio Gaudi/1852-1926

 The son of a coppersmith, Antonio Gaudi was born in Reus, Spain in 1852. He studied at the Escola Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and designed his first major commission for the Casa Vincens in Barcelona using a Gothic Revival style that set a precedent for his future work. Over the course of his career, Gaudi developed a sensuous, curving, almost surreal design style which established him as the innovative leader of the Spanish Art Nouveau movement. With little regard for formal order, he juxtaposed unrelated systems and altered established visual order. Gaudi's characteristically warped form of Gothic architecture drew admiration from other avant-garde artists. Although categorized with the Art Nouveau, Gaudi created an entirely original style. He died in Barcelona in 1926.

Josep Maria Jujol i Gibert/1879-1949

 With architecture and meaning drifting apart, this little volume comes as a message from another more enlightened world. It was to have appeared in 1979 for the hundredth anniversary of Jujol's birth, but no publisher could be found willing to take the risk-not even in Barcelona. The authors had everything ready: texts, plans, diagrams, their own photographs and layout. Since this first pioneering effort floundered several attractive books on Jujol are available.
 What makes the present one, which is a modest version of the one the authors originally intended, so timely and gratifying, is due to what the authors bring to bear about their singularly endowed subject and, indirectly, why his work is so relevant today. In fact the opening paragraphs put the reader on the right track straight away: In Jujol's world a detail's scope reaches beyond its actual size! Expanding on this pivotal statement the authors tell us that Jujol the architect made spaces in accordance with their use, whilst Jujol the painter bestowed upon them from unexpected moods. His decorations, we read, impart an ambiguous dimension, thus escaping from their usual isolation. In other words, Jujol's decorations are not merely something added which could just as well, or better, be subtracted, but a vital spatial ingredient. Such decorations are infact elaborations which strengthen the physical place-quality of the spaces made refining their appreciated human context. Jujol thus literally prepared his spaces for human use - still, after all, the architects primary job. How painfully different, this, when contrasted with the current sick wish to minimise the value of architectural detail and belittle attention for place-quality on the grounds that this detracts - from the 'big' central concept. Bigness, the latest magic word, is even expected to render architecture no longer necessary. The obvious truth, of course, points to the exact opposite and is one which Jujol in particular substantiated so well: that only through architecture can oversize be successfully tamed - humanised. Architects are obliged to subdue Bigness-gigantism and oversize.

Rafael Moneo/1937-

 Born in May 9 1937,Tudela (Navarra), Spain. Diploma in Architecture E.T.S.A.M. Madrid University School of Architecture in 1961.  

SWEDEN

Erik Gunnar Asplund/1885-1940

 Born in Sweden.

SWITZERLAND

Mario Botta/1943-

 Born in Mendrisio, Switzerland in 1943, Botta trained as a technical draftsman before he studied at the Liceo Artistico in Milan. From 1965-69 he studied at the Istituto Universitario di Architecttura in Venice. During this same period he worked as an assistant to Le Corbusier and, then, to Louis I. Kahn. He opened his own practice in Lugano, Switzerland in 1970.

Jacques Herzog/1950-

 Two architects were chosen to share the 2001 Pritzker Architecture Prize, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland.  The two men, both born in Basel in 1950, have nearly parallel careers, attending the same schools and forming a partnership architectural firm, Herzog & de Meuron in 1978. Perhaps their highest profile project was attained with the completion last year of the conversion of the giant Bankside power plant on the Thames River in London to a new Gallery of Modern Art for the Tate Museum.  It has been widely praised by their peers and the media.   

Pierre de Meuron/1950-

 Two architects were chosen to share the 2001 Pritzker Architecture Prize, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland. Born in Basel in 1950, attending the same schools and forming a partnership architectural firm, Herzog & de Meuron in 1978. Perhaps their highest profile project was attained with the completion last year of the conversion of the giant Bankside power plant on the Thames River in London to a new Gallery of Modern Art for the Tate Museum.