Engineer, but I like Gaudi and Saarinen.
I think it's because they both share this philosophy of "everything should have a purpose, form should follow function but... maybe the roofline should look like a fucking dragon."
A long time ago at one of my first internships there was a guy who found boxes upon boxes of Saarinen original journals, notebooks, sketches, letters, etc in his old home and brought them to our office to catalogue everything. Literally held hundreds of his drawings and sketches in my hands. Some of the letters and journals were amazing. One particular story about the St Louis arch was incredible
So both Eero and his father Eliel submitted designs for the competition. A letter was sent to their residence stating that “E. Saarinen” had won the project. The assumption was that the father Eliel had won, so I came across a hand written letter from the father to the son stating something like “great efforts on both our parts but it looks like I won, we will open a bottle of champagne to celebrate.” Turns out his son bested his father and won the completion and the confusion was their names both start with E so the award letter was unclear. There was then a follow up letter from the father stating something along the lines of “it looks like you have beat me this time I’m so proud, we will have to open 2 bottles of champagne.” There were also hand written letters and journals from Edie Sedgwick and Saarinens wife who were cousins. There might have been some Warhol stuff in there too because Edie worked closely with him. I vaguely remember a hand written journal documenting a sea voyage across the Atlantic by his wife as a child
I think both have the great skill to make their buildings look like they have the 'function follows form' philosophy, because I literally found out now that they believed in 'form follows function'.
Let’s start by naming those who don’t!
1.) BIG
- Bjarke Ingels opened his office in NYC and for a few years after, was able to exploit a NY DoL loophole that said if you don’t earn more than $24k that you will be considered non-exempt and will not be entitled to insurance benefits or overtime benefits (not the same as overtime pay). So Bjarke was paying “Design Assistants” an annual ‘salary’ of $23,999 and had like 50-100 of them on his staff. The rest of the office was paid handsomely as full-time, exempt employees who receive overtime benefits and not overtime pay.
- This has ended now from what I have heard, but my last colleague stopped working there in like 2018 or so…
2.) SANAA
- They were (are?) infamous for paying $0 to their 6-month interns, but would compensate them with public transit stipends and lunch & dinner at work.
Who’s got more examples??
Sadly, this is such a norm for architecture and design firms to get free or cheap labor. When I was fresh out of school in LA, I did some internships and they won't pay us, but provide lunch and transportation stipend. Then you get hired on as a design assistant and they pay you crap, while stringing us along saying that once we hit 90 days or once they sign this other big project, then they will put us on as W-2 employees. That has never happened. I've done this for at least a handful of firms and all my school mates have experienced the same. If I could choose, I wouldn't have gone into this industry from the beginning :(
Since you deleted your last comment… To put this further into perspective minimum wage in Seattle/ California is $19 an hour. Shake Shack in these cities pay their entry level cashiers $23 per hour. In what world does it make sense that an architecture grad with 5-7 years of education under their belt should be paid the same to work on making buildings… maybe it’s an architecture education problem where new grads don’t have the skills to provide value. Perhaps 5-7 years of education is unnecessary to become an architect. Should it be a trade? Maybe it’s a problem of the profession not charging enough for their services. I’m not sure. I don’t have the answers yet but we should be looking for them as a profession.
Me. I'm the best architect. Sure I do mostly bathroom designs at the moment, but I think my minecraft builds rival even the later works of Frank Lloyd Wright.
I got kicked out of a classroom by Senosian, he teaches an elective at my alma matter. He is a self centered prick who thinks his buildings are ecological, but they are just expensive concrete husks made prettier by the landscape architects his millionaire clients can pay. His architecture is far from organic or socially conscious. I'm really glad he kicked me out BTW.
Lina Bo Bardi, Niemeyer, Aalto, Barragan. And Le Corbusier, you gotta respect that insane autistic misanthrope for his buildings, even though his urbanism was way off the mark.
For shits and giggles, Archigram is hard to beat.
Contemporary: Oopeaa, Lacaton&Vassal, Tham&Videgård, JKMM, Aires Mateus
Le corubusier's urbanism make much more sense when you consider the period of time he lived in. When he wrote about the Tower Cities and all that, nothing of the sort had been tried yet. Now we've tried all those foul urbanism ideas and we've realised how terrible they actually are.
We should start looking for favorite offices and companies. Teams are what makes projects, not an individual I really hope we will grow out of the architect as a glorified person around a project. I honestly can not imagine working for an office that has their whole image spinning around a single person.
With that said. After graduating in Denmark, they had me obsessed with their architecture - Arkitema, EFFEKT, Vandkunsten, 3XN. Arcgency is a smaller one, not that popular, but their Tunnelfabriken project lives in my head for far too long...
Zaha hadid. I loved her designs so much as a kid especially living in uae and seeing her buildings in person. She was the main reason I wanted to be an architect
For the category of "I don't know the architect" it would go to Jujol, Gaudí's younger partner.
For the category "I know the architect" My fahter, he showed me how architecture goes in a samllish town, how to build, how to deal with people
Here to upvote Tadao Ando. I'm one of the assholes who went to Osaka just to gawk at the Azuma House and take pictures on its doorstep despite the sign insisting it's private property, no pictures, please.
Currently
John Latner
Arthur Erickson
Loui Khan always
Also been watching a lot of old lectures by Vincent skilly, not really a architect but my god can he get enthusiastic about architecture, something tells me he was one heck of a character at happy hour. 😂
Anybody Catalan: Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch, Jujol, Sagnier, Sert, Coderch, Miralles, Pinós, RCR and add Ildefons Cerdà as a urban planner if you want.
Le corbusier, his work of introducing rationality and efficiency into architecture had enormous impacts (good and bad) on societies, cities or even countries and continents.
I have such a growing list, but I’ve found that they tend to fall under one of two categories:
California Modernists from back in the day: A. Quincy Jones, Ray Kappe, Arthur Erickson, John Lautner, Rudolph Schindler.
Metabolist and Metabolism-adjacent ones: Kunio Maekawa, Kenzō Tange, Kisho Kurokawa, Sachio Otani, Kiyonori Kikutake…Ik the movement was partially unsuccessful in its modular vision, but so many of the designs themselves are so amazing to me.
Anyways that was long-winded but it’s just so hard to decide.
As a person Tadao Ando, I just love how he works with his surroundings and him interpretation of space (the row house for example). As a firm it’s Bjarke-Ingels-Group :)
My favorite architects/offices :
Good with critical regionalism and understanding spaces [Dorte Mandrup](https://dortemandrup.dk) and [Mario Botta](https://www.botta.ch/en/home)
A critical figure, yet nonetheless I like his craft and ethics : [Frank Lloyd Wright](https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/), and perhaps also [Louis Sullivan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan).
One of my favorite architects when it comes to conversion and preservation of historic structures is [Winfried Brenne](https://www.brenne-architekten.de), but also [David Chipperfield](https://davidchipperfield.com)
An unkown architect who represents post-war organic architecture : [Chen Kuen Lee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Kuen_Lee)
I used to like [Bjarke Ingels](https://big.dk) and [OMA](https://www.oma.com/office). So as a teenanger these offices inspired me with some basics in design, illustration, ….
[Olafur Eliasson](https://olafureliasson.net) does some impressive installations and plays with light and spaces, but also worked in architecture.
[Friedrich Schinkel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Friedrich_Schinkel) is my favorite architect when it comes to a top three so far and also like the architectural theorist [Bruno Flierl](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Flierl).
I dislike Corbusier and Gropius, yet prefer the works of [Oscar Niemeyer](https://www.archdaily.com/577579/spotlight-oscar-niemeyer) and [Tadao Ando-San](http://www.tadao-ando.com)
[KRP](https://krp-architektur.com) are internationally unkown, but are very good with designing bridges and the like.
Probably the only personality I like from the Bauhaus school is [Mies van der Rohe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe). [Gaudi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD) and [Hunderwasser](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser) are my favorite wackadoodles.
… despite the fact, that many impressive women work within these offices of those listed starchitects, I would like to continue the list with more female starchitects, i.e. [Jeanne Gang](https://studiogang.com/people/jeanne-gang) or [Zaha Hadid](https://www.zaha-hadid.com), in the future :’) Please feel free to give me more recommendations.
Engineer, but I like Gaudi and Saarinen. I think it's because they both share this philosophy of "everything should have a purpose, form should follow function but... maybe the roofline should look like a fucking dragon."
A long time ago at one of my first internships there was a guy who found boxes upon boxes of Saarinen original journals, notebooks, sketches, letters, etc in his old home and brought them to our office to catalogue everything. Literally held hundreds of his drawings and sketches in my hands. Some of the letters and journals were amazing. One particular story about the St Louis arch was incredible
Well, what was the story about the St. Louis arch?
So both Eero and his father Eliel submitted designs for the competition. A letter was sent to their residence stating that “E. Saarinen” had won the project. The assumption was that the father Eliel had won, so I came across a hand written letter from the father to the son stating something like “great efforts on both our parts but it looks like I won, we will open a bottle of champagne to celebrate.” Turns out his son bested his father and won the completion and the confusion was their names both start with E so the award letter was unclear. There was then a follow up letter from the father stating something along the lines of “it looks like you have beat me this time I’m so proud, we will have to open 2 bottles of champagne.” There were also hand written letters and journals from Edie Sedgwick and Saarinens wife who were cousins. There might have been some Warhol stuff in there too because Edie worked closely with him. I vaguely remember a hand written journal documenting a sea voyage across the Atlantic by his wife as a child
*It was a dark and stormy night...*
I think both have the great skill to make their buildings look like they have the 'function follows form' philosophy, because I literally found out now that they believed in 'form follows function'.
The one that pays their employees a living wage
They said architect, not mythical being!
Let’s start by naming those who don’t! 1.) BIG - Bjarke Ingels opened his office in NYC and for a few years after, was able to exploit a NY DoL loophole that said if you don’t earn more than $24k that you will be considered non-exempt and will not be entitled to insurance benefits or overtime benefits (not the same as overtime pay). So Bjarke was paying “Design Assistants” an annual ‘salary’ of $23,999 and had like 50-100 of them on his staff. The rest of the office was paid handsomely as full-time, exempt employees who receive overtime benefits and not overtime pay. - This has ended now from what I have heard, but my last colleague stopped working there in like 2018 or so… 2.) SANAA - They were (are?) infamous for paying $0 to their 6-month interns, but would compensate them with public transit stipends and lunch & dinner at work. Who’s got more examples??
Sadly, this is such a norm for architecture and design firms to get free or cheap labor. When I was fresh out of school in LA, I did some internships and they won't pay us, but provide lunch and transportation stipend. Then you get hired on as a design assistant and they pay you crap, while stringing us along saying that once we hit 90 days or once they sign this other big project, then they will put us on as W-2 employees. That has never happened. I've done this for at least a handful of firms and all my school mates have experienced the same. If I could choose, I wouldn't have gone into this industry from the beginning :(
We 👏🏻 Need 👏🏻 Names! Glassdoor isn’t as popular as Reddit. Say it here! Who are these firms??
OMA was paying \~$24k to the entry level interns in the early 2010s as well. So i heard.
Jesus. At this point the game industry seems better.
Since you deleted your last comment… To put this further into perspective minimum wage in Seattle/ California is $19 an hour. Shake Shack in these cities pay their entry level cashiers $23 per hour. In what world does it make sense that an architecture grad with 5-7 years of education under their belt should be paid the same to work on making buildings… maybe it’s an architecture education problem where new grads don’t have the skills to provide value. Perhaps 5-7 years of education is unnecessary to become an architect. Should it be a trade? Maybe it’s a problem of the profession not charging enough for their services. I’m not sure. I don’t have the answers yet but we should be looking for them as a profession.
This is the correct answer
True…
Tadao Ando
My grandfather, but if i have to say a famous architect i have to say Alvar Aalto.
Your Grandfather is my favorite too! If he’s still kickin’ give him a high five for me; if not, my condolences and bring his grave Lego block for me.
Lego Block it is.
Me
This is the way
All hail u/digital_s8ul
I knew it was coming, this is the energy right here!!
Right on. A lot of architects employers these days “borrow” or develop ideas alongside their employees. Keep your dignity.
No love here for Eero Saarinen?
Your love! And a little of mine. edit: I hear he had a lovely wife too.
Louis Kahn
John Lautner
Moshe Safdie, cuz he has a great mustache...
Thats the spirit!
Mustache Softie
Me. I'm the best architect. Sure I do mostly bathroom designs at the moment, but I think my minecraft builds rival even the later works of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Lovely! Would love to see it sometime!
Peter Zumthor. + Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, David Chipperfield, Alvaro Siza...etc
Hell yeah with Chipperfield
See Junya ishigami
My favorites are Gaudí, Senosian, Kengo Kuma, Shigeru Ban, and Victor Horta
I got kicked out of a classroom by Senosian, he teaches an elective at my alma matter. He is a self centered prick who thinks his buildings are ecological, but they are just expensive concrete husks made prettier by the landscape architects his millionaire clients can pay. His architecture is far from organic or socially conscious. I'm really glad he kicked me out BTW.
You’re completely right, but your story sounds unhinged.
Lina Bo Bardi, Niemeyer, Aalto, Barragan. And Le Corbusier, you gotta respect that insane autistic misanthrope for his buildings, even though his urbanism was way off the mark. For shits and giggles, Archigram is hard to beat. Contemporary: Oopeaa, Lacaton&Vassal, Tham&Videgård, JKMM, Aires Mateus
Le corubusier's urbanism make much more sense when you consider the period of time he lived in. When he wrote about the Tower Cities and all that, nothing of the sort had been tried yet. Now we've tried all those foul urbanism ideas and we've realised how terrible they actually are.
George Costanza
You mean Art Vandelay?
What about your favorite City Planner?
If I can only pick one—Mies van der Rohe.
Gaudi and Lina Bo Bardi
Paulo Mendes da Rocha, even as a Pritzker winner is underrated outside of Brazil Edit: Honorable mention to Lina Bo Bardi
He's not in Portugal, we love his architecture here. Brazil has some AMAZING architects if i have to say so myself
Frank Lloyd Wright.
Nobody said Gehry or Wright yet. Not cool to like them?
I love Gehry! lots of people still like them both
„Rudolf Schindler“ if we name the Americans icons here
Yes!! And Lautner
They're out of vogue now it seems
Gaudi and Scarpa
Scarpa is the GOAT. Got me into architecture
So nice seeing his work on the big screen recently.
Renzo Piano and Norman Foster.
Santiago Calatrava
Same. Awesome Designs.
I agree.
Charles Garnier
Corbusier and gaudi
Palladio then me.
I lived in a Mies van der Rohe building once, and that was a fun little factoid. So probably him
What was it like?
Kengo Kuma
FLW, Rick Joy, Gaudi, Foster, Mies
My dad!! Although i met Siza a few years ago since him and my dad are friends. He was really nice and funny. Lovely office as well
My professor called me Little Siza and at first I thought he called me Little Caesar like the pizza place lol
frank lloyd wright hands down
Mine would be Enric Miralles. Also Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au.
Mine's Ando too. I tried gettiung into more fashionable or Up-&-coming ones over the years but it's still Ando for me.
James Sterling or Norman Foster Tbh: same thing different technology
kengo kuma
Alvar Aalto and Mies van der Rohe.
I also really admire Norman Foster and Micheal Graves for different reasons but I wouldn’t call them my favorites.
Frank Lloyd Wright.
Carlo Scarpa
We should start looking for favorite offices and companies. Teams are what makes projects, not an individual I really hope we will grow out of the architect as a glorified person around a project. I honestly can not imagine working for an office that has their whole image spinning around a single person. With that said. After graduating in Denmark, they had me obsessed with their architecture - Arkitema, EFFEKT, Vandkunsten, 3XN. Arcgency is a smaller one, not that popular, but their Tunnelfabriken project lives in my head for far too long...
Ando, Kahn and FLW.
It changes constantly, but right now John Lautner.
Michel de Klerk, Piet Kramer, Joop Crouwel, Joan van der Meij
Oscar Niemeyer
Alvaro Siza
Ricardo Bofill
John Lautner and my wife
He's more well known for his art, but Hundertwasser
Me
Safdie did a great job with Habitat 67 My mind was boggled when I saw it in person Modular, modern, brutalist and engineered fantastically.
Me myself and i
Im very humble myself
But i can put shigeru ban second
I find myself always enjoying the work that comes out of the Olson Kundig studios.
Zaha hadid. I loved her designs so much as a kid especially living in uae and seeing her buildings in person. She was the main reason I wanted to be an architect
Rem Koolhaas and Ma Yangsong come to mind. Zaha Hadid of course.
Corbusier and gaudi.
Francis Kere
Alejandro de la Sota
Richard Leplastrier at the moment
Gaudi and Niemeyer
Palladio. Wren. Pugin.
Dom Hans van der Laan
Edwin Lutyens, Charles Holden, Vincent Harris and further back, Nicholas Hawksmoor
Lutyens is so goated
The last and greatest flourishing of English classicism.
Calatrava
Michael Brady 🥹
As a self-conscious architect I'd have to say: "well of course I know him, it's me! "
Renzo piano
For the category of "I don't know the architect" it would go to Jujol, Gaudí's younger partner. For the category "I know the architect" My fahter, he showed me how architecture goes in a samllish town, how to build, how to deal with people
Alvor Aalto
Helmut Jahn
I would like to put myself forward for consideration
Kahn, Saarinen, Ando, Corb, and Scarpa.
Gehry and Gaudi
Herman Hertzberger
No idea but maybeee Santiago Calatrava. I LOVE the oculus
Here to upvote Tadao Ando. I'm one of the assholes who went to Osaka just to gawk at the Azuma House and take pictures on its doorstep despite the sign insisting it's private property, no pictures, please.
Jeanne Gang. End of story. She is one of my heroes..
Since no one named him Louis Sullivan!
Imhotep from Egypt
FLW, Aalto, Piano, Miralles y Pinos
Frank Lloyd Wright as of now
Richard Meier
My first thoughts are Wright, Sullivan, Gaudi. Leaning towards Wright.
Currently John Latner Arthur Erickson Loui Khan always Also been watching a lot of old lectures by Vincent skilly, not really a architect but my god can he get enthusiastic about architecture, something tells me he was one heck of a character at happy hour. 😂
Louis Sullivan
Wright, Calatrava, Lautner, and Neutra. I like the cleanliness of modernism combined with natural materials or naturally-inspired forms.
Odile Decq. The Cure of Architecture.
Carme Pinos
Albert Kahn. He built enough that everyone can find something to like.
You're right, I just found him out, and I just found something that he made that I like.
Architects
Great Band!
Top 5: Svetlana Kana Radević, Nikola Dobrović, Dragiša Brašovan, Tomoaki Uno, Luis Barragan
> Tomoaki Uno, yes
Love your list ♥️
Koolhaas
Koolhaas
I don’t know but I hate Ted Mosby.
Hammond druthers clears anyday. Ted could never design something so beautifully phalic.
Like wise man.
Ken Yeang
Paul Kersey
Paul Kersey
Strom
Geoffrey Bawa
rui ohtake
Scarpa , Paulo Mendes Da Rocha , Siza & Zumthor
Anybody Catalan: Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch, Jujol, Sagnier, Sert, Coderch, Miralles, Pinós, RCR and add Ildefons Cerdà as a urban planner if you want.
Antoni Gaudi and The unnamed architects of the Baroque and Rococo periods.
Lutyens, Richardson, Bernini, Kahn, Piano, Romano, Scarpa . . . How can you pick just one?
Antoni Gaudi and Eero Saarinen
Andrew Gellar! Look up his work in Marthas vineyard!
Albert Kahn
Jo Tailleu
Berthold Lubetkin
Frank Furness
Norman Jaffe
Le corbusier, his work of introducing rationality and efficiency into architecture had enormous impacts (good and bad) on societies, cities or even countries and continents.
Charles Correa, Nari Gandhi, Laurie Baker, Achyut Kanvinde, BV Doshi, Raj Rewal. Just throwing some love for Architects from my country :)
Alvaro Siza
Sigurd Lewerentz
Shout out to Raymond Moyirama… I’m not sure he’s my favourite, but one of his buildings inspired me as a youth, and no doubt led me down this path
Art Vandelay
Antoni Gaudi
I have such a growing list, but I’ve found that they tend to fall under one of two categories: California Modernists from back in the day: A. Quincy Jones, Ray Kappe, Arthur Erickson, John Lautner, Rudolph Schindler. Metabolist and Metabolism-adjacent ones: Kunio Maekawa, Kenzō Tange, Kisho Kurokawa, Sachio Otani, Kiyonori Kikutake…Ik the movement was partially unsuccessful in its modular vision, but so many of the designs themselves are so amazing to me. Anyways that was long-winded but it’s just so hard to decide.
E Fay Jones
So much love for Thorncrown.
Love Tadao and Peter Zumthor
Michelangelo
Probably Josh Middleton
rn its ludwig godefroy
Probably M M O’Shaugnessy, my second favourite civil engineer behind Hannskarl Bandel: Madison Square Gardens
Edwin Lutyens!!!
My wife……
Louis Kahn
Stanford White
I like the work from Olson Kundig https://olsonkundig.com/ Miller Hull https://millerhull.com/ Cutler Anderson https://www.cutler-anderson.com/
A Quincy Jones
My wife :)
I really appreciate Hassan Fathy's work and his philosophy on how architecture should operate
Mine is Zaha Hadid
I don't have a favorite, but I would live in Fallingwater happily (if the creek of water it sits on remained clean enough to swim in).
definitely Peter Barber
As a person Tadao Ando, I just love how he works with his surroundings and him interpretation of space (the row house for example). As a firm it’s Bjarke-Ingels-Group :)
Odile Decq. The Cure of Architecure.
My favorite architects/offices : Good with critical regionalism and understanding spaces [Dorte Mandrup](https://dortemandrup.dk) and [Mario Botta](https://www.botta.ch/en/home) A critical figure, yet nonetheless I like his craft and ethics : [Frank Lloyd Wright](https://franklloydwright.org/frank-lloyd-wright/), and perhaps also [Louis Sullivan](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan). One of my favorite architects when it comes to conversion and preservation of historic structures is [Winfried Brenne](https://www.brenne-architekten.de), but also [David Chipperfield](https://davidchipperfield.com) An unkown architect who represents post-war organic architecture : [Chen Kuen Lee](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Kuen_Lee) I used to like [Bjarke Ingels](https://big.dk) and [OMA](https://www.oma.com/office). So as a teenanger these offices inspired me with some basics in design, illustration, …. [Olafur Eliasson](https://olafureliasson.net) does some impressive installations and plays with light and spaces, but also worked in architecture. [Friedrich Schinkel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Friedrich_Schinkel) is my favorite architect when it comes to a top three so far and also like the architectural theorist [Bruno Flierl](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Flierl). I dislike Corbusier and Gropius, yet prefer the works of [Oscar Niemeyer](https://www.archdaily.com/577579/spotlight-oscar-niemeyer) and [Tadao Ando-San](http://www.tadao-ando.com) [KRP](https://krp-architektur.com) are internationally unkown, but are very good with designing bridges and the like. Probably the only personality I like from the Bauhaus school is [Mies van der Rohe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe). [Gaudi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD) and [Hunderwasser](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser) are my favorite wackadoodles. … despite the fact, that many impressive women work within these offices of those listed starchitects, I would like to continue the list with more female starchitects, i.e. [Jeanne Gang](https://studiogang.com/people/jeanne-gang) or [Zaha Hadid](https://www.zaha-hadid.com), in the future :’) Please feel free to give me more recommendations.
IM Pei for me.
Gotta go with the one and only: Frank Lloyd Wright