Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano was born on September 14, 1937 in Genoa, Italy, into a family of builders. He graduated from the school of Architecture, Milan Polytechnic in 1964. During his studies, he often worked under the design guidance of Franco Albini, but in his spare time he would work steadily at his fathers building shop. This is where he truly developed a love for the trade. Between the years 1965 and 1970 he worked with many great architects like, Louis I. Kahn, Z. S. Makowsky and Jean Prouve, but the most influential collaboration in Piano's life was that with Richard Rogers in 1971. His collaboration with Rogers lead to many great things. One of which was the "Piano & Rogers" agency. Together Rogers and Piano designed a number of buildings in Italy and in England. Their most famous was the Pompidou Center built in 1972 in Paris, France. This building was designed to hold some of the worlds most beautiful modern art, so naturally the design had to be modern. It is constructed mostly of high-tech steel and glass, with a beautifully designed exoskeleton adding to its complexion (Renzo Piano Building Workshop Official Site). Renzo Piano has designed and brought to life so many structures all over the world. Some of his most famous include Kansai, the world's largest air terminal in Osaka Bay, Japan, where Piano proved himself a master of the gigantic project and again with the imposing Bercy Shopping Center in Paris, as well as a massive and beautiful National Science Museum in Amsterdam. His soccer stadium in Bari, Italy is like no other in the world, with its great swaths of blue sky interrupting the usual monotony of stadium seating. His versatility is displayed further in such projects as the beautiful sweep of a nearly one thousand foot long bridge that curves across Ushibuka Bay in Southern Japan, with the design of a 70,000-ton luxury ocean liner (Great Buildings On-line). In 1998 Piano was selected as the Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This is the professions highest honor which bestows a $100,000.00 cash prize and a gold medallion. The purpose of the Pritzker Architecture Prize is to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.
“On the other side of our barbed wire fence were twenty or thirty Aussie men – as skinny as us – and wearing slouch hats. Unlike the Japs, they had hairy legs. And they were standing in rows – serenading us.”
Andrea Palladio was born in 1508A.D. in Italy. At a very young age he became a stone mason, however his journey into architecture began when he met Gian Giorgio Trissino who immediately saw ability in him and decided to mentor Palladio. Trissino combined a study of classical architecture with architecture of the time, all the while allowing Palladio room to develop a style of his own. In time Palladio was constructing villas through out the country side of Italy, in all he constructed 30 villas, 18 of which are still standing today. Perhaps Palladio’s most famous work was the Villa Rotondra or La Rotondra which was started around 1565 and took approximately 4 years to build and was greatly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. It is interesting to note that la Rotondra is different from Palladio’s other villas in a number of ways, and it is evident that these differences help distinguish it from the rest. The main differences between Palladio’s Rotondra and his other work are, The Rotonda is set on a hilltop, it is located near a...
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA John Philip Sousa was born in 1854, the third child of ten. He was born in Washington, D.C. His parents were immigrants. John Antonio Sousa is his dad. He was originally from Spain, even though his parents were Portuguese in origin.
Frederic Chopin, the Polish composer and pianist, was born on March 1,1810, according to the statements of the artist himself and his family, but according to his baptismal certificate, which was written several weeks after his birth, the date was 22 February. His birthplace was the village of Zelazowa Wola, part of the Duchy of Warsaw.
Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.
Dmitri Shostakovich, born on September 25, 1905, started taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine after he showed interest in a string quartet that practiced next door. He entered the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition until 1925 with Aleksandr Glazunov and Maksimilian Steinberg. He participated in the Chopin International Competition for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honorable mention, after which he decided to limit his public performances to his own works to separate himself from the virtuoso pianists.
In the passage by Igor Stravinsky, he uses not only comparison and contrast, but also language to convey his point of view about the conductors of the time and their extreme egotism. Stravinsky believes that conductors exploit the music for their own personal gain, so rather, he looks on them in a negative light.
The brilliant composer Clara Schumann was born as Clara Josephine Wieck on 13 September 1819. Even before her birth, her destiny was to become a famous musician. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and music dealer, while her mother, Marianne Wieck, was a soprano and a concert pianist and her family was very musically gifted. Her father, Friedrich, wanted to prove to the world that his teaching methods could produce a famous pianist, so he decided, before Clara’s birth, that she would become that pianist. Clara’s father’s wish came true, as his daughter ended up becoming a child prodigy and one of the most famous female composers of her time.
The Seagram building is the prime example of Mies' masterful use of steel. The bronze sheathed skyscraper soars thirty-eight stories high from its 90-foot deep pink granite plaza. Volume is everywhere apparent in this building, from the great columns that bring the structure to the ground to the welded bronze mullions holding the glass sheets in place. As enormous of a project this was, great attention was paid to purity and precision of design, following the fundamentals of the style. Details from doorknobs to stainless steel furniture throughout the building, spacious layout and functional use of all elements from interior office space to shower rooms, the Picasso backdrop signaling the entrance, the cantilevered portico entrance, and the luminous ceiling, make this one of the worlds most elegant skyscrapers. More importantly, pertaining to the International Style, Mies has expressed his elegant use of materials, and technological perfection throughout the building.
First, The Iron magician Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in 1832 in Dijon, France. After graduating from Ecole Centre ale des art et Manufactures he wanted to specialize in metal construction. (Bio) In his early career he oversaw many constructions of bridges and buildings. In 1866 he officially started his own company. After designing the arched gallery of machines for a show for the Paris exhibition in 1867 his name was known. (Bio). His next designs made all the difference in the world. He decided to build the Statue of Liberty and the renowned Eiffel Tower.
CESAR PELLI Cesar Pelli has designed some of the most remarkable buildings in the late 20th century and the American Institute of Architects applauded him as one of the ten most influential living architects, in 1991. HIS LIFE Pelli was born on October 12, 1926, in Tucumán, Argentina. He studied architecture at the University of Tucumán and he earned his Bachelor's of Architecture in 1949. After that, Pelli married Diana Balmori, who founded the firm Balmori Associates.
Guangzhou Opera House is a recently completed building by Zaha Hadid Architects. The project is located in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, completed in 2010. The building’s extreme geometry and the spectacular interior have brought about international awareness and appreciations on its design. Followings are two articles that examine and critique the building. One is “L'auditorium asimmetrico (Asymmetrical Auditorium)”from the architecture journal “Abitare”. The other article is “Crazy Angles, Soaring Steel” by Thomas Lane from the architecture Journal “Building”.
Built in 1889 to commemorate the hundred year anniversary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower has been a topic of discussion for numerous years. Designed by Gustave Eiffel and Morris Koechlin, the Tower was built originally as a temporary structure. The pieces of this eye-catching building were to be disassembled and melted down after twenty years. This did not happen, however. The Eiffel Tower has become a colossal icon throughout the world; the Tower has brought in enormous revenue and has a scientific impact on French and all of Europe’s society.