Ieoh Ming Pei, a Chinese American architect, is perhaps one of the greatest architects of the 20th century. He has designed some of the most beautiful interiors and exteriors in not only the United States but all around the world. Pei has traveled extensively all around the world in an effort to explore and expand his knowledge in architecture. Unlike most architects he does not limit himself to and one specific aspect of architecture its self, but has done everything from libraries and museums to even low income properties. Pei is the last living person in the modernism style of architecture to have connections with the great early architects such as Le Corbusier, Mies can der Roke, and Gropius. He has won several prestigious awards in recognition of all of his magnificent work he has accomplished. At the late age of 97 years old he still continues to work and contribute to architecture in a big way today.
Ieoh Ming Pei was born in China on April 26, 1917. From a young age Pei had rigorous schooling, which eventually allowed him to come to America where he was accepted to many prestigious schools. He initially attended the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in architecture, but later decided to transfer to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When he made the switch he switched his major engineering, but after talking with his professors he decided to switch back to his initial architecture major. Pei would end up graduating from MIT with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1940 at the young age of 17. After receiving his initial degree, he decided to further his education and attend Harvard's Graduate School of Design. However, because of WWII Pei decided to put his education on hold and joined the...
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...e area so it may be complimented by its surroundings.
Ieoh Ming Pei is one of the greatest architects today. He has contributed to the architectural community extensively and has been recognized for this great work. He has worked in several different countries and created more than 70 buildings, that all continue to challenge him as an architect. No other architect has accomplished so much and for such a great length of time, which is why Pei received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, a lifetime achievement award that recognizes his accomplishments in the field of architecture. Pei also received the Pritzker Prize, which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture in 1983. He was a part of a generation of architects that brought the world some of the most amazing architectural forms and designs that helped shape modernism into what it has become today.
Peter’s international traveling experiences are what I believe to have carried him through his career. Though he attended two great Universities, he got his best education from the real world experiences he obtained through travel. Peter grew up as a small town boy who had a passion for outdoors. By traveling, he was able to find his true style and colors; those aspects are what guided him through his 40 year career as an impactful and memorable architect. At age 67, he tragically passed away from a heart attack while cross country skiing in January of 2009. Though he left the earth that day, he left doing something he loved. And what he left behind was far more vast than any of his monumental creations.
Feng Ru worked hard on improving aviation in China as it states in the story he “rarely finished work before 3 A.M”(Maskel). This quote shows that he worked tirelessly to be China’s aviator to impact his country. In Feng Ru’s story the Father of Chinese Aviation it states that “San Francisco’s massive earthquake and resulting fire forced him to relocate to Oakland instead”(Maskel). “Feng erected his workshop—a 10- by eight-foot shack”(Maskel). These quotes show that he was forced to deal with a small work space but he would not give up no matter what. Through all of Feng’s up’s and down’s he fought through it and became the father of Chinese aviation by working hard just like Melba Pattillo
Zheng He was a Muslim eunuch who served as a close confidant of the Yongle Emperor of China during the Ming Dynasty.
To this day, Eichler is known as one of the nation’s most influential architects of modern homes. He was one of very few architects relevant in the Modernism Movement. Modernism opened up alternatives to suburban styles of home design, and created different kinds of architecture that pleased the desired lifestyle. This modernist architecture was able to thrive in the ways that it did as many families were looking to start over after the war. Modernist architects, similar to Eichler, were inspired industrial building techniques and the radical new forms of painting and sculpture in this age. Many people went along with the “make it new” phenomenon and appreciated these radical forms.
In 1403, Yongle planned construction of a fleet to deepen their knowledge of the world. The governance of the fleet was given to his good friend Zheng He. Two years later, sixty boat had been built. The final armada had roughly 300 boats.
Chien-Shiung Wu then began to teach and National Chekiang University. She started her first science project on X-ray crystallography in 1935 and 1936. While in this project, she got supervised by Jing-Wei Gu. Gu talked Wu into continuing her graduating studies in the University of California in Berkeley. In the University, she met her soon-to-be husband. ( Luke
Pei was born in China in 1917 and immigrated to the United States in 1935. He originally attended the University of Pennsylvania but grew unconfident in his drawing skills so he dropped out and pursued engineering at MIT. After Pei decided to return to architecture, he earned degrees from both MIT and Harvard. In 1956, after he had taught at Harvard for three years, he established I.M. Pei & Partners, an architectural firm that has been known as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners since 1989. This firm is famous for its successful and rational solutions to a variety of design problems. They are responsible for many of the largest pubic and private construction projects in the second half of this century. Some of these projects include the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library in Boston, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Both of them later went to teach in the Harvard school of design, there, their collaboration produced great works of architecture and these include; Aluminum terrace city in Pennsylvania, New Kensington, and the famous Frank house located in Pittsburg.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, later addressed as Mies, was born in the German town of Aix La Chapelle. At a young age he gained fundamental experience in the craftsman’s tradition and skills, later after commissioning his first project as an independent architect, Mies “executed in the then popular traditional style of steep roofs, gables and dormer windows with precision and careful attention to detail.” Next, he had the opportunity to train under Peter Behrens, where Mies learned to appreciate order and fine detail, as well as new ideas on proportion, simplicity, and the use of steel and glass. Mies acquired a romantic language from Behrens that derived from “ his domestic architecture from Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It was characterized by a unique sense of rhythm and proportion, a purity of form, and a nobility that stemmed from the practice of placing structures on wide platforms or pedestals.” T...
Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, who was a pioneer in the modern style, is considered one of the greatest figures in 20th-century architecture. Wright was born June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. When he entered the University of Wisconsin in 1884 his interest in architecture had already acknowledged itself. The university offered no courses in his chosen field; however, he enrolled in civil engineering and gained some practical experience by working part time on a construction project at the university. In 1887 he left school and went to Chicago where he became a designer for the firm of Adler and Sullivan with a pay of twenty-five dollars a week. Soon Wright became Louis Sullivan’s chief assistant. Louis Sullivan, Chicago based architect, one of America’s advanced designers. Louis had a profound influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was assigned most of the firm’s home projects, but to pay his many debts he designed ‘Bootlegged Houses’ for private clients in his spare time. Sullivan disapproved, resulting in Wright leaving the firm in 1893 to establish his own office in Chicago.
It appears that from the very beginning, Frank Lloyd Wright was destined by fate or determination to be one of the most celebrated architects of the twentieth century. Not only did Wright possess genius skills in the spatial cognition, his approach to architecture through geometric manipulation demonstrates one aspect of his creativeness. Forever a great businessman, Wright seemed to know how to please his clients and still produce some of the most innovative and ridiculed buildings of the early century. While the United States appeared to be caught up in the Victorian style, Frank Lloyd Wright stepped out in front to face the challenge of creating "American architecture" which would reflect the lives of the rapidly growing population of the Midwest United States. Howard Gardner in his book "Creating Minds" does not make any mention of Frank Lloyd Wright, an innovator who drastically influenced architecture of the twentieth century around the world.
Norman Foster is a British architect who was born in Manchester in 1935. He graduated from University School of Architecture (Manchester) in 1961 and won a scholarship to study Master’s Degree in Architecture at Yale University. Later in 1967 he teamed up with 4 other peers and established a practice called Foster + Partners which was founded in London and is now one of the most well-known international design practices.
Tadao Ando is an architect of light, a master of space, and a builder for mankind. His work, realized primarily in precisely finished reinforced concrete, unifies building and nature to create a deep sense of sanctuary. Ando was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. From the age of 10 to 17, he was employed as a carpenter, learning to work in wood in the Japanese tradition. His interest in architecture began when he obtained a book of Le Corbusier sketches when he was about 18. Ando is a self-taught architect. He apprenticed for brief periods with local designers and city planners, but primarily developed his skills by reading extensively, studying Japanese shrines, temples and tea houses, and making study
What has surprised me the most, was just how influential Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs were and that some of the buildings that I adored were actually designed Wright himself. During my research, I found out that not only did Wright design stateside, but had just as many international projects as well. Out of all the international projects I looked up, my personal favorite has to be the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. I never would have imagined someone coming up with a design to give a modern look to fit in with an ancient Asian architecture but Wright has once again blown my mind with this stunning and majestic design. It may just be a hotel but it looks like it is capable of becoming the Emperor’s own personal palace. The way how Frank Lloyd Wright is able to come up with these architectural designs just amazes me.
With the interaction between the development of computational approaches in architecture and the contemporary forms of spatial design intelligence, some new architectural design theories emerged to make differences between architects and control designing processes. These theories are almost employed in all designing realms, from architecture to urban design to provide fields of ideas and solutions that privilege by complexity. Most of these theories are oriented to relay on understanding and using computational methods to generate exotic and complex geometries. In this respect, three of these theories will discussed and tested against three buildings. The theories are: parametric design, genetic architecture and emergence, which characterize some of the contemporary architectural design approaches.