Favorites list: buildings or architects (unordered)

“The Gherkin” (180 m, steel, aluminium and glass) by Norman Foster and ex-partner Ken Shuttleworth.

A distinctive cone-like shape (to reduce the wind turbulence), environmentally sensitive approach to design, its omplex facade lets in air for passive cooling and then vents it as it warms and rises.

map

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe

Tallest brick building in the world (320m), by William van Alen.
Art Deco architecture, the distinctive ornamentation of the tower is based on features that were then being used on Chrysler automobiles.
My favorite classic building.

map

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_building

Founded in 1978 by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, now major figures on the international architecture. They have turned enveloping buildings into an art form. Fascinated by everyday materials, they explore textures, before transforming them into something surprising…
Their vision of architecture is however less concerned with radical innovation than with an uninterrupted and gradual transformation of existing projects.

Prada Store in Tokyo

Walker Art Center’s new addition (Minneapolis, USA)
http://www.architecturemag.com/architecture/reports_analysis/design_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000965987

Allianz arena, Munich, Deutschland

project for the Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany

Austere electrical power plant of Bankside, metamorphosed into the daring Tate Modern (London)

Artist’s impression of the Roche headquarters tower (2011, Basel, Switzerland)

http://193.74.228.82/archinews/012006/newsletter01_en.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzog_%26_de_Meuron

Charles Francis Murphy and Helmut Jahn.
Flamboyant “romantic modernism”, glass façades.

Liberty Place (1990, Philadelphia)

European union headquarters (1998, Brussels, Belgium)

James R. Thompson Center (1985, Chicago)

http://www.murphyjahn.com
http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=145521
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Murphy_%28architect%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Jahn

US architect (Canadian born); sculptural approach to building design. He is best known for building curvaceous structures, often covered with reflective metal. A modern architectural icon and celebrity!
Too famous, too spectacular (vulgar?) architecture, but entertaining!

Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Spain)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

designed by Renzo Piano (who made centre Georges Pompidou in Paris with Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini); cute!
Paul Klee museum in Bern, Switzerland.

http://www.paulkleezentrum.ch/ww/en/pub/web_root.cfm

by architect Richard Rogers
Ugly, scary but fun!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_building

note: Rogers is now building a new skyscraper in London, on 122 Leadenhall Street (just next Lloyd’s building). Completion: 2008. London is really changing face !
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/122_leadenhall.htm

Supposedly postmodern, heavy and almost totalitarian (“nuclear power plant”) style architecture! but can’t help liking it! Pompously funny.

Groupe architectural du Théâtre (1982, Marne-la-Vallée, ~Paris, France)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Bofill

America’s most famous architect, one of the most prominent and influential architects of the first half of the 20th century. Pure and elegant.

Guggenheim Museum (1955, New-York)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Bank of China (Hong Kong)

Pyramide du Louvre (Paris)

Florentine renaissance sculptor, mathematician, engineer and architect who established new classic canons of serene rhythms, clear geometry, and symmetry. Also credited to have invented perspective, which revolutionized painting (his mathematical work led to the invention of linear perspective).

Santa Maria del Fiore “Duomo” (Florence, -1436)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_del_Fiore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunelleschi

(Immutef, Ii-em-Hotep)
A wizard, and the first architect and physician known by name to written history!
Two thousand years after his death, his status was raised to that of a god!
(that’s celebrity!...)

Pyramid of Zoser (27th century BC, Saqqarah, Egypt)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Djzos%C3%A8r

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_architecture

Cathedral de Coutances, France

Catalan architect famous for his unique ‘baroque’ ‘organic’ style.
Over the top, gaudy? (...), too famous? but I like it!

Sagrada Família (1883 – unfinished!, Barcelona, Spain)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Sagrada_Familia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gaudi

http://www.thecityreview.com/skyterra.html