Álvaro Joaquim de Melo Siza Vieira, or simply Álvaro Siza, was born in Matosinhos, Portugal, on June 25, 1933. His first work – four houses in Matosinhos – was built in 1954, even before completing his studies at the School of Fine Arts from the University of Porto (current Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto – FAUP), which happened a year later.
This year, ArchDaily marks our 10th anniversary as a global platform for architecture. In the past 10 years, we have democratized access to architecture and brought a daily dose of information, knowledge and inspiration to students and professionals.
To celebrate this important milestone, we have compiled a series of projects that recall our iconic logo: the blue three-story, prismatic house. We've curated over 33,543 built projects so far, including classics and flashbacks. We went through this enormous archive of projects and made a note of the ones that amused us and delighted us with their rectangular prism shapes and oddly occurring windows. They remind us of the beloved ArchDaily logo, and we're pleased to see that this shape can take on so many forms, all over the world.
Today is the 80th birthday of renowned architect Michael Graves. Famous for his bold, symbolic references to classical architecture and his use of geometry, Graves is also known as one of the New York Five. His work bridged the abstraction of Modernism and the Postmodernism of the current era.
Graves started his own practice in 1964 in Princeton, New Jersey, and has taught at Princeton’s school of architecture for more than 40 years. A prolific architect, Graves has also met with considerable success as an industrial designer, producing products for companies such as Target and Black & Decker. He is highly decorated, having won such prestigious honors as the Nation Medal of the Arts (1999), the AIA Gold Medal (2001), and the Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture (2012). On the anniversary of his birth, we invite you to look over our collection of some of his best work and check out our video interview with him, after the break.
“My interest has always been in an architecture which reflects the modernity of our epoch as opposed to the rethinking of historical references. My work deals with what is happening now—our techniques and materials, what we are capable of doing today.”
Today is the 69th birthday of the great French architect and designer, Jean Nouvel. The winner of the Wolf Prize in 2005 and the Pritzker of 2008, Nouvel has attempted to design each of his projects without any preconceived notions, resulting in a variety of projects that - while strikingly different - always demonstrate an interesting use of light and shadow as well as a harmonious balance with their surroundings. More on the Pritzker-winning architect, after the break.
His variety of work can be seen in such acclaimed works as the Institut du Monde Arabe and the Fondation Cartier and. Nouvel also has a series of notable projects currently in the works, such as the New Louvre in Abu Dhabi and the National Art Museum of China.
