Aalvar Aalto is arguably one of the most important architects of the 20th century. He is known for his all-around care for the design of buildings, and often not only designs the exterior but individual interior features as well. He designed a total of six buildings in Germany, one of them being Heilig Geist Kirche, an Evangelistic Luthern church in Wolfsburg, Germany. Aalto was asked to design this church on November 5, 1958, and it was completed four years later in 1962.
Completed in 1994, the Igualada Cemetery was designed by Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos to be a place of reflection and memories. After 10 years of construction, their envision of a new type of cemetery was completed and began to consider those that were laid to rest, as well as the families that still remained.
The Igualada Cemetery is understood by the architects to be a “city of the dead” where the dead and the living are brought closer together in spirit. As much as the project is a place for those to be laid to rest, it is a place for those to come and reflect in the solitude and serenity of the Catalonian landscape of Barcelona, Spain. More on the project after the break.
Stephanuskirche, translated to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Stephen, was designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1968. It is located in Wolfsburg, Germany, the same town that Aalto’s Wolfsburg Cultural Center was built. Stephanuskirche is among the prominent architectural testimonies of International Modernism in Germany.
With its undulating façade and surrealist sculptural roof, Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Milà appears more organic than artificial, as if it were carved straight from the ground. Known as La Pedera, the quarry, the building was inspired by the Modernista movement, Spain’s version of Art Nouveau..
In 1930, Le Corbusier was tasked with designing a dormitory that would house Swiss students at the Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris. At first the architect and Pierre Jeanneret, his partner at the time, refused to take on the project due to tensions with the Swiss after their handling of the architects' proposal for the League of Nations competition. Eventually, however, they agreed to see it through and worked on a very limited budget, which led the building to become a summation of Le Corbusier's modern principles, forcing him to focus on dwelling before all else.
In the commune of Bazoches-sur-Guyonnes, about 40 kilometers southwest of Paris, sits one of the most important private houses designed by Alvar Aalto: Maison Louis Carré. The client, Louis Carré, was a prominent French art dealer who was also very interested in architecture. He desired a house that would be able to accommodate many guests for art viewings, but also incorporated a private component. He commissioned Aalto to design his house in 1956, and Louis Carré and his wife, Olga, were able to move into their new home three years later.
The Boa Nova Tea House, one of Siza's earliest commissions, was awarded to him in 1956. His collaborator, Fernando Tavora, had won the competition for the project and passed it onto Alvaro Siza. Its location close to Siza's home town had its significance, especially due to the architect's intimate familiarity with the landscape. This is noticed in his incorporation of the rock formation, the ocean, and the greenery within the project, revealing a vivid understanding of the qualities of the local landscape. Alongside the Leça Swimming Pools, this project represents the foundation of Siza's architecture with a compelling regard for nature.
The Odate Jukai Dome in the Akita Prefecture of Japan was completed by Toyo Ito in June 1997. The project is another example of the architect's impressive canon, making use of cutting edge technology and bringing architecture closer to people. Seemingly floating a few meters above the ground, the dome leaves space for the people to flow in comfortably, while the use of wood is itself a way of bringing nature into architecture while adopting the latest technological advancements.
The city of Yatsushiro is known in Japan as a home for exemplary architecture - the legacy at least in part of Artpolis, a plan by the government of the Kumamoto Prefecture to seek out a range of talented architects to design cultural buildings in the cities of the region. Though the Artpolis scheme has been running for the past 22 years, perhaps its most successful building was completed back in 1991, with the construction of Toyo Ito's Yatsushiro Municipal Museum.
Toyo Ito was commissioned for this building by his older sister after her husband sadly lost his battle with cancer in the 1970s. Having lived for a number of years in a high-rise apartment, she and her two young daughters wished to move to a site which had more connection to the ground; as luck would have it, the site next to Ito's own house was being sold at the time.
Known for his conceptual designs, Japanese architect Toyo Ito is arguably one of the world's most innovative architects. He began his architectural career with a project for his sister in 1976 called "The U House," located in the center of Tokyo. The U House contained windows on the inside facing a courtyard instead of the typical outward-facing windows. This was Ito's first experimentation with the ways that light enters buildings, and he expanded this idea to an even greater extent in his next project: the Silver Hut in Nakano, Tokyo.
Read about the Silver Hut after the break.
The Tower of Winds is a project largely indicative of Toyo Ito's approach to architecture, particularly his belief in the importance of technology and its vital role in the future of architecture. The project not only embraces technology and involves it in a dialogue with the city, but also establishes a direct symbolic relationship between nature and the installation.
The Marin County Civic Center was Frank Lloyd Wright's last commission and largest public project, including several civic functions that would serve Marin County and San Francisco, which after the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge became closer than ever. Wright was selected for the project in 1957, winning a vote out of hope he would be able to best represent a democratic government open to the people through the Civic Center.
Designed in 1984 for artist Lynn Norton and writer William Norton, Frank Gehry’s Norton House is known for its eccentric form and eclectic materiality. Much like his own house in Santa Monica, the Norton House is a sculptural assemblage of everyday materials. The Nortons had in fact seen Gehry’s house in 1983 and obviously approved of his experiment. So, a year later, they commissioned him to design their house on a narrow, ocean-facing plot of land on Venice Boardwalk. With the commission, Gehry continued his exploration of creating architecture with everyday materials, low costs, and sculptural forms.
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La Muralla Roja, Spanish for 'The Red Wall,' is a housing project located within the La Manzanera development in Spain's Calpe. The building makes clear references to the popular architecture of the Arab Mediterranean Area, a result of the architects' inspiration by the Mediterranean tradition of the casbah. The striking colors that cover the outer and inner facades are selected to either contrast with nature or complement its purity.
One of many large experiments in housing conducted by Taller de Arquitectura, Xanadú is an experimental prototype that reflects on the team's theory of a garden city in space. Built as part of the La Manzanera development, which also houses the nearby La Muralla Roja , the project contains 18 apartments intended to be summer homes.
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