The document summarizes 10 famous architects from around the world. It provides brief biographies on each architect, highlighting some of their most notable works. The architects featured are Antoni Gaudí, Frank Gehry, Philip Johnson, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Michael Graves, Le Corbusier, and Daniel Libeskind. Each played a pivotal role in shaping modern architecture through groundbreaking designs and innovative styles.

1. INTRODUCTION
NAME: FAIZ ARSHAD
ID NO: 481-2015

2. TOP 10 ARCHITECTS IN THE WORLD

3. “We shape our buildings;
thereafter they shape us,”
Winston Churchill (former British
Prime Minister and sometime
painter)

4. Antoni Gaudí
• Gaudí spent his entire career in Barcelona, where he built
all of his projects, the most famous of which is the 1883
cathedral known as La Sagrada Familia, still under
construction today. His style was an ornate mix of Baroque,
Gothic, Moorish and Victorian elements that often featured
ornamental tile-work, and drew upon forms found in
nature—an influence that can he seen in the tree-like
columns holding up the vast interior of his church, as well
as the undulating facade of another of his famous
creations, the apartment block known as the Casa Milla
(inspired by the multi-peaked mountain just outside of
Barcelona called Montserrat). Gaudí’s work would go on to
have a tremendous impact on subsequent generations of
modernists.

6. Frank Gehry
• This West Coast architect is undoubtedly the most famous
in the world right now, thanks to his 1997 design for the
Guggenheim Museum branch in Bilbao, Spain. Though
Gehry was already well-established in his field as the
auteur billowing forms that seem to defy gravity and the
logic of conventional construction methods, The
Guggenheim Bilbao remains the finest example of a style
he’s applied to innumerable commissions, like Disney Hall
in Los Angeles and MIT’s Stata Center in Cambridge MA.
Clad in titanium, The Guggenheim Bilbao suggests a large
ship tied up along the Nervión River. The building is also
credited with reviving the fortunes of its host city, the
largest in the Basque Country

8. Philip Johnson
• Johnson’ role as the founding director of MoMA’s Department of Architect
had an enormous impact on the field, making him a gatekeeper who
helped to shape architectural trends from 1935 onward. His was also a
designer in his own right, though it’s fair to say that he was more of a
refiner of other people’s ideas than he was an innovator. Nonetheless, his
work achieved iconic status in a number of cases, most notably in the
residence he built for himself in 1949. The house is a distillation of Mies
Van der Rohe’s approach, and in fact, Johnson himself noted that it was
“more Mies than Mies.” A transparent box set among exquisitely
landscaped grounds, The Glass House dissolves the boundaries between
inside and out, public and private. It’s expansive use of plate glass
undoubtedly inspired much of the architect for today’s high-rise luxury
developments. Johnson similarly rode the postmodern wave with his
“Chippendale” building for AT&T (now privately owned), so called for its
broken-pediment crown resembling the top of a classic 18th-century high-
boy.

9. Norman Foster
Sir Norman Foster is one of the best
architects to come out of Britain and
has gained more than 470 awards for
his work. Foster is a graduate of
the Manchester University School of
Architecture, as well as Yale
University’s Masters in Architecture
program. In 1967, he established
Foster + Partners, which is the firm he
has worked with ever since. Some
of Foster’s most well-known works
include the Beijing Airport, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, along with the
Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
Foster’s architecture has a certain high-
tech element to it, which can be seen
through his work on the Gherkin
in London (30 St. Mary Axe) and the
Hearst Tower in New York. He is
undoubtedly the United Kingdom’s
leading architect of the moment and is
prolific across the world.

11. Richard Rogers
• When the Pompidou Center first opened in 1977, it
was consider the epitome of a trend at the time known
variously as High Tech and Structural Expressionism.
British architect Richard Rogers was a leading
proponent of the style. This building, designed as
Paris’s central institution for Modern and
contemporary art, suggests a structure turning inside
out, with its heating and plumbing systems worn as the
facade—which also features a glass-enclosed outdoor
escalator climbing the height of the building. Rogers
took a similar approach for another of his iconic
buildings, the headquarters for Lloyd’s of London.

13. Renzo Piano
Italian architect Renzo Piano is the mind
behind one of London’s most famous
architectural delights, the Shard, which
currently stands as his largest building to
date at 95 floors. What is most interesting
about Piano is that he does not have a
signature style and so it is difficult to point out
which buildings are the result of his incredible
mind. That said, alongside the Shard he is
the mind behind some of the most famous
buildings in the world, from the Whitney
Museum in New York City to the light-filled
Menil Collection in Houston, Texas.
One thing though is that all Piano’s buildings have
adopted a sort of industrial look about them. He
assisted acclaimed architect Richard Rogers
(more on him later) in the design and creation of
the Pompidou Centre, which is where he has got
most of his inspiration for other buildings from.
He takes a refined and delicate approach to
architecture which is more than obvious with his
sharp, but extremely light and fluid Shard. Piano
is well-known for having said, “architecture is art,
but art vastly contaminated by many other
things. Contaminated in the best sense of the
word—fed, fertilised by many things.”

15. Zaha Hadid
• Nicknamed ‘Queen of the Curve’, Zaha Hadid (1950-2017) is undoubtedly one of
the most famous female architects the world has known. She is thanked for her
pioneering vision which helped to transform architecture in the 21st Century. She
received the highest honours from civic, academic and professional institutions
across the globe.
• Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of
Beirut before moving to London to attend the Architectural Association. Since she
has been heralded by the Guggenheim Museum and the London Design Museum,
as well as being named as one of the most powerful women in the world by
Forbes. The Queen made her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British
Empire, and she was named as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in
2010.
• Hadid was the woman behind the Serpentine Galleries, the London Aquatics
Centre, the Bridge Pavilion in Zaragoza and the Guangzhou opera house. Hadid will
always be known as one of the most famous modern architects.
•

17. Michael Graves
• Michael Graves is one of the most important architects to
have ever graced this planet, and stands as one of the
Postmodernists. He was professor of Architecture at
Princeton University for over 40 years, and became very
interested in how painting affected his architecture. He
died in 2015, but his work is still prominent across the
world. He was part of the New York Five (a group of New
York City-based architects) which also consisted of Peter
Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk
and Richard Meier. Notable buildings that are the result of
his work include the Portland building
•

19. Le Corbusier
• Le Corbusier is one of the most famous architects in the world and was a
pioneer of modern architecture as we see it today. He was born in
Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. His career spanned five
decades and he was instrumental in creating some of the world’s best
buildings. Le Corbusier designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and
North and South America. He belonged to the first generation of the so-
called International school of architecture and was their most able
propagandist in his numerous writings. In 2016, 17 Le Corbusier’s
architectural works were named world heritage sites. Villa Savoye, Poissy
is arguably his most renowned work, but he is also known for Notre Dame
Du Haut, Le Roche-Jeannerat Project, the United Nations headquarters
in New York and the Palace of Justice in Chandigarh.
•
•

21. Daniel Libeskind
• The son of Polish Jews and Holocaust survivors, much of Daniel Libeskind’s
work is dedicated to his heritage. His buildings typically have a striking
visage and often appear to defy gravity. In 1989 with his wife Nina as the
principal architect, the pair created the Jewish Museum Berlin, achieving
international fame as a result. Libeskind is often described as a type of
Deconstructivist which reflects upon a style of postmodern architecture
characterised by fragmentation and distortion. This can be seen, for
example, in his design for London’s Imperial War Museum North, which
features three intersecting parts inspired by shards of a broken globe.
Libeskind is the designer behind many buildings including Denver Art
Museum, the Museum Residences, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in
Dublin, the Grand Canal Commercial Complex and the Contemporary
Jewish Museum in downtown San Francisco – the list goes on.