Today we continue our exploration of the architects whose names were first brought to my attention when writing the blog post on Javier Senosiain. First we explored Bruce Goff, and now Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Hundertwasser (1928-2000) was an Austrian visual artist and architect. His most famous building is the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna. According to Wikipedia: Hundertwasserhaus features undulating floors,… and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Undulating floors! I can’t even imagine that!
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Last week the name Bruce Goff was one mentioned when looking at Javier Senosiain. And so, today let’s take a look at his work. Goff (1904-1982) was an American architect. Also working in the organic style, this time we add the qualifiers eclectic and flamboyant. Self-taught, he befriended Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan, both encouraged him to work with Ruth, Endacott and Ruth rather than enroll in Massachusetts Institute of Technology where they feared his creativity would be stifled.
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Javier Senosiain is a Mexican architect. Born in Mexico City in 1948, he studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he is now a professor. He is the founder of the Organic Architecture firm in Mexico City. His style, yes there was a clue in the name of his firm, is organic architecture.
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Today we continue our exploration of Daniel Burnham’s work. We started in Chicago in Part 1, then moved to Cincinnati, Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia in Part 2. Today we look at his work in Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Wisconsin, London, and Kentucky. He really was quite prolific!
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Today we continue to explore the work of Daniel Burnham. Last week we looked at his work in Chicago. This week we explore his work in Cincinnati, Detroit, and New York. You will all be familiar with his most famous New York landmark, the Flatiron Building. Louis Sullivan was not a fan of Burnham. He felt that Burnham’s attachment to the Beaux-Arts and the Neo-classical architecture styles hindered the progress into a more modern style.
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Every once in a while I encounter a prolific architect, one who left mark on the skyline of various cities, and wonder why I have not heard his name before. Today is one of those days. In fact, Daniel Burnham (1846-1912) looks like he may generate more than one post. Today we focus on Chicago. A city with iconic architecture. Burnham was born in Henderson, New York. Wikipedia states: A proponent of the Beaux-Arts movement, he may have been, “the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ever produced.” Burnham was also responsible for the master plans for Chicago, Manila, Baguio, and Washington. He apprenticed under William LeBaron Jenney of Lorin & Jenney. Later he formed a partnership with John Wellborn Root. With regards his education, the irony is that Burnham obtained honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale, universities that had earlier rejected him.
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Ken Yeang is a Malaysian architect, born in 1948 in Penang, Malaysia. Since 1971 he has been very much an ecology-based architect. In 2008 The Guardian newspaper named him one of the 50 people who could save the planet. His firm Hamzah & Yeang is based in Kuala Lumpur. They also have offices in London, UK and in Beijing, China. He studied architecture at the Architecture Association School of Architecture in London. And subsequently obtained a PhD from Cambridge. His dissertation was entitled: A Theoretical Framework for Incorporating Ecological Considerations in the Design and Planning of the Built Environment. Since then he has been honoured with several honourary degrees and has gone on to amass over 70 awards.
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Marcel Lajos Breuer (1902-1981), was a Hungarian architect. Breuer was a modernist architect and furniture designer. His work includes museums, libraries, churches, office buildings, and homes. Many in the Brutalist style. You all know how much I love the Brutalist style and so yes I’m quite fond of Breuer’s work. He studied at the Bauhaus with Walter Gropius. There he would become head of the carpentry shop. Breuer was known by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Confusion has at one point existed in the design world where it was thought that the Wassily Chair was designed by his friend Wassily Kandinsky. It was not. It was designed by Breuer while he was at Bauhaus. Breuer made a copy of Kandinsky knowing his friend liked it so much. When the chair was re-released in the 60s it was renamed Wassily.
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