Coop Himmelblau

Coop Himmelblau is an architectural firm primarily located in Vienna, Austria and now maintain offices in the United States and in Mexico. This great design firm has design such great buildings such as the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, BMW World in Munich, the Great Egyptian Museum and many more. Right now Coop Himmelblau is now proposing a new hotel in New York City and is now currently under construction for the European Centre Bank in Frankfurt. Coop designs his buildings with the most advanced materials and with limited city funding. His designs are modern and all very successful and create jobs for many people.
Last year he won the International Architecture Award for the Chicago Athenaeum in Illinois. Also in 2004 he won the Annie Spink Award for excellence in Architectural Education. He has also won the gold medal for merits to the federal state of Vienne, Austria.
Most of his designs are usually made with glass and are not the usual skyscraper; he designs are very complex and have twists and turns everywhere. An example of this would be the BMW Welt in Munich, Germany, which is the BMW vehicle delivery building. Another example of this is the MOCAPE in Shenzhen, China, he won first place in a competition for this building and the design.
He believes that a vigorous urban architectural experience results when the qualities of space are linked, creating a rhythm of dynamism and concentration.

Works Sited

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

http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/

Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, or better known as Le Corbusier, is considered by many to be one of the fathers of modern architecture. Born in Switzerland in 1887, Le Corbusier believed that architecture had lost its way, and that the world would have to start again, from the bottom up. What that led to was the type of architecture that was to become known as the International Style, with such ideas as raise the building on stilts, mix in a flowing floor plan, make the walls independent of the structure and add horizontal strip windows and top it off with a roof garden. Le Corbusier was a creator, a visionary, a person who wanted to do new things. One thing that Le Corbusier always thought was that American skyscrapers were too small; he wanted to construct multiple, massive 66-story buildings throughout Manhattan.
Le Corbusier took his pseudonym from his great grandfather’s name, and it translates literally to ‘the crow like one’. Le Corbusier took on this name as a metaphor to say that anyone can recreate themselves at any point in their life.
Le Corbusier also wrote many books on architecture and interior design, all resembling something more like an instruction manual more than a book.
Later in his career, Le Corbusier discovered the miracles of reinforced concrete, which allowed him to design and build unique and imaginative buildings, such as
Another idea that Le Corbusier felt strongly about was that of the shape of a city. He was a city planner, and his idea of the model city would be one that abandoned the sprawling urban-spread of congested streets, public squares and messy subdivisions. He felt that there should be designated areas for work, living and play, and all buildings would be in massive scale. He thought that there would be huge apartments buildings, wide roads and large open spaces. He called the design The Radiant City. However, wherever this idea was tried, whether it be in Chandigarh or Brasilia, it failed due to the regimented, daunting and disorienting nature of the layout.
Le Corbusier designed and constructed over 40 buildings, and was also involved in the multinational team of architects that designed the United Nations building in New York City. Later in his life, he began to publish many design magazines and inspired many modern builders, before his death in 1965 when he suffered a heart attack while swimming, his body washing to shore. He was crowned as a model of modern style, and was also recognized on the Swiss franc.

Link to La Cite Radieuse in Marseille
http://www.villes-en-france.org/histoire/Corbu13.html
I believe that this building is a good representation of Le Corbusier’s work because it is his plans for the ‘perfect city’. It shows the uniqueness of his designs and how he thought a city should look like and function. It was created later in his career after he had established himself and allowed his actual ideas to become apparent.

Works Cited
http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/lecorbusier3.html

www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Le_Corbusier.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier Mediterranean

Jake Pelling

Norman Foster British Architect

Norman Foster was born in Manchester, England in 1935. He was sent to a private school and grammar school. He worked for two years in the city’s treasurer’s office, studied commercial law, and then left to serve in the royal air force. During this time Foster developed an interest in architecture. When he left the air force he worked in a bakery, sold furniture and worked in a factory. He then, in 1961 went to Manchester University school of Architecture and city planning. He had entered at 21 years of age. He won a fellowship to Yale University. Here he earned a Masters in Architecture. This is where he met Richard Rogers and became close friends. In 1963, He worked with Richard Rogers, Sue Rogers, Gorgie Wolton, and his wife Wendy Foster. They created “Team 4” which was used until Foster Associates was formed in 1967. Now it is called Foster and Partners.

Since then, they have received more than 190 citations and awards for excellence and have won over 50 national and international contests. Foster was awarded the RIBA royal gold medal in 1983 and he was awarded the RIBA trustees medal in 1990 for the Willis Faber Dumas building. He was knighted in 1990 and received the gold medal of the AIA in 1994. Also in 1994 he was appointed officer of the order of the arts and letters by the ministry of France. On June 12 1999, it was announced in the Queens birthday honor list that Sir Norman Foster had been honored with a life peerage, taking the title of Lord Foster of Thames Bank. In the same year he was also awarded the prestigious 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. Considered to be the Noble prize for architecture.

His buildings and urban projects have renewed cityscapes, transportation systems, and restored city centers. Many of his aesthetically and technologically groundbreaking projects are based from ecology- conscious concepts. He sets a new standard for the interaction of a building and the environment. Some of his most remarkable architectural projects are done in the last few years. These include the rebuild of the Reichstag in Berlin, the great court at the British museum in London, The Millennium Bridge, and the new Hong Kong airport.

Websites
www.designboom.com/portrait/foster/bio.html
www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1235/Default.aspx

Matt Heibein :)

HI

HI

Santiago Calatrava Olympic Sports Complex Design

One example of his work is the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. It is multiple venues that he designed for the 2004 summer Olympics. A major one he designed was the soccer pitch venue. It is a huge ovular structure with bone like beams rising up and over the field. He was the head architect and engineer in these projects. He had created so many dynamic structures that fellow engineers thought that this would be nearly impossible to finish in time for the Olympics. It was originally built in 1982 but they refurbished it in 2004. It hosted the soccer games and opening and closing ceremonies. It is currently used for the AEK soccer club.
Some venues of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex seen below:
Soccer field

Will Alsop

Will Alsop
Alsop always wanted to be an architect, but at six years old he didn’t understand what they did. At only six years old he designed a house for his mother, set in New Zealand. He first started working in the business of architecture at age 16. At age 23 he started to go to school to study the architecture and made a design for a contest to plan the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. His design came second.

His buildings are exuberant and bright; his buildings or original and have a very contemporary feel to them. Alsop is also prominent in the art world, with his pop art sketches and paintings. He drew his inspiration for his buildings from other sources; pop music, science fiction films and comic books. These inspirations of his can clearly be seen in Peckham Library. He has many awards and nominations under his belt, including the Stirling Prize, Civic Trust Award, Private Eye magazine's Worst New Building, City of Toronto Urban Design Award and numerous others.
Will Alsop’s designs are coming to Canada, in the form of condominiums. The Westside Lofts are currently in construction and will be open soon. Alsop also designed a building for Canada’s largest and oldest school of art and design; Sharp Centre for Design for Ontario College of Art & Design was designed by Alsop and was completed in 2004.
Will Alsop concepts of architectural design is where the architectural world is heading, but he is already there.

-Nevin Webster

221

Room 221 is a relatively functional lab – but it can be better.
Pair up with a partner and carry out the following:
1. Measure the room. Include the door, windows, chalkboards, desks, power outlets, cabinets, shelves etc…
2. Do a rough sketch of the room on paper being sure to note dimensions accurately.
3. Open Autocad LT and create a floorplan of the room as it exists.
4. Do a floorplan of the room using Autocad and dimension it.
5. Brainstorm a set of improvements to the room that would accomplish the following: make the room more comfortable, make every computer screen visible at a glance, give improved flexibility, and be more attractive .
6. Devise a new layout for the room being sure to include all of the necessary objects (computers, writing surfaces, etc…) Do hand sketches first.
7. Create a floorplan of the room as you propose it.