Influential Contemporary Architects and Their Design Philosophies
Influential Contemporary Architects
RCR Architects: Concept-driven architecture, deep study of environment and landscape, architecture as a response to place.
Glenn Murcutt: Australian architect, designs responsive to place, climate, and technology, harmonious integration with the natural landscape, legible and translucent architecture.
Lacaton and Vassal: Prioritizes adaptation to existing conditions, generosity, and social service. Breaks away from functionalism and includes nature. Focuses on materials and luxury as factors that enhance quality of life.
Barozzi Veiga’s Core Principles
Barozzi Veiga: All their projects are based on three main ideas:
- Specificity: Understanding the essentials of the site and intensifying it through architecture.
- Public: Projects must satisfy their intended purpose and introduce important public spaces.
- Universal: Projects must be understood locally and globally.
The “6 Architects” Approach
6 Architects: Believe in the value of looking back to the past while incorporating something new based on traditional elements. They emphasize versatility and social commitment in their architectural approach, striving to create spaces that serve the needs of the community.
Carmody Groarke: Combines heritage references with contemporary details, innovative use of temporary projects, opportunistic approach, architecture as invention and discovery.
TED’A architects: Prioritize the material essence of architecture, going beyond mere use and aesthetics. They draw inspiration from traditionalist principles and establish strong connections between architecture, society, and the environment. Their designs aim to link people and place, emphasizing the historical and cultural context of each project.
Anne Holtrop Studio: Two phases – artistic commissions and architectural work, focus on material essence and physical relationship with the landscape, emphasis on layout and prototypes.
Dogma: Unification of opposites, modularity and repetition, architecture as a means of social diversity, questioning of conventional organization systems, focus on social spaces.
Manuel Cervantes: Manuel Cervantes focuses on both public and private works, each offering unique opportunities for experimentation. He creates spaces that cater to the specific needs of his clients, aiming to enhance the quality of life through flexible and adaptable architecture. Cervantes’s design process involves taking into account all the factors of a project, ensuring a comprehensive and holistic approach.
Manuel Cervantes’ Design Principles
- Integration into nature: simplicity, symmetry. Plays with natural light to create an experience.
- Ephemeral architecture: clients, commodity, nature
- Social compromised
- ‘’mano invisible’’/ Invisible hand: he defines his architecture like this – terrain, climate, foundations, client, architect, and the way it orders it.
- Traditional materials and minimalist designs
Roger Boltshauser: Artistic influence, large-scale urbanization, accessible cities, innovative use of land as a material, hybrid systems.
Johnston Marklee: Artistic foundation, research-oriented approach, geometric shapes, consideration of scale, avoidance of inflated architecture in larger projects.
Hector Barroso Workshop: Sustainability and ecology, incorporation of history into the site, social content, traditional materials in a contemporary way, social commitment to improving quality of life, importance of context.
Flores & Prats: Romanticized lifestyle, fusion of painting and architecture, artistic expression, emphasis on unique qualities, seeking different solutions, authenticity, importance of essence and proportions, relationship between crafts and carpentry.