10 Most Famous Architects of all times

Antoni Gaudí Photo By Pau Audouard Deglaire – Wikimedia Commons

10 Most Famous Architects of all times

Architecture is, arguably, the fabric that envelops our society. The men and women who create these things are frequently nameless and unknown, and the average person often goes their entire lives without knowing who is responsible for shaping their day-to-day quality of life.

However, now and then, one of these architects will emerge as a true master of their craft, becoming famous for their work. From Mies van der Rohe’s minimalist approach to Antoni Gaud’s ornate creations to Frank Gehry’s shiny, undulating shapes, their styles are unmistakable.

By reflecting current fashions, architecture can define an era. The list includes both traditional and contemporary architects, all of whom have made significant contributions to architecture.

The following are the top ten most famous architects of all time.

1. Antoni Gaudí 

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Catalan architect from Spain who was widely regarded as the most prominent exponent of Catalan Modernism.

Gaudí’s works are highly individualized and sui generis style (“in a class by themselves”). Gaudí built all of his projects in Barcelona, where he spent his entire career.

The most well-known of his works is the 1883 cathedral known as La Sagrada Familia, which was left unfinished when he died in 1926 and is still under construction today.

When Gaudí became the cathedral’s chief architect, he transformed it to incorporate his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.

Sagrada Familia is currently the most visited tourist attraction in Barcelona, with over 3,000,000 visitors per year.

2. Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright Photo By New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer – Wikimedia Commons

Frank Lloyd Wright is widely regarded as the most famous architect of the modern era. Wright, along with his early mentor Louis Henri Sullivan, contributed to the development of uniquely American architecture.

Wright advocated organic architecture, which he defined as designing in harmony with humanity and the environment. Even after nearly 150 years, his organic and natural forms that seemed to become one with nature, as well as his innovative detailing, are still regarded as the best building and design concepts.

Over a creative period of 70 years, he designed over 1,000 structures, the most famous of which was Falling Water. The Falling Water is a house in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, designed in 1935 for Pittsburg department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann. It has stacked rectangular balconies that appear to float over a natural waterfall incorporated into the house.

3. Mies Van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, colloquially known as “Mies,” was one of many modern architects to make the transition from the more ornate, traditional styles of the 19th century to the sleek, minimalist styles of the 20th century.

Crown Hall in Chicago is widely regarded as Mies van der Rohe’s masterpiece.
The structure is one of the most architecturally significant buildings of the Modernist movement of the twentieth century. It has a simple expression of construction and materiality, allowing the structure to transcend into art.

Mies designed many well-known skyscrapers, including New York City’s Seagram Building and Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive apartments. To reflect the Industrial Age in his building designs, he frequently used exposed structural steel.

4. Sir David Adjaye

Sir David Adjaye Photo BY Garagemca – Wikimedia Commons

Sir David Frank Adjaye is a Ghanaian-British architect who has designed numerous notable structures around the world. Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and was exposed to many cultures and architectural styles as a child due to his diplomat father’s career.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. is one of his notable structures. The three-tiered shape of the museum was inspired by the Yoruban Caryatid, a traditional wooden column with a crown or corona at its top.

In the 2017 New Year Honours, Adjaye was knighted for services to architecture. He is the first African recipient of the 2021 Royal Gold Medal, as well as one of the youngest recipients.

5. Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer known for his diverse range of building and monument designs. He was the son of Eliel Saarinen, a Finnish architect.

Saarinen is best known for designing Washington Dulles International Airport, the TWA Flight Center in New York City, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

In contrast to the International Style’s standardized box, Saarinen used swooping curves that gave his architecture a sense of soaring transcendence, particularly in his 1962 JFK terminal for the now-defunct TWA airlines.

In 1962, Saarinen was posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal.

6. Frank Gehry 

Frank Owen Gehry is an American architect and designer who was born in Canada.

It’s impossible to miss Gehry’s work because it’s one of the most distinctive and innovative architectural phenomena on the planet. Tourists flock to his structures all around the world to marvel at the architectural wonders he produces, making his deconstructive forms renowned.

He has set the standard for contemporary architecture, having been dubbed “the most important architect of our age” by Vanity Fair.

His ability to create spaces that alter forms and surfaces is one of his most famous accomplishments, and we all like his unconventional material combinations that defy logic.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Der Neue Zollhof in Berlin are just a few of his major works.

The Bilbao Guggenheim building, for example, brought in over $500 million in local revenue and was even featured in a James Bond film, displaying true pop-culture crossover.

7. Norman Foster

Norman Foster Photo By bigbug21 – Wikimedia Commons

Norman Foster, a lover of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, worked as an associate of Buckminster Fuller, the famed visionary and inventor of the geodesic dome, early in his career. 

Foster is a prominent figure in British modernist architecture and is closely identified with the creation of high-tech buildings.

Foster + Partners, which he founded in 1967 as Foster Associates, is the largest architectural firm in the United Kingdom, with offices across the world.

Sir Norman Foster had not even finished some of his most iconic structures when he was named the Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999.

The Gerkin, a commercial skyscraper in London’s financial centre that opened in 2004, is his most well-known structure. Its pickle-like shape, tapering to a point, has become a global symbol, as synonymous with London as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris.

8. Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava Valls is a Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor, and painter who is best known for his single-leaning pylon bridges, as well as his railway stations, stadiums, and museums, all of which have sculptural forms that mimic living beings.

The Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Turning Torso tower in Malmö, Sweden, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York City, the Auditorio de Tenerife in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, Texas, and his largest project, the City of Arts and Sciences and Opera House in Valencia, are just a few of his most well-known works.

9. Renzo Piano

Renzo Piano Photo By Lorryspacy789 – Wikimedia Commons

Renzo Piano, an Italian architect, unlike his Italian contemporaries, is recognized for his lack of distinct style and is also a winner of the 1998 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Instead, his designs have been eclectic, ranging from the Neo-Brutalism of the Whitney Museum’s Meatpacking District headquarters to the exquisite, light-filled Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, which resembles an overgrown version of a mid-century house by West Coast modernist Richard Neutra. 

The Shard in London is his most well-known project. The eight slanting glass “shards” that make up the building’s façade give it its name. The choice of extra-white glass gives the structure lightness and allows it to reflect the changing sky surrounding it.

10. Jean Nouvel 

Nouvel is a French-born architect who has received numerous prestigious awards and honours for his work over the years, including the Pritzker Prize in 2008.
In addition, he was a founding member of Mars 1976 and the Syndicat de l’Architecture.

Nouvel’s most acclaim came from winning the design competition for the Arab World Institute in Paris, which catapulted him to international prominence.
Nouvel’s work is well-known throughout the world, and his use of innovative architectural concepts distinguishes him from many contemporary architects.

Louvre Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi), La Marseillaise (Marseille), Doha Tower skyscraper, Culture and Convention Center (Lucerne), and Tower 25 in Nicosia are among his notable works.

He is also working on other several projects, such as the Sharaan resort in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which will be carved into a sandstone hill in the AlUla desert.