1. Peter Zumthor never works with deadlines
When asked when a project will be finished Zumthor simply answers “It will take as long as it takes.” In his opinion, architecture can not be rushed, because that may lead to mistakes in the design, and it is all about the quality of the projects, not the quantity of them in an architect’s lifetime. Time pressure is not the best “surrounding” for architecture, and we all know how important surroundings are.
2.Frank Lloyd Wright had too much passion for cars, which even influenced his architecture
Wright was an early automobile adopter and a car collector his whole adult life.
Wright is said to have owned more than 50 cars in his adult life, a staggering number considering he was born two decades before the invention of the automobile. His love of cars informed the ramped design of his final project, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
3. Mies Van der Rohe was a little too much social
After moving to the USA, Mies socialized widely in Chicago, both with students and friends, most of whom remember him to be quite approachable, despite his reserved nature, even going so far as to be considered a kind of father figure to many of the young men he mentored at IIT. For Mies, the dual responsibilities of teaching and professional practice did not seem difficult to balance, though he became less concerned with teaching as time wore on.
4. Oscar Niemeyer has always inspired by the female form
”My work is not about “form follows function”, but “form follows beauty” or, even better, “form follows feminine”.” he quoted.
The architect’s love of the female form was a well-known inspiration for the undulating concrete curves of his projects, which channeled his native Brazil’s sun, sea, skies and passion for life into built reality.
“I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man,” he said famously. “I am attracted to free-flowing sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman
Crude line drawings of such beloved women – variously cavorting, supine, or half-merging into a building – adorn the pages of his memoirs, The Curves of Time, which provide a fascinating insight into the man behind the monuments.
5. Lebbeus Woods valued the sketches more than the building was built
Lebbeus Woods was famous for constructing almost no buildings at all. A “theoretical architect,” his work consists mostly of amazing drawings, some of which would have been extremely impractical if not downright impossible to build in real life.
However, at the end of his career, he managed to bring one of his ideas into the physical world. Called Light Pavilion, it is an “experimental space” that marvelously interrupts a Chengdu office building.
Did you know any of them?
If you have anything interesting and odd to add, let us know in the comments!