Top Ten Modern Architects

[@tigerphid9677]

I lived in New York City for 13 years. I passed through Walter Gropius' Pan Am building lobby hundreds of times coming out of Grand Central Terminal; was employed at 270 Park Avenue for two years (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) a building which has since been dismantled and is being rebuilt as a mega-tall skyscraper; and worked around the corner from Mies' Seagram Building (52nd and Park Ave) where I spent many hours sitting on its plaza and experiencing its excellence.

[@brentpete04]

Thanks for list. I’d include some more architects who influenced residential home building. It seems to me that the homes we live in influence us more than a public building we may see only a few times. Cliff May is a favorite.

[@fernandobirellodelima7039]

You make me so Glad putting dear Carlo Scarpa in this list. Bravíssimo!!!

[@robertsarchitecture]

My pleasure!

[@chrestayn]

I love listening to your videos while doing my plates. Your videos are great, and they really inspire me to pursue architecture. I'll look forward to seeing more of your videos. Please continue making more videos.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Thanks so much!

[@davidjgill4902]

Phillip Johnson does not belong on this list and Alvar Aalto is a glaring omission. One leading historian of modern architecture, William J.R. Curtis, would say that Corb, Mies, Wright, Aalto and Kahn were the most significant/influential/consequential modern architects.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes, Aalto would have been a good transition to regional Modernism. But I had to limit it to 10. Honorable mention maybe?

[@Methilde]

The matter it's this obsession of "top ten" rankings wich is a real pretentious desease for me.

[@rurathn5534]

​@@Methilde desease

[@aldolopez9302]

Excelente lista ! Muchos son arquitectos de lo monumental, Le Corbusier se preocupó por lo pequeño que es la vivienda, el problema más grande y antiguo , para ello dejó abierta la senda de que la industrialización es el camino para resolver la deficiencia habitacional, una vivienda es una máquina para habitar, es decir es un instrumento que permite satisfacer necesidades primordiales del hombre, por eso hay que evolucionar en su construcción, porque la humanidad aumentó en número, un gran maestro !

[@pippo_siracusa]

@@Methilde Replace "top 10" with "most influential" in your phrase, I bet you would feel dumb. Criticizing mainstream does not make you clever

[@FilipiVianna]

Wonderful list. I was just hoping to see Niemeyer with such names...

[@pippo_siracusa]

He does not belong in this list, not even nearly influential like these other ten.

[@FilipiVianna]

@@pippo_siracusa kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYO5o5djpNShhZo Agree to disagree.

[@jnjentinc]

FLW brings in such a combination of elements. Most others on this list lean so heavily to concrete and glass. But I’m a wright fan so I’m probably biased 😂

[@joeffreycardenal8980]

How about Alvar Aalto, considered as one of 5 pioneer modernist architect, considered by architectural historians & critics/theorists(Giedion, Frampton) who influenced lots of Scandinavian/Nordic architects as well as other US Postmodern, Deconstructivist & Post- structuralist architects & designers of Mier, Gehry & even 3rd/4th generation of contemporary architects (Utzon & Saarinen) through his buildings, urban planning, interior, furniture/furnishing designs greatly influenced a humanist as well as environmentalist designs & architecture w/the sensible/sensitive Finnish response for places & people.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes, Aalto would have been a good add or honorable mention.

[@ubroc]

@@robertsarchitecture Aalto is top 4

[@stonehenges5722]

I would have liked to see Aalto on this list.

[@pippo_siracusa]

@@ubroc 5*

[@pippo_siracusa]

Man, he's american, this is already more than enough for him...

[@markcianciolo9384]

Excellent presentation. Precise in relating the essentials. And very convincing. Indispensable for students and others alike. Great quotations from the masters.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Thank you!

[@valentinoceccobelli335]

Alvaro Siza, maybe after ten but i love him so much. Beauty lirism minimalistic version of Aalto, hero of sudeuropa that made beautiful things also all over the world.

[@smukherje169]

Francis kere and tadeo ando are remarkable for their use of alternative materials and unique structural patterns

[@antoniodesalvo327]

I put Pier Luigi Nervi on the same level as Leonardo Da Vinci. His creations in reinforced concrete are Works of Art.

[@ubroc]

If you are going there then Bucky gets the win

[@pippo_siracusa]

I think the fifth place is alright

[@johndonahue4777]

Yes. Saarinen. Minus the St.Louis arch) Dulles airport is one of his best. Also his furniture. The spool table.

[@abideinmylove]

Whatever one thinks of the list, what I found hopeful as an non-architect was an acknowledgement that the major trends of the 20th Century were the tail wagging the dog. The tail was the corporate world and it's architectural fulfillment in the "International Style." We are the dog, and what Wallace Harrison (Empire State Plaza) did not learn from Oscar Niemeyer's Brasilia, it is to be hoped that 21st Century architects have, i.e., that human beings want more than to be cogs in a corporate utopia.

[@jamesjohnmoss8130]

I respect your picks but I do disagree with some of them. But you have hooked me and I look forward to other videos.

[@julianlim6669]

I.M Pei & Eero Saarinen are two of my favorite architects.

[@JdlL-v4w]

That is a very good list. Thank you.

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

As an architect I agree with all the architects on the list but one, that would be Philip Johnson. He wasn't a particularly good architect he was however a power broker and connected. There are a host of other architects with equal influence. Saarinen comes to mind. Johnson did a few buildings and talked a lot, copied the trends and talked a lot.

[@Deadbeatwaffle]

Saarinen holds a much greater place in my eyes than Phillip johnson ever will. Good call

[@lwdewhirst6643]

File Johnson under Mies’ coat tails

[@pippo_siracusa]

you're so right

[@LDVTennis]

Niemeyer and Saarinen are glaring omissions. Both were more influential than Scarpa or Nervi. Saarinen's connection to Yale establishes a direct lineage between him and Rodgers and Foster. You can even glimpse the future (i.e., Zumthor and others) in Saarinen's Yale residential colleges. I would also take Neutra over Johnson. Johnson followed the trends from the International Style to Postmodernism. Though not intentionally, but more because of the clarity of his work, (specifically its massing and detailing), Neutra almost single-handedly created the style that we know today as midcentury modern. ... Gehry is NOT a modern architect. To make that point, Phillip Johnson labeled Gehry a Deconstructivist. Gehry also does NOT belong that high on any list. He is a designer of spectacular forms. On the inside, his buildings are sheetrock palaces with no profound understanding of human scale, movement, and atmosphere. As to SOM, its modern reputation is more or less the product of one architect (Gordon Bunshaft) and perhaps one building. It's not the Hancock Center, but the Lever House in New York.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Good points. I had to limit the list to ten, so impossible to include everyone. I focused on influential concepts, and not how good each architect was. Scarpa is on this list as he was one of the first Modern architect to incorporate historic elements with the new. This is very important when doing renovation projects, or building in existing cities. Nervi was one of the first to nail down how to incorporate modern building materials and modern structural engineering into Modern architecture. He is the direct inspiration for Calatrava. Johnson invented the lie of the 'International Style'. Modernism wasn't international, nor was it a style. Modernism was a way of working, and a process. He reduced it to a 'style'. It was also not 'International', it was Northern European. He also brought the German Bauhaus to the U.S. and promoted 'industrial design' as a new art form. He also invented the term 'Postmodernism'. He wasn't the best architect, but his social influence was great. Both for good and bad. You are right Gehry is a Postmodern architect, but I included him on this list because his profound effect on the profession. His office basically invented 3D modeling for complex geometries in architecture using Catia. There would be no Zaha Hadid or Bjarke Ingels without the design process he pioneered. Architects probably wouldn't be using Revit now if not for the success of this way of working. SOM invented the image of the Modern skyscraper, and they have been pioneering how to work with international and regional clients while still being Modern.

[@jaderdiniz5239]

​ @Roberts Architecture , @LDVTennis, BOTH with excelent points, cheers!!! thanks.

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

Well said, I do respect Gehry because he doing his own thing, he is experimenting, he is trying to figure out who he is, I respect that, I don't like his work but I respect his journey.

[@rurathn5534]

Dude are you serious? Nervi wasnt as influential??

[@LDVTennis]

@@rurathn5534 As an undergrad at Yale, I took Vincent Scully's Modern Architecture course. He did not mention any Nervi buildings. He did mention Saarinen and the engineering of his projects. He must have felt obligated because I learned later he was not fond of his work. Of course, Scully later changed his tune. Whatever the case, if Scully did not find Nervi influential enough to mention, I dare say I am not wrong to think he was not as influential as Saarinen.

[@cinemaipswich4636]

In the late 20th century, I saw a "post, beam, panel" architecture of the Arab palaces. They were not for outsiders. They had huge spaces, with protective elements against the heat and dryness of their world. Just enough light, but with expansive spaces, and sheltered privacy.

[@ranjanjoshi3454]

the tower concept in architectuer has ruined human habitat. Eco-friendly architecture is the need. When I walk in Thane the Tower Architecture covers the blue sky above us besides water and sanitary issues. Thanks Ranjan

[@derekmoore1387]

I love your channel. I am a fine-artist and illustrator, and do concept art. Your videos are immensely insightful. I would love to see you deal with turn of the century architecture like Gaudí or elements from art deco and art nouveau.

[@lenskapvdo]

glad to have found your channel!

[@randomthoughts3318]

I love your passion for architecture as mine.

[@ngasalsticker7483]

Nambih wawasan....terimakasih

[@adamebergman]

So where are we now? What ideas drive architecture today? Sustainability (I don’t think so)? A poor capitalist take on modernism? Capitalist branding architecture? I’m about to graduate from architecture school and I have no motivation to find a job because there is no direction as to what is contemporary.

[@robertsarchitecture]

There was a fad in the 2000s for 'Starchitects'. Folks like Gehry, Koolhaas, Hadid, Holl, Calatrava, Piano, and others. This was because of the 'Bilbao Effect' created by Gehry. There was a huge backlash against this in the profession, and now the big thing is being socially responsible. Equity and diversity, sustainability, Net-Zero, etc... . The architecture profession loves fads, and jumps on whatever is the latest thing because architects are always trying to be 'relevant'. If you are just graduating I suggest finding out what you are passionate about and following that. Don't follow fads. They don't make for a long satisfying architectural career.

[@EderRomagnaRodrigues-y8d]

I missed Oscar Niemeyer from Brazil. He did the project of ONU with his parthner Le Corbusier.

[@steenkigerrider5340]

A lot of outstanding modern architects were not mentioned, John Lautner certainly being one of them.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Interesting. Maybe I'll do a video about Lautner.

[@MB-mh6xv]

@@robertsarchitecture Please do, that would be great.

[@Deadbeatwaffle]

@Darth Vader zaha isn’t In the category of modern architects

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

I agree

[@saifulbahrial-batawiusb3030]

Good share

[@ณัฐวูฒธารีชูสกูล]

Amazing project

[@MarlinaLina-i6c]

Keren cangih & luar biasa❤

[@JudgeFredd]

Excellent channel

[@mikeewin7544]

Very Western Anglo European focus here. I prefer many Japanese architects such as Tange Kenzo, Kuma Kengo, Ando Tadao and Yoshio Taniguchi.

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

I agree, a lot of other people should have been on the list

[@erkanayhan4060]

I'd like to see both Richard Meier and Niemeyer's names. (Santiago Calatrava as well)

[@ahmadzarnuji1747]

Amazing

[@Art_Mind_Official]

Thank you🔥❤

[@Kentviking]

What, no Gaudi? no Hadid? no Utzen? no Tadao Ando? no Arne Jacobsen? no Richard Rodgers? This list seems somewhat US centric in terms of influence. I am no architect...but my father was, and my views reflect both his influence and all that influenced him as well as my continued love of the architectural art form for some 50 years now. I am just grateful there are so many great architects who ably demonstrate the importance of the spaces we occupy so that when humans have an impact it is either minimal or inspirational or both

[@nunolip]

Great video, but, as people say, many important people left out. You should make another top 10 video so that you have a top 20!

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes. I'll definitely do a follow up to this video with current architects.

[@alexanderzachary4650]

This is a great list! I am also a huge fan Santiago Calatrava but that I guess is not technically Modernism...

[@Bloodmoon1969]

Do another one focusing on the east, there are a lot of good architects from Asia aka japan and china etc

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes. Great idea. Modern architecture is all about German and Northern Europeans and bringing this to the U.S. after WWII. I'll try to do a video on non-Western architecture soon.

[@ubroc]

@@robertsarchitecture Metabolism is very much in the modernist mainstream. Kenzo Tange

[@sawiblue]

great video, thanks

[@rickcrippen5180]

Wright produced a richer variety than all the rest, but there is a wealth of ideas amongst them all.

[@pastorgoof]

you sure what about Mies?

[@neilgarrad4931]

Thanks

[@rnbsartist7375]

Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis I Kahn

[@riddlerandsa8161]

In the context of Nervi influencing Calatrava, should Gaudí not be mentioned as maybe the first to take structural lessons from nature which many others have adopted since?

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes, good call. I never thought of it, but yes Calatrava is drawing inspiration from Gaudi.

[@wunderlich_wie_seltsam]

Next to the Bauhaus Architects should be mentioned one over all and that is Richard Buckminster Fuller

[@robertsarchitecture]

I will definitely do a video on Buckmister Fuller in the future.

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

Fuller whom I met once, was not really an architect he was more of a inventor, creator, innovator, theorist, all around thinker type

[@byroncartwright8963]

Eliel and Eero Saarinen should be included

[@MB-mh6xv]

I very much appreciate your videos, thank you for creating them. With that said, I disagree with your list, especially Corbu as number one. As others have mentioned, Lautner, Aalto and Kahn don’t get even a mention

[@andylam73]

guess u missed Ieoh Ming Pei who designed the entrance for louvre in paris

[@fadhelmuhammadkhalifah]

beautyfull

[@Azaryach]

Wonderful 🥹

[@rikijojo371]

Mantap

[@lamodernista]

15:42 My favorite point in the video where AI mispronounces Richard Neutra's last name!😄

[@modfus]

Not surprising. It got Le Corbusier wrong too.

[@erics3457]

​@@modfus The pronunciation was pretty awful throughout. "Atelier", "epitomized", were also mispronounced. Other than that, great video.

[@Juhaeriah-e5p]

Good

[@ahmadbakri4545]

Bagus saya suka video nya

[@BnD2022]

You make me so glad putting

[@estherlove5172]

Just a video quality suggestion, the background music/sound to Vocal sound ratio is causing your voice to seem a little unclear or busy, if you will. But I have no idea if you've figured that out already, so.. cheers!

[@robertsarchitecture]

Thanks so much for letting me know.

[@estherlove5172]

@@robertsarchitecture My Pleasure

[@atoms-to-atoms]

Oscar Niemeyer, and Alto maybe missing...but Kahn my main influence.

[@damiaomekka]

There is a Brazilian architect named Oscar Niemeyer who has dazzling work.

[@MOliveira-m5h]

I was at falling water and the tour guide asked what you notice about the walkway and it's cantilevered, and then he said that only 5 people in 3 years said that with tours all day every day. I have an engineering degree so I'm cheating. But the reason why architecture is interesting is that it's like playing Ginga and art. If people can't see that something looks like it should tip over than how do you do that? It's not really even a cantilevered walkway. It's really curved around it's center of gravity. Cantilevered means that a beam is sticking out of a wall but the but with less beam outside than inside. The walkway has the legs on the edge of the roof, and it's not really cantilevered. It's an optical illusion because the center of gravity is in the middle of the air. It's like if you have Escher drawing with the stairs intersecting and someone doesn't realize that it's tricky to think of that. People now think the steps are real. People are extremely dumb now. People used to at least work or do things like ride bicycles so they would experience basic physics and question reality. Computers had made people dumb as dirt. The computer is socialism. You don't think on your own with an app. The app gives you an objective like Coco the monkey using an app, and you don't really have to think.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Check out my latest video where Frank Llyod Wright talks about cantilevers and organic architecture: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYKYYZmGaNiSetk

[@pejuangturet86]

Desain yang menarik

[@archeryisyoga3422]

Why are there any japan architect like 1- Sou Fujimoto 2- Itsuko Hasegawa 3- Tadao Ando 4- Toyo Ito 5- SANAA 6- Arata Isozaki 7- Kisho Kurokawa 8- Junya Ishigami 9- Hiroshi Nakamura 10- Hata Tomohiro

[@robertsarchitecture]

Good point! I should do a video exclusively on Japanese architects.

[@andrewashdown3541]

Aalto, Jacobsen, Saarinen, Breuer?

[@MindfulAttraction2.0]

as a painter, this feels like someone trynna tell me that modern art is beautiful.

[@alastairdallas]

"Lois" Kahn? Sheesh. No mention of Kahn's mastery of light?

[@karlikot]

How about Tadao Ando and Ricardo Bofill?

[@mariokajin]

Who was the architect of the Chrysler building?

[@robertsarchitecture]

William Van Alen

[@mariokajin]

@@robertsarchitecture Well that's my favourite Architect.

[@tompommerel2136]

However accurate this list may be, it is timely to QUESTION the aesthetic assumptions of beauty, influence and hegemony of these presumed 'modern giants'. Do we travel to modern cities where egocentric modern architects compete against each other or to places that have preserved their heritage and especially the relevance of the human scale of their building? Also, where is the beauty in Brutalist structures cast in concrete?

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes. It is good to question 'Modern' architecture, and develop an architecture more appropriate for this age. 'Modernism' is over a hundred years old at this point, and we should question whether the assumptions of Modernism are still valid.

[@DMBall]

A list that omits Albert Kahn, whose firm completed more buildings than this group combined, is not comprehensive.

[@randomthoughts3318]

Dear brother my fav is Mies Van Der Rohe

[@frankscott1708]

Niemeyer??? And Philip Johnson designed Glass House in 1945, a year b4 Mies started designing the Farnsworth house.

[@jordesign]

Was going to say this. Farnsworth came AFTER Glass House.

[@BOBBOB-tx7ox]

The glass house was the German aesthetic, Johnson again copying Mies work in Germany

[@rozinant1237]

Mies had the Farnsworth fully designed by 1947, due to construction delays it was not built until '50-'51. Johnson's house was constructed between 1948 and 1949.

[@Abuyole]

1) Le Corbusier 2) Frank Ghery 3) frank Lloyd Wright . .

[@kenlodge3399]

For me, FLW is No.1 in everything. Though at heart I'm really a M. Safdie guy. Living in Spaces is what it's all about as his Habitat in Montreal is, has been, always the ideal.

[@kusnetimayasari4633]

Nice

[@jimvonkropsberg399]

Mies van der Rohe über alles & after Gropius 🎉

[@peterk4134]

I would not have included Nervi (engineer ) Philip Johnson , SOM, Frank , Gehry. I would include Norman Foster,

[@ryanburdeaux]

You’d leave FLW off this list? His work is always modern. Can’t say that about the others.

[@peterk4134]

True, a great American architect; my only hesitation is his craft not quite in tune with the technology of his time. In a way, the American lay culture is still reflected in the delayed appreciation of modernism; still hung up for Moldings and the faking of materials for one up man ship among the Joneses.

[@RyanJohnsonD]

Did Johnson copy Le Corbusier's dark rim glasses? Uncanny. I would ike to learn more on how the Pilotis has shapped modular, pre-fab homes being built where the purchaser can have their windows placed anywhere since the homes are specifically designed to have non-load bearing walls. BTW. what do you think of the UCSD Library as architectural use of space?

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes. Johnson and many architects copy Corbu's glasses. I haven't been to the UCSD Library so I can't say if the spaces work or not. But not a big fan of Brutalism.

[@RyanJohnsonD]

@@robertsarchitecture Me neither. Tons of grey concrete at UCSD. It's interesting work, but something about it is offsetting/unsettling.

[@wilmanasutanto466]

Cool

[@alquimiasonica6881]

Claramente hay un sesgo norteamericano que sube algunos y baja otros. +Calatraba, -Phillip Jhonson +Frei Otto, +Peter Zumtor, +OMA, - Scarpa

[@jararacca]

Manual of the Barefoot Architect by Johan van Lengen; Gift of the Gods by Oscar Hidalgo; Manual of Earth Building by Gernot Minke

[@MOliveira-m5h]

One of the things that I hate about false architects now is that in architecture there are rules in making things both too small and too big. Like doorknob can be too big. If you’re not doing that type of analysis you’re not doing architecture. It’s like giant exhausts on Hondas that reduce power.

[@marcosgreco7545]

Não mencionar Oscar Niemeyer foi um erro grave desse documentário ... sem desmerecer nenhum dos arquitetos mencionados ... mas Oscar Niemeyer projetou uma cidade inteira que é Brasilia , capital do Brasil

[@matheusvasconcelos4120]

Niemeyer projetou os edifícios principais, o projeto urbanístico foi de Lúcio Costa, que sempre é esquecido.

[@ranjanjoshi3454]

Yes thanks nice

[@RockRider2k]

Alvar Aalto, Zaha Hadid and Oscar Niemeyer are missing. I would also mention Melnikov and Leonidov

It says venezuela in a building. Anyone knows what is it?

[@nenno3878]

"LEE Corbusier" , "Palazzo Del Lavorno"!? etc...How did you graduate any school?

[@AbeerAlAjmi-k3q]

What about Sinatra and Barragan ?

[@eileenbrinkman726]

I would include Alvar Aalto

[@ken_eszu]

❤

[@TEKUKAHARJO]

Arsitektur yang luar biasa

[@SaniyaSachinm]

Thanks I got New KZbin Channel to learn more Knowledge

Niemayer?

[@jjdavidian]

Oscar Niemeyer

[@manohousing5237]

"OOOOOoooOOO" is all I remember.

[@sofiemutiara3618]

luar biasa

[@ubroc]

How are you defining Modernism?

[@robertsarchitecture]

Good question! Modern architecture was a movement between the 1900s and the 1970s. I used the famous book "Modern Architecture Since 1900" by William Curtis as the research for this video. From all the comments here I think people want to see a video about current architects so I have a video planned for that.

[@ubroc]

@@robertsarchitecture 10 is an arbitrary number for making this list and 1970 is an arbitrary cut off date when your description says 20th century. Your list has no Constructivists, Futurists, Metabolists, Brutalists, West Coast Modernists, or Latin Americans.

[@maxmeier532]

10:38 Andy Wahrhol on the left.

[@robertsarchitecture]

Yes!

[@Dev1nci]

That falsetto 😂😂😂 15:53 MIES VAN DER ROHE haaaaaAAAaaAAa

[@___Q-bot]

How could Frank Gehry be a modern architect? He belongs to the express post modern school, so obvious.

[@acmulhern]

Pity you didn't include Zumthor and Ando.