Pushing the boundaries

Celebrated French architect Jean Nouvel, established his first architecture practice in 1970. Since then, his influential works have gained worldwide recognition and earned numerous awards. These include architecture’s highest honour, the prestigious Pritzker Prize, awarded to Nouvel in 2008, acknowledging the “persistence, imagination, exuberance, and, above all, an insatiable urge for creative experimentation” as qualities abundant in his work.

His notable contributions to the world of architecture are the Institut du Monde Arabe and Fondation Cartier.

Transforming norms

Pritzker Prize laureate Richard Meier received his architectural training at Cornell University and established his own office in New York City in 1963. Since then, his international practice has encompassed major cultural and civic commissions as well as private residences, and corporate and academic facilities.

In Camden Medical, whose cylindrical profile celebrates its interface between commercial and residential districts, Meier offers a refreshing alternative to the typical urban high-rise.

A pioneering legend

Philip Johnson played a decisive role in American architecture in the 20th century, pioneering the revolutionary ‘International Style’ in the 1930s, a design approach characterised by the straightforward use of modern materials such as glass and steel, emphasising function and structure over ornamental decoration. He was also celebrated for his postmodern work from the 1980s.

Johnson was founder and director of the Department of Architecture of the Museum of Modern Art, a Fellow of The American Institute of Architects, and was the first recipient of the Pritzker Prize for a distinguished career in architecture.

A monumental force in modern architecture

Leading American architect Paul Rudolph was a great architect of the late-modern period, legendary dean at Yale School of Architecture and mentor to many of today’s influential practitioners. Known for his use of concrete and highly complex floor plans, his most famous work is undeniably the Art and Architecture Building at Yale University, a spatially complex Brutalist concrete structure, and one of the earliest examples of Brutalist architecture in the United States. (Image source: Paul Rudolph Foundation)

A prolific designer of innovative works

Irish-born American Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kevin Roche, of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates, is one of the most significant architects practising today. His award-winning portfolio spans five decades and over 200 completed projects, including institutional and corporate headquarters, museums, art centres, campus buildings and New York’s Central Park Zoo. Since 1967, he has been the architect for the Master Plan of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, designing all of its new wings.

Roche is guided by a lifelong commitment to environmental responsibility and ethics demonstrated through architectural vision and innovation.

Groundbreaking visionary

British architect Norman Foster is the founder and chairman of Foster + Partners, one of the world’s most innovative architectural practices. One of the most innovative architects of our time, Foster became a Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999, was granted a Knighthood in 1990, and in 1999 was honoured with a Life Peerage, becoming Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

Fostering responsible, attainable design

Dutch architect Ben van Berkel is the co-founder and principal architect of UNStudio in Amsterdam and Shanghai, an international network of specialists in architecture, urban development and infrastructure. His inclusive approach is underpinned by a commitment to sustainability – economic, social and ecological.

In his approach to residential developments, Van Berkel is challenged to create a communal quality. “Residential towers should look like residential towers and should be inviting. You should want to point at it and say that ‘this is my home’.”

Creating meaning through unconventional forms

Los Angeles-based architect Thom Mayne founded Morphosis in 1972, an interdisciplinary and collective practice involved in experimental design and research. He is also co-founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and Distinguished Professor at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design. His distinguished honours include the Pritzker Prize and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

The firm’s design philosophy is centred on producing work that has meaning within the culture for which it was made, avoiding the bounds of traditional forms and embracing sculptural shapes.

Intuitive, sensitive, Asian-inspired

Hailing from Perth, Western Australia, Kerry Hill relocated to Asia in 1971, later establishing Kerry Hill Architects in Singapore in 1979. He is lauded for a distinctive brand of contemporary architecture that embraces traditional Asian design, and displays a sound understanding of and sensitivity to the characteristics unique to each project location.

Among recognition for his significant achievements, Kerry was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2006 and the Singapore President’s Design Award for the Designer of the Year in 2010.

Relating space to the individual

Hailing from Georgia, USA, John Portman is recognised worldwide for his innovative design. Early in his career, he pioneered the role of architect as developer to allow more freedom in implementation of his design concepts.

He is best known for his urban mixed-use developments that translate his understanding of people and their response to space into enhanced environments and award-winning architecture. From Embarcadero Center in San Francisco and Times Square in New York to Shanghai Centre in China, he has mastered the art of creating spaces that are open and uplifting to the human spirit.

Minimalism in Harmony with Intricate Materiality

Marcio Kogan is the Founding Architect of Studio MK27, an architecture and interiors practice located in the colourful city of São Paulo. Kogan and his team of co-creators are great admirers of the Brazillian modernism generation, seeking to rethink and give continuity to this iconic architectural movement. Projects by Studio MK27 place value on formal simplicity, and are elaborated with extreme care and attention to details and finishings.

Kogan is also an honorary member of the AIA (American Institute of Architects) and a Professor at Sao Paulo’s Escola da Cidade and Milan’s Politecnico di Milano.