Test your design IQ
MANILA, Philippines - Who is the American-Estonian architect who produced relatively few buildings in his lifetime like the Jonas Salk Institute and the Capital Complex in Dhaka yet is considered one of the most influential architects of the 20th century?
He was born in 1901 on the Estonian island of Saarema (then called Osel) in 1901. The family was so poor that his father left for the US to find a better life. The rest of the family followed him to Philadelphia in 1906.
Although he was shy and had rather poor health, he was so gifted in art and music that his teachers steered him towards the special courses for talented students in Philadelphia’s enlightened educational system. Inspired by a high school course in architecture, he eventually won a scholarship to study architecture in the University of Pennsylvania.
Excelling in school, he graduated in 1924 and was employed by the Philadelphia architect John Molitor. After he had saved enough money, he traveled to Europe, visited relatives in Estonia, and saw his first modern movement buildings in Berlin.
Returning to the US, he found difficulty in finding work during the Great Depression. He won a few modest commissions from Jewish friends and Philadelphia’s Housing Authority.
In 1951, he won his first major commission, an extension to the Yale Art Gallery. The commission gave him the opportunity to express his belief that contemporary architects could — and should — produce buildings as monumental and spiritually inspiring as the ancient ruins of Greece and Egypt.
Working with simple materials, notably brick and concrete, he applied his principles to create buildings instilled with spiritual qualities and a masterful sense of space and light. Among these were the Yale Art Gallery Extension, the Trenton Boathouse in New Jersey, and the Richards Medical Towers in Philadelphia, where he combined visually compelling spaces with drama as the changing light transformed the sensory experience of the building during different times of day and night.
By the time he began the Salk Institute in La Joya, California in 1959, he had mastered this approach to create an extraordinarily inspiring sequence of buildings. Perched on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean, the Salk Institute also highlighted his magical interpretation of the relationship of architecture to its location and landscape.
His other works include the campus in the Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, the Exeter Library in New Hampshire, and the Yale Center for British Art. Striving for perfection, he developed another masterpiece, the Kimbell Art Museum, during this time.
From 1962 to 1975, he began working on two of his most memorable projects — the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmendabad, and the monumental Capital Complex in Dhaka. The latter, which was completed after his death, resulted in a magical sequence of buildings that appear to float above the surrounding water in vernacular red brick brilliantly constructed by local craftsmen.
Considered one of the foremost architects of the late 29th century, he received the AIA gold medal in 1971 and the Riba gold medal in 1972. He died of a heart attack in 1974 at Pennsylvania Station in New York on his return from India.
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Last week’s question: Who is this Austro-Hungarian architect who influenced the early development of
Modernism?
Answer: Adolf Loos
Winner: Guia Gonzalez, San Francisco, Del Monte, Quezon City
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