Series: My Favorite Architects of All Time, Part 1

There are Architects and many more buildings that I have visited, learned about, or otherwise admire, so it is hard to choose favorites. I am fascinated by the Architectural ideas and accomplishments of Ictinus, Vitruvius, Mimar Sinan, Andrea Palladio, Michelangelo Simoni, Louis Le Vau, Francois Mansart, Fredrick Der Grosse, Louis Sullivan, Henri Labrouste, Camillo Sitte, Antoni Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others. It is utterly humbling to be a student in a profession that has such an amazing heritage and tradition.

When considering architects to choose as my favorites, I decided to choose some of the less well known yet perhaps most influential Architects of all time. In no particular order, here is the first favorite in this series:
 

Usted Ahmad Lahauri

and Traditional Muslim Architecture 

 

Almost everyone around the world knows about the Taj Mahal and some know the story of how it was commissioned by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his late wife Mumtaz Mahal in Agra, India. However, few might know about Mimar Sinan's student Lahauri who designed and built this famous place.

The main thing I enjoy about the Taj Mahal is the clever and balanced use of contrasts:

• Lahauri uses contrasts between smooth curved surfaces on the building that are accented by areas with intense pietra dura decoration and the white marble lattice screens that enclose the tombs.
• He uses contrasts in thickness and elevation between the minarets and the main structure which also generate very interesting negative spaces.
• He also uses different sized iwans along the exterior surfaces of the building to create contrasts of light and dark along the building's surface.
• He uses a hierarchy of domes of different sizes on the central building and capping the minarets. (They are even engineered to fall away from the building in an earthquake).

Overall, Lahauri's Taj Mahal is a tremendous example of architectural design that informs my understanding of contrasts in size, lighting, detail, and hierarchy.

 

Further Reading:

Anderson, Janice. World Architecture. Chartwell Books Inc., 2007.

French, Hilary. Architecture: A Crash Course. Watson-Guptill Publications, 1998.

Norwich, John J, editor. Great Architecture of the World. Bonanza Books, 1978.



 Coming Up:

• Check back next month for another of my favorite Architects of all time. Can you guess who?
• Later this week, I will post some beautiful examples of residential architecture from the streets of Philadelphia.
• Next week I will post instructions in the first of my series How to Build Your Very Own Log Cabin, a classic American vernacular Architecture.

Happy blogging!