Tadao Ando is a self-taught Japanese architect from Osaka, Japan. He has won many awards for his buildings such as the Pritzker Prize, Alvar Aalto Medal, AIA Gold Medal, and several others. Ando’s style is very simplistic and creates a haiku effect to emphasize the beauty in empty space. This emphasizism is based on the religious term “zen.”

Since Ando’s buildings focus on the sensation you get while in them rather than appearance, most of his pieces are done in concrete and neutral colors. This concept is highlighted in his works Church of the Light, Row House in Sumiyoshi, and the Akita Museum of Art.

The Fisher House was built between 1960 an d1967 designed by Louis Kahn. The Fisher House is located in Hatboro in Pennsylvania. The house is designed based on Kahns concept which is 2 cubes. The house is made up of all stone as that was Kahns favorite material but then covered with a wooden material overtop of it.

The coolest thing about the house is the cube design. The house is legit made out of two cubes one cube for just the living room alone. Then the other cube is left for everything else, which is the living room, all the bedrooms, kitchen and dining rooms. The two cube are spilt in half too so its like there are really four cubes, but it initially started with just two.

The Fisher House is famously known and no one actually lives there now it is only for tourist to visit. There has been nothing else like it build before and it is truly one of a kind building. The Fisher House is somewhere i would really like to visit it is so interesting and has alot of character to it.

The Gateway Arch designed by Eero Saarinen started development February 12,  1963 and finished development October 28, 1965. It cost a total of $13 million altogether for everything. The Arch was buily in St. Louis Missouri. The Arch was dedicated to “The people of America”. The gateway is the center piece to the national gateway park and has been recognized as an international symbol of St. Louis as a high tourist destination.

The coolest thing about the arch is that it started building in two separate places the two ends on the legs started separately. If the legs were to have been even 1/64th of a inch off they would not have been able to connect at the top and the building would’ve been ripped down.

The height of the arch is 630 feet high and it was predicted that 13 people would die in the building process of the arch. The arch is known as the highest arch world wide. I think thats one of the coolest things, is that our nation has this title and we built it with our bare hands and worked for this.

7132 Spa Hotel, designed by Peter Zumthor and built between 1993 and 1996 n Switzerland. IN the 19th century doctors had recommended thermal baths to help with dermatological conditions. When the baths were bought it became a mission to make it a place for people to stay and enjoy.  The hotel is now famously known not just in Switzerland but world wide and people are traveling high and low to visit.

The hotel is now a must experience place due to the spa sensations that are like no other along with the scenic views. The hotel is constantly booked up in months in advance and the baths are beginning to become over populated at all times, which is leading to the thoughts of expanding. No one else has had a place like this and now it is in such high demand just because of one and that it what i find so interesting about it.

The hotel consist of 4 restaurants that only sew the best quality of food for the quests, 7132 thermal baths through out the hotel and  1000 beds for quests. ONe interesting thing about all of this is the hotel is meant to only you to enjoy your own space so in each room there are three spa suits, 12 spa deluxe rooms, and one single room for the bedroom.

The Agbar Tower built in 1999 in Barcelona. It is a 38 story skyscraper and it is most famously known for its unusual shape, most tourist however visit the tower not only to see the building but to also look at the amazing view, which is another thing that the building is most famously known for. Unfortunately the tower has been shut off to the public and no tourist are allowed to the top anymore.

The thing i find most interesting, since i have never been able to see the view, is what the building is made out of. The height of the building is 142 meters, made out of only three things, concrete, steel and windows. The building is made out of 250 tons of steel, 25,000 tons on concrete and 4,500 window panes.

It blows my mind that a world wide known building known for its shape is only made out fo three things. Making it look the way it does, shape the way it is, sparkle and glissin in the sun the way it does too. I like knowing that something so beautiful is made out of something so simple and it took three simple things to create it.

Another one of Glenn Murcutt’s great architecture is the Magney House. The Magney House had “retractable louvres” on its north side of the building in order for it “to respond its specific climate and site.” Not only does it have the retractable louvres, the roof is v-shaped so it can “collect rainwater that is recycled for reuse” inside the house. This house is different from what we are used to seeing everyday and it is designed differently in order to adapt to the environment. I think it’s really neat that Glenn Murcutt built something that is unique or else it will be boring to have houses and buildings that look the same.

The Phoenix Earthship is one of Michael Reynolds’ most famous “Earthship” residences. Groups of up to eight people can pay to stay in the building for a night. Like many of Reynolds’ other Earthships, it repurposes “garbage” (discarded glass bottles act as stained glass windows) and has an overall focus on sustainability (a garden and greenhouse allow the occupants to harvest their own food). But unlike most other Earthships, the building is massive. At 5300 square feet, it includes a spacious kitchen and even an indoor jungle. For someone new to Reynolds’ style who is looking to experience it at its best, a night at the Phoenix Earthship would be a good place to start.

This school in Jaureguiberry, Uruguay was finished by Michael Reynolds and his team in March 2016. As usual for a Reynolds building, the walls and columns were built with tires and cans. In fact, more than half of the materials used for the school are recycled.

The building produces many of its own resources. It has well-oriented windows for natural heating, solar panels for energy, reservoirs for rainwater collection, and even an indoor orchard. In addition to whatever the students learn in the school’s classrooms, the building itself will teach them an important lesson about environmentally conscious living.

The Sunridge Earthship is a residence designed by Michael Reynolds in his “Earthship Biotecture” style. It was designed for the actor Dennis Weaver and his wife, who wanted their house to demonstrate environmentally friendly living. The walls are made of three thousand recycled tires packed with dirt and covered with adobe. The interior is temperature-controlled by strategically placed windows, and by the tires, which are so heavy that they absorb the outside heat. In keeping with Reynolds’ theme of sustainability, some of the windows allow for food to be grown indoors—even in winter. Dennis Weaver and his wife were very happy with the residence, which continues to attract the admiration of bloggers and journalists.

Completed in 1972, the Thumb House was one of Michael Reynolds’ first experiments with what he called “Earthship Biotecture.” Reynolds was troubled by the news that people were producing more and more garbage, so he decided to repurpose certain waste products as building materials. He would eventually become famous for building with old tires and discarded cans and bottles.

The Thumb House marked a significant innovation for Reynolds: it was the first time he used beer cans for structural support. He would tie several of them together to form “bricks,” cement the bricks with mortar, and then seal them into the walls. Radical practices like this brought Reynolds into conflict with certain oversight bodies, who forced him to give up his architecture license. But after a long battle, Reynolds’ won over the public, had his license restored, and became a hero to sustainable living advocates.