5 Architects Creating Original Designs

Innovative Architects

How Architecture Alters Your Perception of Reality

Famous Architects

• Walter Gropius
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• Le Corbusier
• Louis Sullivan
• Zaha Hadid
• Charles and Ray Eames
• Ieoh Ming Pei
• Buckminster Fuller
• Rem Koolhaas
• Frank Gehry

When Did Modern Architecture Begin?

In Depth

Architecture plays an important role in society, from the design and development of buildings to city planning, furniture, and landscaping. The combination of art and technique allows the designers of these structures to display creativity that both inspires and informs. Here, in no particular order, are architects who are incorporating innovation into the form and function of their work.

Getting the list started at #1 is Dash Marshall, which offers full design, pre acquisition, and development services for residential, retail, workspace, furniture, and time travel spaces. Projects include a solar powered home in the Virgin Islands that collects rainwater, and a Raft Loft, which combines two separate dwelling units into a single home, with a new staircase to connect both spaces with a series of intermediate levels.

Civic Futures, Dash Marshall's urban innovation consultancy, provides design services for people invested in the future of cities. Examples include the use of autonomous vehicles and the Very Slow Movie Player, designed to show what happens when technology works in the background. This object plays films at twenty four frames per hour instead of per second, which is then communicated to an ePaper display. The Dash Shop features gifts for designers and architects including, Matter Battle: 45 Lessons Learned, which highlights some of the firm's past projects.

Civic Futures, Dash Marshall's urban innovation consultancy, provides design services for people invested in the future of cities.

At #2 is Archinia, a consulting agency with experience in architecture, content creation and community engagement. Its preservation services include placemaking, historic district surveys, and documenting buildings and trails. It is also renowned for its homes and labyrinths, development of eco-communities and other natural and sustainable buildings. The homes are bio regional, able to be built in phases, have fences of planted berry bushes, and gardens and orchards for complete sustainability.

As the founder and director of Archinia and the nonprofit, Architecture for Everybody, Rachel Preston Prinz studies and celebrates the craft of architecture and the Genius Loci, or Spirit of Place, as exemplified in placemaking and cultural, and historic preservation. Prinz has served as host of the University of New Mexico at Taos Sustainability Institute and moderated numerous panels. She has given multiple TEDx and Pecha Kucha talks on design.

Coming in at #3 is Koichi Takada Architects, a boutique architecture firm led by Koichi Takada. Its architectural and interiors projects range from mixed use to residential, retail, hospitality, and cultural venues. The firm has been honored with an International Restaurant and Bar Design Award and recognized by the Property Council of Australia. Its projects have been extensively featured in Vogue Living, Belle, The Wall Street Journal, and The Australian Financial Review.

Its architectural and interiors projects range from mixed use to residential, retail, hospitality, and cultural venues.

Past projects include the National Museum of Qatar Gift Shop, which features 40,000 wooden pieces, each specially cut in Italy, and assembled by hand in Doha by Italian master carpenter, Claudio Devoto and his team. The design and craftsmanship pay homage to Jean Nouvel's architecture and celebrate the natural Qatari heritage of the desert. It won the Architecture MasterPrize and was Longlisted at the Dezeen Awards.

In the #4 position is Stefan Al, a Dutch architect, urban designer, author, and educator. He contributes to a number of mixed use and transit oriented developments, master plans, and high rises across the globe. One of his projects, Canton Tower, briefly held the title of the world's tallest tower. He frequently speaks about innovative design in buildings and cities, including a TED Talk on Self Driving Cars and the Future City.

His project, the Art Square in Hong Kong, is a reinvention of the classical Miesian pavilion typology of a glass box and roof. The canopy slopes downward toward the waterfront and creates an amphitheater leading to a second rooftop exhibition space. The pavilion is not only a site for experiencing art, but also an urban place that offers a new perspective on the city.

The canopy slopes downward toward the waterfront and creates an amphitheater leading to a second rooftop exhibition space.

Wrapping up the list at #5 is Dirk Denison Architects, an internationally recognized, award winning firm that designs for homes, offices, galleries, and student housing. Its work has been featured in Elle Decor, Metropolitan Home, and the Urban Land Institute Magazine, and won the Gold Key Award for Excellence in Hospitality Design.

Projects include Culver House, an ecologically driven mixed use development that weaves greenery around an existing power switching station. Its design for Terzo Piano, a restaurant and event space for chef Tony Mantuano, extends the top floor of the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, and features moveable furniture, partitions, and vitrines that display changing selections of works of art.