Architect Andrea Stinga describes how and why she and graphic designer Federico González created their short film, showcasing the 'unquestionable' masters of construction design..

Link to video: The ABC of architects and their best-known buildings

The ABC of architects a personal project conceived by my partner, Federico González, and myself

We aimed to create a a short, simple and fun piece that combined our repective passions of graphic design and achitecture and that would appeal to everyone, regardless of language, nationality or age.

Our first and main motivation was to keep it visually simple but powerful by iconising the most outstanding buildings in the world. We began by making a list of "the unquestionables", architects who laid the foundations of modern architecture: Le Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Oscar Niemeyer, Louis Kahn, Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright. The first problem we encountered was that the list was too long, so we had to find a system for narrowing it down. This is how we came up with the idea of creating an alphabetical list, and thus limiting our selection to 26 architects and their respective buildings, achieving this way the initial simplicity and brevity we had hoped for.

During our search we also made some wonderful and unexpected discoveries like the Greek architect, engineer and composer Iannis Xenakis, who designed the Philips Pavilion, which was inspired by the sheet music of one of his musical compositions. Interestingly, he was also Le Corbusier's engineer.  

By combining our two professions we realised that we were able to familiarise the general public with the basic principles of modern architecture. That's why we made a second project to explain the five points for a new architecture proposed by Le Corbusier in 1926 using his masterpiece, The Villa Savoye.

Reading on mobile? Watch Villa Savoye: The five points of architecture here

Here's a full list of all the architects in our ABC:

Alvar Aalto: Säynätsalo Town Hall - Finland

Luis Barragán: Satellite Towers - Mexico City

Santiago Calatrava: Satolas airport railway station - Lyon, France

Luís Domènech i Montaner: Antoni Tàpies Foundation - Barcelona

Eduardo Souto de Moura: Paula Rego's House of Stories - Cascais, Portugal

Norman Foster: London City Hall - England

Frank Gehry: Guggenheim Bilbao - Spain

Herzog & De Meuron: Beijing National Stadium - China

Arata Isozaki: Palau Sant Jordi - Barcelona

Philip Johnson: The Glass House - New Canaan, United States

Louis Kahn: National Parliament of Bangladesh - Dhaka city

Le Corbusier: Villa Savoye - Poissy, France

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Barcelona Pavilion - Spain

Oscar Niemeyer: National Congress of Brazil

Joseph Maria Olbrich: Secession Building - Vienna, Austria

César Pelli: Petronas Twin Tower - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Giacomo Quarenghi: The Smolny Institute - St. Petersburg, Russia

Renzo Piano + Richard Rogers: Pompidou Centre - Paris, France

Álvaro Siza: Ibere Camargo Foundation - Porto Alegre, Brazil

Kenzo Tange: Tokyo Olympic Stadium - Japan

Jørn Utzon: Sydney Opera House - Australia

William Van Alen: Chrysler Building - New York City

Frank Lloyd Wright: Guggenheim New York - United States

Iannis Xenakis: Philips Pavilion - Expo '58 in Brussels

Minoru Yamasaki: World Trade Center - New York, United States

Zaha Hadid: The Pierres Vives building - Montpellier, France

> via The Guardian