Dezeen Magazine

Archipix by Federico Babina

Architects including Zaha Hadid, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are depicted like vintage video game characters in these images by graphic designer Federico Babina (+ slideshow).

Archipix by Federico Babina
Jean Nouvel with his Torre Agbar

Federico Babina illustrated a series of well-known architects as pixellated graphics with white or black outlines, as if they feature in an 8-bit video game from the 80s.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Zaha Hadid with her Vitra Fire Station

Each is paired with one of their famous projects in the background, coloured with a limited palette.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Rem Koolhaas with his CCTV Headquarters

Babina intended the pixellated portraits and backdrops to display the essence of each architect and their buildings.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Frank Gehry with his Disney Concert Hall

"The idea of ​​this project is to represent the complexity of the forms and personalities through the simplicity of the pixel," he told Dezeen.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Frank Lloyd Wright with his Guggenheim Museum

Frank Lloyd Wright stands next to his spiralling Guggenheim Museum in New York, Louis Kahn is positioned in front of the concrete Salk Institute campus in California and Le Corbusier is shown beside his Ronchamp chapel in France.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Tadao Ando with his Church of the Light

Along with buildings, architects Mies van der Rohe and Alvar Aalto are also pictured with iconic chairs they designed.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Antoni Gaudí with his Sagrada Familia

Antoni Gaudí can be seen with his incomplete Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, surrounded by a construction site.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Mies van der Rohe with his Crown Hall, IIT Campus

Japanese architects Tadao Ando, Toyo Ito, Arata Isozaki and Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA are all represented too.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Norman Foster with his "Gherkin" tower

Curved towers by Jean Nouvel and Norman Foster in Barcelona and London respectively are featured, as well as Richard Meier with his Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Renzo Piano with his Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre

Current "starchitects" Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Rem Koolhaas complete the line-up.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Kazuyo Sejima with her Zollverein School of Management and Design

Babina described the style as a kind of "digital pointillism", with the mouse replacing the brush: "The pixel reappears and emphasises the importance that has the single dot, seen as something essential that in combination with other points form a more complex picture."

Archipix by Federico Babina
Toyo Ito with his Porta Fira Towers

"It's a metaphor of architecture where every little detail is a key component of the whole mosaic," he said.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Arata Isozaki with his Sant Jordi Sports Palace

We've previously featured an animation which runs through an A to Z to architects by showing their most famous buildings.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Louis Kahn with his Salk Institute

Other graphics on Dezeen include portraits of electronic musicians and DJs that show one image during the day and another at night, plus billboards that stretch outwards to double as street furniture.

Archipix by Federico Babina
Richard Meier with his Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

See more graphics »

Archipix by Federico Babina
Alvar Aalto with his Riola Church and Parish Centre