It's a really exciting time to be an architect today as there are so many options and possibilities out there. Modern technology has revolutionized and perfected architecture up to a point where 3D artists and architects can do unimaginable things, much to the delight of their clients.

While this may be so, these exceptional artists and professionals do need a break from time to time from all that technology. Almost every architect is looking for new ways to beat repetition and create something unique.

Intelligence and creativity are what really matters when it comes to creating amazing buildings. But what happens when that intelligence and creativity are put to a different use?

Today, we're going to mention a few amazing architects who have gone beyond their usual architectural approach and produced the most amazing art pieces.

1. Lee Hui Lian

Malaysian architect Lee Hui Lian is also an artist who says that her art is much more than just a hobby. To her, art is a mental state she gets into after a long and conscious preparation process. It takes time to get into the right mood to be ready to create something exceptional and unique.

According to Lian, it takes her the same amount of time and energy to produce art as it takes to do her job as an architect. While her job is all about expectations and what her clients really want, her art is exactly the opposite.

There's no one she answers to, it's her own thing, and she has absolute freedom to express her creativity in any way she feels like. She finds that to be so liberating that it literally keeps her sane and sharp while giving her the energy and will she needs to do what she does.

In a way, doing art is her therapeutic way of taking a break from her usual work and shifting focus to something else. Her art is her own form of self-expression, a personal way of conveying her emotions and mood. While her true allegiance lies with architecture, art is a way of relaxation and charging up her batteries before she gives her best to create the most amazing architectural pieces.

Lian is fully dedicated to finding a balance between the site and space when working and she applies the same reasoning when creating her art.

2. Tay Yan Ling

Tay Yan Ling is one of the most amazing architects in the world. She was blessed with a very unique condition called grapheme-colour synaesthesia that causes her to regard numbers as colours. Her condition is the main reason why her art pieces are so colourful that they give a completely new meaning to using colours in art.

Her art style is similar to that of the most popular impressionists such as Joaquin Sorolla and Claude Monet. It all comes down to how she makes her strokes with a brush. The strokes have to be rich in colour, bright and very light.

Her main goal is to produce art pieces that make people feel optimistic, good and even overwhelmed as she strongly believes that it's possible to express your inner feelings with colours.

According to Ling, there's a deep connection between architecture and art and because of that, most of her art pieces are inspired by beautiful places she has visited with her husband. To her, art is a way of expressing her own interpretation of the real world and how she perceives it.

It's also a way to experience the freedom of creativity without any limitations and boundaries. Art is a state of mind where she can be totally free to do whatever comes to her mind while still being creative. While architecture is all about expressing her creativity in 3D, art is exactly the same only in 2D.

3. Juliana Chan

An architect by accident and artist by her own choosing, Juliana Chan is a person that has always been drawn to drawing. Later on, she was attracted to graphic design but when her attempt to get a scholarship failed, she turned to the closest alternative - architecture.

Since she realized that architecture is not only about creativity but also about levitating between budgets, managing projects and clients' expectations, she needed something else where she could express her creativity without all that weighing her down.

Even though she's completely dedicated to architecture, her love for producing art is growing stronger with each passing day. In fact, she has found a way to balance architecture and art, where one has a significant effect on the other.

While architecture is all about what her clients and users need, her art is all about her needs. In a way, architecture has helped her become an artist in a very organized, realistic and individual way.

On top of all that, architecture has given her a more profound way of understanding things around her which allowed her to produce stunning pieces of art in a very creative and unique way.

4. Richard Hassell

Richard Hassell is one of the rare architects who was an artist first but found out that art isn't the only thing he was into. With a degree in fine arts, the WOHA founding director decided that art isn't going to be his career. According to him, his problem with doing just art was that he found it to be introspective and quite lonely.

Since he wanted to do something more collaborative, he finally found his happiness in the realm of architecture. Now, with all this in mind, Hassell never actually stopped producing art. In fact, he's even in charge of a studio where he gets to practice his talents.

Since architecture can sometimes be nothing but sheer pressure as modern architecture is quite a competitive and turbulent market to work in, art turned out to be the best valve that allows him to let some of that pressure out and get his creative juices running.

That's how he developed his own style which includes tessellations and complex geometries. To him, art is a way of exploring uncharted territories of his creativity without any limitations and restrictions, a realm where he can put together his skills and knowledge in math, nature, and textiles.

His most outstanding art pieces feature scenes we can see in nature but in his own interpretation - rendered in graphics. Just like Juliana Chan finds inspiration for her art in architecture, Hassel uses architecture to find inspiration for his artworks.

Art helped to create amazing pieces of architecture that gave him a competitive advantage. Innovation and creativity are what his work is all about. When you take the best from both worlds, you get an opportunity to create wonderful things.