A Spotters Guide to Amazing Architecture

This is Amazing Architecture: classic, quirky, contemporary.

When we travel its often to see a building the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower. We then photograph ourselves in front of them and, lets face it, the feeling of having claimed these sights is part of the joy of tourism.

But why? Because, buildings are endlessly intriguing: things of beauty, symbols of their age and emblems of human endeavour. As the worlds most famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright put it: The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization. They speak of ambitions and ideas and even, occasionally, the basic human need for shelter.

Sometimes, buildings are the reason we decide to go to a place: think of an icon such as Bilbaos Guggenheim and Cambodias Angkor Wat temple complex. Other times, buildings are less the decoration on the cake than the filling, such as the golden Georgian terraces of Bath in the UK, and the silvery boulevards of Georges-Eugne Haussmanns Paris. From the sublime and the extraordinary to the curious and vainglorious, weve rounded up some of the worlds most amazing buildings.Youll find such retro joys as the Atomium in Brussels and the Shabalovka Radio Tower in Moscow, as well as inspirational individualities such as Spains Dal Museum.

Among the classics, discover great religious edifices like the Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali, Istanbuls Hagia Sophia, and the UKs glorious Lincoln Cathedral. For cool-hunters, theres Gauds Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the cinematic delights of the Berlin Alexanderplatz TV Tower and New Yorks Chrysler Building. Weve included old favourites and some you may not have seen before.

From the sublime to the strange, join our grand tour of the worlds most amazing architecture.

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1986

Fariborz Sahba, Delhi, India

Best known as the Lotus Temple, the Bah House of Worship really does look like a huge flower, its petals spread to encourage devotion. The temple is dedicated to the Bah faith with roots in Shia Islam and its open to all. Those 27 white marble petals are free-standing, and nine sides (its a Bah thing) face into a spectacular central hall large enough to accommodate 2500 people.

In 2001 CNN named it the most visited building in the world. See it in a Delhi sunset and grab yourself a sacred moment.

DOESCHER / GETTY IMAGES

N 34 3 28.404 W 118 14 41.6724

2002

Rafael Moneo, Los Angeles, US

There are few new cathedrals in the modern world, but OLA in LA is one. Designed by Spanish starchitect Rafael Moneo, its been dubbed the worlds only postmodern cathedral. Well, it does have some sharp angles and a classic LA site close to the Hollywood Freeway. But somehow it adds up to a convincing Catholic cathedral and it even has the relics of 3rd-century martyr Saint Vibiana, resting alongside a more modern icon, Gregory Peck. Nor will its themes of Light and Journey faze the Oprah generation.

INCITE PHOTOGRAPHY / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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Architect N/A, Ayutthaya, Thailand

Theres something thrilling about a lost historic city, and Ayutthaya has that excitement in spades. A world city in the 14th-18th centuries, its position on an island near the Gulf of Siam gave it real trading power.

But they couldnt let it lie. Sacked by Burma, it was abandoned and the rest is archaeology. But whats left is stunning: elegant prang (reliquary towers) that tease the eye, sturdy monasteries, plentiful preserved murals: all on a grid that speaks of past greatness. Sorry Bangkok you just dont compete.

TORTOON / GETTY IMAGES

N 43 20 14.1072 E 17 48 54.4824

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Mimar Hayruddin, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

This 30m hump-backed arch over the river Neretva is a most elegant thing: like a cat stretching over the water below. But Stari Most is also a poignant symbol of reconciliation.

In 1993, the Balkans War took the middle out of the old Ottoman-era crossing, and the two sides of the town, connected for 427 years, were rent asunder. By 2004 it was erected anew, and on baking summer days, the spectacular annual diving competition resumes.

MIKEL HERNANDEZ SALAZAR / 500PX

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Architect N/A, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The old district of Pelourinho or Pel, in the city of Salvador, has the kind of atmosphere you can slice not least because, beneath its beauty, it was a place of past atrocity.

Cobbled, steep, and surrounded by colourful Portuguese colonial buildings, including beauties like the light blue baroque Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosrio dos Pretos, its UNESCO-listed but utterly alive. Attend one of the huge bloco or drum orchestras here on Sundays and youll hear a defiant link to a difficult past.