The 100 coolest works of architecture in the world
Posted by
Martina Birk
on
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
2016-07-30T07:51:00Z
The world has so many incredible buildings that it can be hard to know which are truly above the rest.
For those who want to brush up on their architecture knowledge, we've compiled a ranking of the 100 coolest buildings and structures on the planet.
These include old and new pieces of architecture all over the world, including museums, wineries, religious spaces, skyscrapers, transportation hubs, hotels, and more.
The undulating concrete roof of the Bodegas Ysios winery in Spain's Rioja Alavesa is its defining feature. Alberto Loyo / Shutterstock.com
From a grand, intricately designed historic palace in Spain to a tiny chapel that blends into the Arizona desert, here are our top 100:
100. The slide-like Urbis building in Manchester, UK, contains a National Football Museum.
94. At 387 feet, Scandic Victoria Tower — designed by architect Gert Wingårdh — is the tallest building in Stockholm. The tower's stunning facade, comprised of mismatched mirrors, reflects the sky.
93. Argentina's top government building, the Casa Rosada, in Buenos Aires, is reportedly painted pink to soothe tensions between the country’s opposing political parties: the red of the Federales, mixed with the white of the Unitarians.
90. Built on top of a Formula One race track, the luxury hotel Yas Viceroy Dubai has an imposing canopy studded with LEDs that shine bright in the dark.
89. Ta Prohm Temple is one of over 1,000 temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was used in the filming of "Tomb Raider."
88. Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin conceived by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the 1960s has a Modernist design with clean lines and plenty of glass to allow light in.
87. The visitors' centre at Christchurch Botanical Gardens in New Zealand's Hagley Park has a clean, elegant aesthetic and an all-glass facade making visitors feel as though they are still outdoors.
86. Station Arnhem in the Netherlands was transformed in 2015. Its swanky new transfer hall has a contemporary feel, supported by twisting steel columns.
84. Holmenkollen Ski Jump in the village of Holmenkollen, just outside of Oslo, isn't just for brazen skiers to jump off — the stainless steel structure also offers spectacular city and fjord views from a platform at the top.
82. The beautifully designed Svalbard Global Seed Vault stores hundreds of thousands of seeds, with the aim of protecting them in the event of a global apocalypse.
76. The Hearst Tower, a sleek modern skyscraper inspired by the 1920s on New York City's Eighth Avenue, stands majestic amid drab rectangular buildings.
74. The striking Flinders Street Station in Melbourne is designed in a French Renaissance style. It's the busiest train station in Australia, serving more than 90,000 passengers every weekday.
66. Supported by two bright red columns on each side, the São Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil looks almost like it's floating in mid-air. It's one of the city's coolest buildings.
62. Aula Medica, an auditorium complex at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, is an imposing, leaning tower with multi-coloured, triangle panels echoing its flat-iron shape.
60. The saucer-like shape of Spaceport America, designed by Foster + Partners, brings a sense of space down to Earth, amid the New Mexico desert in the US.
58. Designed by the architect A. B. Hubback, Kuala Lumpur Railway Station's Moorish influence is evident in its ornately decorated domes, arcs, and turrets.
56. The rooms of Sharifi-ha House in Tehran, Iran, can be rotated by 90-degrees to allow for shifting perspectives on the outside world.
Vahid Salemi/AP Images
55. Syndey's 1 Bligh Street is a 456-foot-tall skyscraper with a contemporary design. Look up in the atrium for a stunning view of the building's interior.
53. Look up inside New York City's new World Trade Center PATH station for a phenomenal view of the steel and concrete structure created by architect Santiago Calatrava.
49. Designed by the architect Colin St John Wilson, the Grade I-listed British Library is home to the world's largest collection of books — and a stunning, sleek interior made up of wavy staircases and sharp lines.
48. Zaha Hadid's extension of the Ordrupgaard Museum near Jægersborg Dyrehave in Denmark is encased in black lava concrete, which changes colour from grey to black depending on the weather.
47. The Pompidou Centre in Paris, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, contains a modern art museum, a music centre, and a well-stocked public library.
pisaphotography / Shutterstock
46. The Clyde Auditorium, or "The Armadillo," in Glasgow the most stylish place to enjoy a concert north of the border.
43. The award-winning New John Jay College building in New York City provides everything its students needs in one space: including science labs, kitchens, and a daycare centre.
42. The curved structure of wine museum La Cité du Vin, designed by XTU Architects in Bordeaux, France, evokes the shape of a vine, wine glass, and other wine-related motifs.
41. The cylindrical shape of the iconic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, certainly makes an impression in New York City's Upper East Side.
40. Unlike most skyscrapers, the 256-foot and 344-foot-tall towers of Bosco Verticale (which translates to “vertical forest”) in Milan are adorned with greenery, decorated with over 700 trees and 90 types of plants.
38. It's not hard to see what makes Alhambra — a historic palace/fort in Granada, Spain, that's an ode to the country's Moorish past — a World Heritage Site.
37. Completed in 2010 by the firm WAM Architecten, the four-star Inntel Hotel in Amsterdam looks more like a LEGO structure rather than a pile of houses stacked on top of each other.
36. The shops nestled into the Ponte Vecchio arch bridge in Florence, Italy, were once home to butchers' shops, but are now occupied by souvenir-sellers.
33. The Faisal Mosque is the largest and most striking religious building in Pakistan.
K_Boonnitrod / Shutterstock.com
32. The grid-like pattern on Renzo Piano's stunning New York Times building in midtown Manhattan cleverly reflects the format of the newspaper and city.
30. The sloping structure of the W. R. Grace Building in New York City is a monochrome masterpiece. Its facade also reflects other buildings and the sky to create a mind-bending optical illusion.
29. Among London's most beautiful buildings, St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel and King's Cross Clocktower stand out on Euston Road thanks to their striking Gothic Revival facade, designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott.
28. The curved, multiple levels of Zaha Hadid's Innovation Tower, where the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's design school is based, make the building look like it's moving.
15. The Palace of Italian Civilisation, nicknamed the "Square Colosseum," is one of Rome's more simple yet subtly beautiful buildings. Today, the building serves as the headquarters of the designer Fendi.
11. The world's largest structure to be built out of mud, The Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali is an architectural masterpiece that looks as though it has sprouted out of the ground.
8. Temppeliaukio Church in the Finnish capital of Helsinki was built into a rock by architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen before opening in 1969.
6. The 118-foot-tall zinc roof on the glass-fronted Riverside Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid, makes a startling impression on the shore of the Clyde River in Glasgow.
5. The exterior of Gare do Oriente, a train station in Lisbon designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is made up of spires and large, skeleton-like wings.
1. The Lutheran Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík is the largest church in Iceland. The design — by state architect Guðjón Samúelsson — represents the flowing lava of Iceland’s active volcanoes.