Take a tour of the world’s most beautiful buildings, from Kansas City to India.
These are the world’s most beautiful buildings? Are you kidding?
A hundred years ago, naming the world’s most beautiful buildings was easy:
the Parthenon. Sure. The Taj Mahal. Absolutely. Hagia Sophia. No argument
. But now, in part because the whole notion was chewed up and spit out by
those troublemaking Modernists, we’re just learning to think about architecture
in terms of beauty again. It’s open season.
ICMC at Brandenburg Technical University,
Cottbus, Germany
Cottbus, Germany
Photo: Alex Korting
Certain themes are evident in our choices of the world’s most beautiful
buildings. We love buildings surrounded by water; the interaction between
water and daylight is always magical. (Why do you think the Lincoln Memorial
has a reflecting pool at its doorstep?) And we are head over heels for
flamboyant uses of pattern and color. The Netherlands Institute for Sound
and Vision, for example, is positively psychedelic.
So are we consistent? Nope. But however capricious our choices may seem,
we don’t take beauty lightly. After all, the ongoing search for beauty is what
travel is all about. It’s certainly the best reason we know to leave the house.
ICMC at Brandenburg Technical University
Cottbus, Germany
While many architects prefer the smoothest, clearest glass, Swiss firm
Herzog & de Meuron specializes in texture. This technologically sophisticated
university library, in an obscure corner of Eastern Germany, is clad in frosted
glass—and embossed with letters from the world’s alphabets. Shaped like
an amoeba, with its central spiral staircase in bright magenta and green,
the seven-story building looks like a carnival ride.
Relativity Theory: The free-form building looks especially impressive because it’s
surrounded by long, dull, rectilinear buildings of the sort the East Germans were known for.
Sagrada Família
Barcelona
Visionary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí spent more than 40 years of
his life on this glorious, chaotically complex, and still unfinished Gothic-Art
Nouveau cathedral. After his untimely death in 1926 (he was hit by a streetcar),
his associates continued his sculptural masterwork, and despite the fact that
the original drawings were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, construction
continues today. Completion is scheduled for sometime between 2017 and 2026.
Authenticity Alert: The east-facing Nativity façade was the only one
completed by Gaudí himself.
Burj Al Arab
Dubai, UAE
This 60-story sail-shaped hotel, which sits on its own private island, was
designed to be a national icon. But the interior is where the beauty lies:
a nearly 600-foot-tall atrium—the world’s tallest. The undersides of tier
after tier of semicircular balconies reveal a spectrum of colors. And the
tower’s powerful diagonal braces, like the flying buttresses of the past,
inspire awe.
Insider Tip: Non-guests can gain access to the Burj Al Arab’s private island
by booking a meal at one of its restaurants; try afternoon tea at the Skyview
Bar or a buffet lunch at Junsui.
Burj Al Arab, Dubai, UAE
Photo: Courtesy of Burj Al Arab
Institute for Sound and Vision
Hilversum, The Netherlands
The work of Jaap Drupsteen, the graphic artist responsible for the building-size
media collage, used to be everywhere in the Netherlands. This building is his
comeback. Along with architecture firm Neutelings Riedijk, he covered the
façade of the massive media archive and museum with images from Dutch
television, abstracted into a giant four-sided mural and baked directly onto
cast glass. The effect is stunning inside and out.
Experiential Beauty: Tour the history of Dutch broadcasting, or simply
gaze up at the stained glass from a table at the atrium’s Grand Café.
Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, The Netherlands
Design by Neutelings Riedijk Architecten/Photo by Scagliola Brakkee
The Golden Temple
Amritsar, India
This most sacred Sikh shrine sits in the middle of what was once a wooded lake.
The Buddha came here to meditate, and so did Guru Nanak, the founder of the
Sikh faith, some 2,000 years later. The Harimandir, or “Temple of God,” was
built and destroyed many times before the current version was erected in the
late 1700s. The radiance of this gilded building, a mixture of Hindu and Muslim
architectural styles, is amplified by reflections in the surrounding water and the
devotional music that emanates from the temple day and night.
Night Owls Welcome: The temple is open 20 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
daily, and is illuminated (and especially lovely) at night.
The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India
Photo: Geetesh Bajaj
National Congress Hall
Brasilia, Brazil
Brasilia probably works better as a Modernist sculpture garden than as
a city, but if there is one piece of it that best represents the whole, it’s
Congress Hall. Architect Oscar Niemeyer’s colonnaded marvel, with its
grand sci-fi entrance ramp, skinny twin towers, and two bowl-shaped
meeting halls (one for the Chamber of Deputies and one for the Federal
Senate), treats the business of government as a monumental work of art.
Not Just Skin Deep: Go inside and check out the Green Hall (named for
the color of the carpet and the Brazilian flag), with its collection of paintings,
sculptures, and decorative screens by renowned Brazilian artists.
National Congress Hall, Brasilia, Brazil
Photo: Courtesy of EMBRATUR
The Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain
The Frank Gehry–designed, titanium-clad phenomenon that upstaged the
Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright transformed the way the world understands
architecture, art museums, and the strategies for reviving depressed industrial
cities. Today, the shiny undulating museum doesn’t look as shocking as it once
did, but it does embody a certain kind of late 20th-century thinking—the thrill of
formal complexity and high art.
Small Is Beautiful: Alternatively, we could make a case for Frank Gehry’s first
major building, the diminutive white Vitra Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
The Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
Photo: Aitor Las Hayas
The Chrysler Building
New York City
Designed by architect William van Alen, the Chrysler’s shiny, filigreed Art Deco spire is the most indispensable piece of the New York City skyline, perfectly balancing the primal thrust of the classic American skyscraper with the desire for a little bling. (It was the world’s tallest for less than a year in 1931 before that zeppelin-masted tower eight blocks south took the spotlight.) Day or night, its stainless-steel crown still dazzles like nothing else.
Icon Alert: This is possibly the only building in the world that is decorated with automotive hood ornaments: the big eagles on the 61st floor were copied from a 1929 Chrysler.
Mont St. Michel
Normandy, France
Though not as lavish as some landlocked cathedrals, this abbey is certainly the most dramatically situated, enjoying prime real estate just off the
coast of Normandy. The first abbey was built in 709, with construction continuing
for hundreds of years. Spurning the safety of the causeway (built in 1879 and
currently being reconstructed), pilgrims still scamper across the sands at low tide
to reach the Mont, and risk being overtaken by fast-moving waters.
Dining Tip: Try the agneau de pré-salé, a local specialty made from meat from
the lambs that graze on the nearby salt meadows.
Mont St. Michel, Normandy, France
Photo: Julius Fekete / Alamy
Nelson-Atkins Museum’s Bloch Building
Kansas City, MO
Unlike many modern additions to historic museums, Steven Holl’s 21st-century companion doesn’t overwhelm the 1933 Beaux Arts original. His
string of iridescent frosted-glass boxes pop out of the grassy lawn—they are absolutely
magical at dusk when they begin to glow—and filter sunlight into a series of dramatic
underground galleries.
Special Attraction: Check out the Noguchi Sculpture Court, a minimalist space
created by the famed Japanese-American artist that cleverly blurs the line between
indoors and out.
Nelson-Atkins Museum’s Bloch Building, Kansas City, MO
Photo: Andy Rya
News Source: Yahoo
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