Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík, Iceland

The Hallgrímskirkja (literally, the church of Hallgrímur) is a Lutheran parish church in Reykjavík, Iceland. At 74.5 metres (244 ft), it is the largest church in Iceland and the sixth tallest architectural structure in Iceland.

It took 38 years to build the church. Construction work began in 1945 and ended in 1986, the landmark tower being completed long before the church's actual completion.

of Reykjavík, it is one of the city's best-known landmarks and is visible throughout the city. The church is also used as an observation tower. An observer can take a lift up to the viewing deck and view Reykjavík and the surrounding mountains.

Architect : Guðjón Samúelsson

Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Shanghai, China

The Shanghai Oriental Arts Center is one of the leading performing arts and cultural facilities in Shanghai and China. Located adjacent to Century Avenue in the Pudong Adminitration and Culture Center, the landmark building was officially opened at the end of 2004 and has come to symbolize the growth of western and traditional art forms in China in recent years. Various cutural and musical performances are currently held in the center, including the 2005 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Shanghai Concert.

The building merges architectural artistry with functionality. The material of the façades is mainly laminated glass incorporating perforated metal sheets. The five interconnected hemispherical halls or 'petals', resembling a butterfly or butterfly orchid from above, each 'petal' belonging in turn to the entrance hall, the Performance Hall, the Concert Hall, the Exhibition Hall, and the Opera Hall, respectively. To avoid confusion when inside, the interior of each of the five segments are decorated with large distictly-coloured pebbles hung on the walls as a means of differentiating between them. Inside, the dark granite floors and richly hued furnishings offer the feeling of being inside a forest, while the metal-layered glass screen walls filter the sunshine for a softly diffused forest floor effect.

The high-tech ceiling changes colour during the night to reflect the nature of the performances inside. It also features ancillary public facilities, such an exhibition hall, music shops, restaurant and arts exchange premises.

Architect : Paul Andreu

Saint-Pierre, Firminy, France

Saint-Pierre (English: Saint Peter) is a concrete building in the commune of Firminy, France. The last major work of French Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier, it was completed in 2006, 41 years after his death.

Designed to be a church in the model city of Firminy Vert, the construction of Saint-Pierre was begun in 1971, six years after Le Corbusier's death in 1965. Due to local political conflicts it remained stalled from 1975 to 2003, when the local government declared the mouldering concrete ruin an "architectural heritage" and financed its completion. It has been used for many different purposes, as a secondary school and as a shelter. As the laicist French state may not use public funds for religious buildings, Saint-Pierre is now used as a cultural venue.

The building was completed by French architect José Oubrerie, Le Corbusier's student for many years.

Architect : Le Corbusier & José Oubrerie

Frederic C. Hamilton building (Denver Art Museum), Denver, US

The Denver Art Museum is an art museum in Denver, Colorado located in Denver's Civic Center. It is known for its collection of American Indian art, and has a comprehensive collection numbering more than 68,000 works from across the world.

Major expansion was carried out in the form of this building, Frederic C. Hamilton building, which was completed in 2006 at the cost of 20 million dollars. The building is clad in titanium and glass. The project was recognised by the American Institute of Architects as a successful Building Information Modeling project.

Architect : Daniel Libeskind

Aspire Tower, Doha, Qatar

The Aspire Tower is a 300 meter (984 ft) structure located in the Sports City complex in Doha, Qatar. Aspire Tower served as the focal point for the 15th Asian Games hosted by Qatar in December 2006. The Aspire Tower is currently the tallest structure in Doha, but it is expected to be surpassed by the Dubai Towers and the Barwa Tower. The tower has also been known as Khalifa Sports Tower or Doha Olympic Tower.

The tower was a landmark of the 2006 Asian Games due to its size and proximity to the main venue, the Khalifa International Stadium. The tower housed the Asian Games flame during the games and holds the record for tallest ever games flame and highest positioning of a games flame, which was visible throughout Doha for the duration of the games. The design employs a concrete core which acts as the primary support. The remainder of the building is a steel structure that cantilevers out from the concrete core. The exterior of the building is covered in a steel mesh which, during the Asian Games, was festively illuminated by vibrant LED lights.

Aspire Tower includes a five-star hotel with ballroom/banqueting suite, conference/business center, a lower-level restaurant, gymnasium, franchise spaces, salons, a sports museum, a four-story Presidential suite, and at the buildings' top, a restaurant, bar and observation deck providing panoramic views of Doha. It will also feature a swimming pool cantilevered 80 meters above ground.

In late 2007, the Aspire Tower was completed at a final cost of 133,395,000 EUR (173,500,510 USD).

Architect : Hadi Simaan

Avaz Twist Tower, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Avaz Twist Tower or (also called ATT) located in Marijin dvor, Sarajevo is the Balkan's tallest tower. It is the new headquarter for Avaz, the most popular Bosnia and Herzegovina newspaper company.

The tower is located in Marijin Dvor, Sarajevo's business district, which has recently been renovated with the plans for the Unitic 3, Sarajevo City Center, and the construction of ALTA center, US Embassy, Importane Center and Grand Media Center. Construction began in 2006 and has been finished in 2009. The Avaz Twist Tower holds the record for being the Balkan's tallest tower and one of the most interesting towers in Europe. However, with the construction of the Avala TV Tower in Belgrade, Serbia, the latter will take the title of the tallest tower in the Balkans upon completion.

Architect : Faruk Kapidžić

The Concourse, Kallang, Singapore

The Concourse is a high-rise commercial and residential building on Beach Road in Kallang, Singapore.

The Concourse is a mixed-use development, comprising a 41-story office tower, a three-level retail podium and nine storeys of serviced apartments. The three distinct components, with their different usage, have separate entrances. These overlook the traditional low-rise shophouses and office blocks in the Beach Road area.

Approaching the city from Singapore Changi Airport, The Concourse's tower stands out as a landmark because of its distinctive silhouette when viewed from across the Kallang Basin. The tower is octagonal in plan, as the number "8" for the octagon is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture.

It is supported by huge pilotis. The distinctive soaring effect of the tower is accentuated by these lofty columns on the first storey which also effectively elevate the building, but is mitigated by the faceted façade of the serviced apartments and retail podium.

The Concourse's most prominent architectural feature is the aluminium curtain wall system incorporating inclined windows that form clusters of units. These interlocking clusters are stacked vertically, like dinner plates, one above the other, rotating around the building.

Due to its unique and unconventional building design, a scale model of The Concourse once went for an architectural exhibition tour around the world.

Architect : Paul Rudolph

Lippo Centre, Hong Kong

The Lippo Centre is a pair of twin office towers in Hong Kong, previously known as the Bond Center. The buildings are located at 89 Queensway, in Admiralty on Hong Kong Island. The height of the taller tower is 186m.

The buildings, completed in 1987, were dubbed "The Koala Tree" because they resemble koalas clutching a tree.

Architect : Paul Rudolph

Rose Center for Earth and Space, New York, US

The Rose Center for Earth and Space is a notable part of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Center's complete name is The Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. The main entrance is located on the northern side of the museum on 81st Street near Central Park West.

The center is an extensive reworking of the old Hayden Planetarium, which dated back to 1935. An entirely new building opened to the public on February 19, 2000, featuring a seven-story-tall glass cube that encloses the 87-foot-diameter Hayden Sphere. The top half of the Sphere houses the Space Theater, one of the world’s pre-eminent planetariums, which incorporates high-resolution fulldome video to create “space shows,” based in scientific visualization of current astrophysical data.

The Big Bang Theater occupies the bottom half of the Hayden Sphere.

Architect : James Stewart Polshek & Todd H. Schliemann (Polshek Partnership Architects)

Lewis Katz Building (Dickinson School of Law), Pennsylvania, US

Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law marked its 175th anniversary with the opening of its new 114,000 sq ft Lewis Katz Building.

The focal point of the Lewis Katz Building is its glass-enclosed H. Laddie Montague Jr. Law Library with a volume capacity of 100,000 and seating for 294 students. The architecture draws from the idea that the law library is the theoretical and physical heart of the legal educational experience. As the center in which students spend much of their time, the library is conceived as a floating element, sheltered from the rest of the school’s program beneath. The ground plane flows unimpeded, linking interior and exterior space to foster the feeling of openness and accessibility emblematic of the school’s goals.

“The sinuous building form is a direct response to the presence of the surrounding mountains and geology of the valley,” says the architect. “The curving library is clad in glass to create a constantly changing backdrop of reflected sunlight throughout the day and a beacon of light at night.”

The Lewis Katz Building was constructed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements, utilizing numerous sustainable initiatives and local and recycled materials throughout its design. From its continuous planted green roof to its reintroduction of pervious surfaces on what was a massive parking lot, the building helps reduce the amount of rainwater runoff generated by the site. To reduce its energy consumption, the building maximizes its use of natural day lighting in public spaces as its mechanical systems allow for operable windows and individual climate control in most of its individual offices.

Additional building features include the 250-seat Greg Sutliff Auditorium; a courtroom equipped with the latest in trial technology; four 75-person classrooms; several intimate seminar rooms; legal clinic and student organizations suites; and outdoor terraces and reading gardens.

Architect : Richard Olcott (Polshek Partnership Architects)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened its doors on October 21, 1959 and is one of the best-known museums in New York City and one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks.

the museum––which is often called simply The Guggenheim––is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art, and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. Located on the Upper East Side in New York City it is the second museum opened by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation which was founded in 1937. The Museum recently underwent an extensive, three year renovation.

The distinctive building, instantly polarized architecture critics upon completion, though today it is widely revered. From the street, the building looks approximately like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. Its appearance is in sharp contrast to the more typically boxy Manhattan buildings that surround it.

Internally, the viewing gallery forms a gentle helical spiral from the main level up to the top of the building. Paintings are displayed along the walls of the spiral and also in exhibition space found at annex levels along the way.

Most of the criticism of the building has focused on the idea that it overshadows the artworks displayed within, and that it is particularly difficult to properly hang paintings in the shallow windowless exhibition niches that surround the central spiral. Although the rotunda is generously lit by a large skylight, the niches are heavily shadowed by the walkway itself, leaving the art to be lit largely by artificial light. The walls of the niches are neither vertical nor flat (most are gently concave), meaning that canvasses must be mounted proud of the wall's surface. The limited space within the niches means that sculptures are generally relegated to plinths amid the main spiral walkway itself.

The museum was registered as a National Historic Landmark on October 6, 2008.

Architect : Frank Lloyd Wright

Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal

Casa da Música is a major concert hall space in Porto, Portugal which houses the cultural institution of the same name with its three orchestras Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra Barroca and Remix Ensemble.

It was built as part of Porto's project for European Culture Capital in 2001 but was only finished in the first half of 2005 and immediately became an icon in the city.

The building's design has been highly acclaimed worldwide.

Architect : Rem Koolhaas