Museo Guggenheim, Spain
The world’s most interesting buildings - Museo Guggenheim, Spain
Some critics might argue that Frank Gehry’s Museo Guggenheim in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao,
opened in 1997, looks as though it’s been taken to by a can-opener, but
this is one of the most influential and striking buildings in modern
architecture. With its ribbonlike sheets of titanium and its collection
of interconnecting blocks, the museum gives a nod to Bilbao’s
industrialism but also to the saucerlike curves of Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York. Oh yeah…nearly forgot. There’s
art inside, too.
Potala Palace, Tibet
The world’s most interesting buildings - Potala Palace, Tibet
Perched high above the holy city of Lhasa is
the former seat of the Tibetan government and the winter residence of
the Dalai Lama. More notable now for its imposing presence than its
residents, this huge construction is 13 storeys high, contains thousands
of rooms, and is styled like a traditional Buddhist gompa (temple),
if significantly more elaborate. More than 7000 workers were said to
have been involved in its construction during the 7th century AD. Potala Palace is now a state museum of China, and has been given a place on the Unesco World Heritage list.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt
The world’s most interesting buildings - Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt
Between the ancient pyramids and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt now
has the best of old and new. Like a giant discus landed at an angle or
an enormous light switch, Alexandria’s oceanfront library is arguably
the first great design of the new millennium. Completed in 2002, it’s
inspired by the original Alexandrina library, founded in the 3rd century
BC and acclaimed as the greatest of all classical institutions. The
building’s sloped design represents a second sun rising beside the
Mediterranean. The vast rotunda space can hold eight million books.
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