Designed by Shigeru Ban, the Japanese architect famous for a new generation of paper and cardboard buildings, this country club opened in 2010 features a notably elegant atrium lobby. A laminated timber grid shell supported seamlessly by lightweight, three-story-high columns of the same material forms its ceiling and roof. Computer cut, columns and grid shell employ as little material as possible. The filigree, fireproof columns allow the free flow of air through the atrium, their design inspired by "bamboo wives" (zhúfūrén), traditional lattice-framed bamboo bolsters. In hot and humid weather, these are cooler to sleep on than sheets and pillows. The lightweight form of the ceiling grid shell is reflected in a pool creating an intentionally poetic effect.
Heydar Aliyev Center
Baku, Azerbaijan
The floor, walls and ceilings of the curvaceous auditorium of this bravura cultural center, opened in 2012, form a seamless whole. The effect is magical and truly remarkable, as if the architect, Zaha Hadid has dissolved the normal rules of construction and reinvented their own. In fact, the geometrically complex laminated white-oak shell of the auditorium is set within a steel frame. This gives the necessary rigidity to the structure while allowing and the auditorium to feel as if it is floating in free space. Zaha Hadid had long wanted to shape such a fluid architecture. With the latest computer wizardry, she has achieved this in Baku. You will never look at a ceiling in quite the same way again.
San Pantalon
Dorsoduro, Italy
For a few awe-inspiring moments, a 50-cent euro coin lights up the ceiling of this unfinished Baroque parish church. A dazzling late 17th Century oil painting covering 443 sq m gives the illusion of continuing the architecture of the church up through chiaroscuro colonnades and a choir of highly animated winged angels through golden skies to the white light of heaven itself. This illusionistic painting, with its thrillingly foreshortened perspectives, is the work of Gian Antonio Fumiani (1645-1710). The influential 19th Century English critic, John Ruskin, described The Martyrdom and Apotheosis of St Pantalon as "the most curious example in Europe of the vulgar dramatic effects of painting". He was quite wrong: dig in your pocket for another 50 cents.
Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests
Temple of Heaven, China
Temple of Heaven is a vast complex of religious buildings built during the reign of the Ming Dynasty Yongle emperor (born Zhu Di). Completed in 1420, the three-tiered Hall of Prayer evoked and represented the hours, days, months and seasons of the years in an architecture of precise geometry and gloriously colorful timber components culminating in an imperious dome. The 38m high temple was constructed without a single nail, the timber columns and rafters slotting together like a giant building kit. The distinctive colors represent various evocations of good fortune, joy, prosperity and the glory of imperial rule. Burned down in 1889 and rebuilt, the temple interior was repainted to look brand new for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
St Stephen Walbrook
City of London, Britain
Viewed from the confine of City lanes, St Stephen Walbrook appears to be a very modest structure. Inside, however, this church designed by Christopher Wren proves to be one of the architectural wonders of late 17th Century Europe. Carried on eight Corinthian columns and eight arches punctuated by clear windows, is a magnificent coffered dome. This is a scale-model of the dome Christopher Wren had hoped to build over his original design for St Paul's Cathedral. The Church Commissioners turned this down, and yet we can see what Wren had intended inside this quiet church. Although capacious, the 19.3m dome — made of timber, plaster and copper — is, unlike that of St Paul's, light, resting gently on St Stephen's.
Which one is your favorite?
Source: BBC
Editors: Zhang Xi, Shen Hui (intern)
