Architecture Gallery: Hits, Misses, and Masterpieces

[rgray222]

We don't often think about it, but architecture is a silent force that shapes our lives and experiences every day. Although it's rarely seen as a cause of happiness or misery, we are surrounded by it constantly, and it has a deep impact on our psyche. It can evoke national pride or national shame. It can be confusing or a source of understanding and joy. Architecture can preserve culture or even create culture; some architecture is meant to tear down culture. It has also been a way to dehumanise and subjugate certain segments of society. Architecture can be wonderful and it ultimately shapes and is shaped by the culture of society.

I am hoping this thread allows us to discuss all types of architecture, not just city skylines, but classical, landscape, furniture, residential, religious, and futurist, to name just a few. If you decide to drop a photo in this thread, please tell say something about it and tell us where and what we are looking at.

I am not sure how the mods want to handle AI subject matter. I believe the prevailing guidelines are that if any subject matter is AI-generated, it must be identified as AI.

Furniture, (mass-produced or one-off handmade furniture, whatever brings out some emotion)

Frank Lloyd Wright Furniture


Skyscrapers

Marina Bay Sands - Singapore
It is the definition of an urban lifestyle. It has everything one could ever need all under one roof: a museum, a shopping mall, a hotel, restaurants, a casino, a resort; you name it.  It can hold as many as 450,00 people at a time and has a world-famous infinity pool, from where you can see the most amazing panoramic view while taking a swim.


Shanghai Skyline - ChinaDiscovery.com


The Courtscraper Manhattan (Getty Images)


Architeture disasters

Huge apartment complex outside of Moscow


The Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in St Louis, shortly after its completion in 1956. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis


Landscape

Japanese Gardens - Kyoto, Japan


Japanese Garden - Tokyo, Japan

[Bill Ryan]

Look at this: (RunningDeer/Paula posted this on the Nuggets of Truth thread back in September)

Antique 18th century Italian hobnail floor safe

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7waE0LsjCyU

[rgray222]

Brutalist Architecture - Designed to survive an atomic blast

33 Thomas Street in NYC is a 550-foot-tall (170 m) windowless skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for its Brutalist architectural style and imposing, fortress-like appearance. Designed by architect John Carl Warnecke and completed in 1974. Its lack of windows is intentional, serving both functional and defensive purposes: it protects sensitive telecommunications machinery from environmental factors and was designed to withstand an atomic blast, with the capacity to shelter up to 1,500 people and remain operational for two weeks after a disaster.

The building has also been reported to serve as a National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance facility, fueling its reputation as a mysterious and secretive hub for intelligence operations.

For those interested, you can read more at - The windowless skyscraper in New York. An Inconvenient US Secret.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

We should perhaps include interior design to this thread! This is the house from the movie Home Alone, made in 1990.

Before and after. Which do you prefer?

For me, top one, the original, every day of the week. A little old-fashioned now, but warm, lived-in, homey. The modernist restyling is bland, cold, colourless, clinical, soulless and cookie-cutter. Like every suburban new-build in existence. You watch some of these home refurbishment shows, and the end product looks almost identical to this, every single time.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Architect Frank Gehry has died aged 96. Today, the BBC hailed him as a "creative force in architecture who was behind some of the world's most intriguing buildings."



In my view, post-modernist grotesquerie. A crime against beauty in each and every case.

The Architecture of Frank Gehry
A leaning glass tower at the Dancing House, Prague


Hotel Marques de Riscal Bodega, Spain


The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao


El Peix d'Or, Barcelona


The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris


Der Neue Zollhof in Düsseldorf

[Bill Ryan]

The images above are so grotesque that I had to post this as remedial therapy for readers eyes.

The Marine Terminal, Sochi, Russia: (on the Black Sea)



https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/166959

[happyuk]

Posted by Mark (Star Mariner) (here)
Architect Frank Gehry has died aged 96. Today, the BBC hailed him as a "creative force in architecture who was behind some of the world's most intriguing buildings."



In my view, post-modernist grotesquerie. A crime against beauty in each and every case.

The Architecture of Frank Gehry
A leaning glass tower at the Dancing House, Prague


Hotel Marques de Riscal Bodega, Spain


The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao


El Peix d'Or, Barcelona


The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris


Der Neue Zollhof in Düsseldorf

These rascals genuinely don't see the toxic effect that ugly, demoralising buildings have on society.

They see themselves as misunderstood geniuses, but remove the Emporer's New Clthes of hype, and what you have are huge, impractical structures that are cold, inhumane, and probably a nightmare to maintain. The architectural equivalent of a raised middle finger.

They not only look temporary, but I think they are temporary. There will come a time, a few generations into the future perhaps, when these things are quietly abandoned, dismantled, or simply fall apart, to be replaced with something more practical and humane.

[rgray222]

The largest cathedral ever built was inaugurated today (June 11, 2026) after 144 years of construction.






A place of legend': The ancient engineering marvels of the world's tallest church



Antoni Gaudí was known as "God's architect", and the centuries-old arch design he drew on for Barcelona's Sagrada Família helps it soar higher than any other church in the world. Today, it has been perfected using modern techniques.

In June 1926, an old man in dishevelled clothing was struck down by a tram when crossing the street on his way to church. A few days later, he died in a pauper's hospital. The man was Antoni Gaudí, who would become known as "God's architect".

Gaudí left behind a momentous task. He died partway through the construction of Sagrada Família – an iconic, towering church in Barcelona, north-eastern Spain. From a distance, the church rises above the city skyline like a bristling organic behemoth. Up close, it seems even more like a living thing. Hypnotically detailed façades depicting biblical themes seem to grow out of the stone.

Always intended to continue long after his death, building Sagrada Família posed extraordinary challenges. Gaudí's sketches and models were obliterated during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, leaving scant material for his successors to work from. There was a time when its soaring towers were thought to be too tall for their foundations, and vulnerable to wind.

Nevertheless, 100 years on from Gaudí's death, Pope Leo XIV is visiting Sagrada Família as the central pinnacle of the church – the Tower of Jesus Christ – is inaugurated. It stands complete at 172.5m (566ft). It has earned Sagrada Família the title of tallest church in the world.

The BBC visited Sagrada Família ahead of the 100-year anniversary of Gaudí's death, to find out how these all-but-impossible towers were achieved with a combination of ancient inspiration and cutting-edge modern engineering.

full story: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...tallest-church

[Bill Ryan]

Here's another awful miss, this time (surprisingly!) from Ecuador.

https://cuencahighlife.com/winning-d...he-government/

Winning design for a new National Museum sparks public outrage and is rejected by the government


The winning design for Ecuador’s new National Museum that was rejected by the government on Friday.

Following intense public criticism, Ecuador Infrastructure Minister Roberto Luque has rejected the winning design for the new National Museum of Ecuador in Quito. “We have listened to what the people are saying and we agree with you,” Luque said. “The proposed design for the museum is not what Ecuador needs.”

Chosen by the national College of Architects, the design submitted was met with overwhelming rejection in news and social media.

Typical of public reaction were comments by Quito architect Nivaldo Suarez in a Thursday radio interview.

“For a symbol of the country’s heritage, this plan falls flat,” he said, adding that only someone who considers a “box to be a work of art” can appreciate the design.

[grapevine]

The Hotel Olofson, Port au Prince, Haiti



I was looking for suitable pictures of the Gingerbread Houses in Haiti (some of them are too large to post) and was shocked to learn that about a year ago, the Hotel Oloffson (pictured above) had been burned to the ground by marauding gangs. It was particularly upsetting because it used to be my "local" when I lived in Port au Prince for two years 1978-1980, and even though it had a reputation for lawlessness, it wasn't nearly as awful as it is now. It had a distinct air of colonialism about it and I once had afternoon tea with Pierre Cardin there, which was just as surreal for me to remember now as it must seem to you to read .


"The Hotel Oloffson was a legendary 19th-century "gingerbread" mansion in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti, known as the "Greenwich Village of the Tropics". Built as a private residence and later serving as a U.S. military hospital, it became a cultural haven for writers, artists, and global dignitaries until it was tragically burned down by armed gangs in July 2025.
History and LegacyOrigins: Built in the late 19th century as a residence for the Sam family, which included two Haitian presidents, it was transformed into a hotel in the 1930s.
Literary Inspiration: The iconic structure was the model for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's 1966 novel, The Comedians, and its distinct architecture is widely believed to have inspired the Addams Family mansion created by Charles Addams.
Cultural Hub: For decades, it hosted notable figures like Mick Jagger, Ernest Hemingway, and Jackie Onassis. Since 1990, it was famously the home performance venue for the mizik rasin band RAM, led by the hotel's manager, musician and Vodou priest Richard Morse."

Here are some pictures of the beautiful Gingerbread Houses in Haiti which I hope are able to be preserved.