What's Your Favourite......Piece of Architecture?

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Ricardodaforce

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I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Empire State Building. It's something we are all familiar with, yet I was bowled over by how beautiful it is in real life. A true art deco work of art! I've always appreciated great architecture and I think it's on the top of my list of favourites.

What about you? What has really impressed you?
 
Nothing as grand from me.

I'm very taken with Hill House by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I think they've done a superb job of Newcastle quayside. I really admire the millennium bridge. It also moved to allow boats through.

Having been to Athens I really liked the Agora temple.

In Rome St Peters basilica takes some beating
 
I like Oxford's Radcliffe Camera and the Art Deco Hoover building on the A40 into London.

I'm quite interested in Landscape architecture too and enjoy the period 1750-1830, a time when architecture shaped and influenced the modern world we live in today.
 
The look of the Chrysler building also in New York. Never seen it in real life but it always looks so impressive in film.
 
Cartus said:
I like Oxford's Radcliffe Camera and the Art Deco Hoover building on the A40 into London.

I'm quite interested in Landscape architecture too and enjoy the period 1750-1830, a time when architecture shaped and influenced the modern world we live in today.
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You'd like the Elan Valley in Wales. I had a short stay earlier this year and took this series. The landscape is completely man made but the marriage of victorian architecture, welsh scenery is hard to resist.

http://www.sftphotography.co.uk/elan-valley-landscape-photography/

I loved the place. I entered one of these for LPOTY. Didn't get a look in sadly.
 
ST4 said:
You'd like the Elan Valley in Wales. I had a short stay earlier this year and took this series. The landscape is completely man made but the marriage of victorian architecture, welsh scenery is hard to resist.

http://www.sftphotography.co.uk/elan-valley-landscape-photography/

I loved the place. I entered one of these for LPOTY. Didn't get a look in sadly.
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Thanks for the recommendation Steve. You've just reminded me I had a week in Llandudno in Jan of this year. I was working but what I saw of the town and area was really taken with it, like going back to the 1950's.

Ps: I've looked at your photos Steve of the Elan Valley and on Google etc, just my cup of tea and quite close, cheers!

Llandudno: At the top of Upper Mostyn St. by all you need is light, on Flickr
 
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Buildings wise it has to be St mary's Basilica in Krakow

Engineering wise it has to be the Hoover Dam
 
Couple of very different ones/styles from me.

Duomo Di Milano. I was absolutely amazed the first time I visited this place...


_NIC9042 by Full_Frame_Fan, on Flickr

...and this is one of my favourite areas of London to walk around, with lots of different types of architecture in a small area. Shad Thames.


NIC_7786 by Full_Frame_Fan, on Flickr
 
Yeah the La Sagrada Familia is very very impressive and its an amazing piece of engineering.

It's funny, coming from an engineering background I look at things from a structural perspective more than an aesthetics perspective and La Sagrada familia certainly has some fine structural work in place!
 
stupar said:
Yeah the La Sagrada Familia is very very impressive and its an amazing piece of engineering.

It's funny, coming from an engineering background I look at things from a structural perspective more than an aesthetics perspective and La Sagrada familia certainly has some fine structural work in place!
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Here it is in its glory!

La Sagrada Familia by Ricardodaforce, on Flickr

When I created the thread I didn't intend it to be a photographic one! Nice seeing the stuff I don't know though.
 
We are lucky to live in a country stuff full of some great architecture from many ages and yet often it is the simplest that eludes us. I took this photo of an apartment block on London's SouthBank years ago now, which when view from the river path below, I love. Viewed from further away , on one of the bridges or across the river it gets lost in its surroundings but I doubt many people bother to look up as they walk past and see the simplicity and elegance of the design.

EAT - Southbank London by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

going right to the other end of the scale, something I only discovered and saw recently. Most people have probably heard of Alexandra Palace in North London but few know that it still has a theatre, now rather derelict but intact and money is being raised to bring it back to life, including the original Victorian wooden stage trap door/scenery moving equipment, one the few if not only, fully functional versions left in the UK, most have been replaced by electric mechanisms.

Sorry for the rubbish picture, we wee lucky enough to get on a small tour to see the theatre and other non public areas of the palace recently, but it is lit by a few emergency lights and that it is, makes you average 17th century church look bright and welcoming. I did not have a tripod either ;)

History Tour of Hidden Alexandra Palace by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
 
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I really like Mann Island here in Liverpool. Loads of people poo pooed it because it's right in the middle of all the grade one listed stuff but sod them. Cities evolve and in my opinion this is just as beautiful as the Liver Building.

View attachment 25494
 
norters said:
I really like Mann Island here in Liverpool. Loads of people poo pooed it because it's right in the middle of all the grade one listed stuff but sod them. Cities evolve and in my opinion this is just as beautiful as the Liver Building.

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No, there is in my view always room for contemporary architecture in any city. The Liver building was once contemporary and the attitudes you cite today, if around then, would have held back the building of the old buildings we get to enjoy.

A successful city to me, combines the old and new in harmony. Do you have other images of it in context of the city.

I refer you to my earlier Newcastle image which to me is a great city as it combines the old and new and they sit in total harmony. Some hark to the industrial past, others to a vibrant future. It's, IMHO, important to have and appreciate both.
 
8416081941_5f458c39f4_b.jpg


Iconic and soon to be changed forever.
 
you can see the chimneys reflected in this one but sadly its cut off the tops of the front two.. not something even noticed on the cameras lcd at the time ( around 2am in the morning freezing cold !) .. and havent been back to retake the shot though hope to get up there again soon
 
Indeed 2am frezzing cold certainly is the norm for me too! but something well worth doing, all the best for the retake, and thank you for sharing
kevin
 
There's some lovely images in here.
 
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of it and the inside, though good is not exceptional, but the outside of Bayeux Cathedral is wonderful.

Dave
 
So many it's hard to choose.

Any mediaeval cathedral would be up there.

Growing up, my favourite was always The Chrysler Building.

Now, I would say The Millau Viaduct.
 
though i chose Battersea im sure there are a dozen others i could have chosen. Inside St Pauls Cathedral is stunning too and there are a million other places, buildings and designs equally stunning but i have yet to see in the flesh so stuck to what ive have personally seen with my own eyes.
 
Palace of Versailles and its gardens have a definite wow factor.

Was driving through France last year and noticed we were passing quite close to Versailles. Parked in the tourist car park behind the palace and walked through an arch to absolutely breathtaking views. One of those times I glad I did no research about the place to spoil the surprise we had.

Versailles Pano by /Cud, on Flickr
 
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Not such a well known building in Edinburgh but surely one of the finest. The Fettes College. The school where Tony Blair attended before Oxford.

_DSC2100 by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

It looks like something out of a fairy tale and I reckon with a dusting of snow and a more interesting sky I'd have a top image.

Something which I expected to hate, but really rated are the Kelpies in Falkrik, nr the M9. Again, I was a bit late getting here for the morning blue hour, but the structures are a work of art.

_DSC2068 (1) by SFTPhotography, on Flickr
 
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Köln Dom, St. Paul's, Machu Picchu, any of the temples in Angkor, NY Grand Central Station, Milan main station, Neuschwanstein Castle, most of Rome.

Can't say any modern stuff that gets modelled on computer then thrown up in a few months by cranes interests me at all.....it's the effort that went into it that makes the best and most impressive buildings.
 
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mid_gen said:
Köln Dom, St. Paul's, Machu Picchu, any of the temples in Angkor, NY Grand Central Station, Milan main station, Neuschwanstein Castle, most of Rome.

Can't say any modern stuff that gets modelled on computer then thrown up in a few months by cranes interests me at all.....it's the effort that went into it that makes the best and most impressive buildings.
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Most of Rome...can't fault that.

Define effort. Physical effort, brain power, using tried and tested techniques or pushing the boundaries of todays technology?

Whilst I respect your view, I am sure its a different sort of effort is used to build modern buildings today. The tolerances, exactness and economy of materials compared to the way older buildings were built are all very different.

I'll finish with this image, it tells a story.

_DSC2135 by SFTPhotography, on Flickr

The front bridge is the original forth crossing, now 125 plus years old. It would have involved the most people in building, the most raw materials etc. The next bridge along is the Forth Road bridge, went up in the 60's, behind it, you can see the building of the new Forth Road bridge as the construction of the 1st road bridge wasn't really upto scratch. All of them mark their place in time, and all are interesting as they reflect the era in time of which the come from.

Effort wise, the newest one has maybe taken the least, but it will be the most advanced one, and in terms of precision and exactness may represent the biggest technological effort. It's gone up and will be ready in 2016, thats an incredibly short time frame.
 
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