The Beautiful Architecture Thread

[New Town Loafer]

I often find that beautiful architecture improves my mood, particularly when I have a proper look at the subject.

 

SO, I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to photos of beautiful buildings, be they churches, mosques, train stations etc.

 

I'll kick off with one of my favourites in Edinburgh as well as a place I'd love to visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Victorian]

Great thread.  👍

 

Will start with nothing as grand as the OP pics but I still love walking about some of the Georgian architecture around the New Town.  Around the West End,  Charlotte Square,  Randolph Crescent,  Moray Place,  Royal Circus.

 

 

 

 

 

[New Town Loafer]

Just now, Victorian said:

Great thread.  👍

 

Will start with nothing as grand as the OP pics but I still love walking about some of the Georgian architecture around the New Town.  Around the West End,  Charlotte Square,  Randolph Crescent,  Moray Place,  Royal Circus.

 

Much like you, I love walking around town and taking in the Georgian architecture. I take it for granted most of the time, however.

[Jacques de Gatineau]

28 minutes ago, New Town Loafer said:

I often find that beautiful architecture improves my mood, particularly when I have a proper look at the subject.

 

SO, I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to photos of beautiful buildings, be they churches, mosques, train stations etc.

 

I'll kick off with one of my favourites in Edinburgh as well as a place I'd love to visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that the Mumbai railway station?

 

I was there a few years ago with work. Great building.

 

My own favourites from this year's travels...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gizmo]

One favourite building in Edinburgh has to the be the pavillion in the NMS. It feels so different from the street once you go inside, and markedly different from the imposing ediface of the building frontage with the big steps and rotating door to gain entry.



Another favourite is the airport at Jeddah, with it's marble interior and Bedouian tent influenced exterior for the Haji terminal. 



If you enjoy architecture and discussions on the built environment, you could do worse than watch this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DamiLeeArch

[Craig_]

Was fortunate enough to be in Milan earlier in the year. You'll struggle to see a more beautiful building than this IMO:

 

 

Did a great tour where you can walk around the rooftops. Quite incredible level of detail in the stonework, a real pity no-one has the vision to build things like this any more!

[cheetah]

The railways used to build some cracking stations, all trying to outcompete each other.

 

[JudyJudyJudy]

I took those in Italy 

 

 

1st pic palazzo vecchio Florence 

 

 

 

Palazzo civilta Italiano ( in honour of Mussolini ) before he got hung ! 

[Tazio]

I enjoy a good look at architecture. The centre of Chicago has some amazing buildings from the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, the super high modern skyscrapers and the sheer oddness of Marina City (familiar to Wilco fans).

[il Duce McTarkin]

2 hours ago, New Town Loafer said:

I often find that beautiful architecture improves my mood, particularly when I have a proper look at the subject.

 

SO, I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to photos of beautiful buildings, be they churches, mosques, train stations etc.

 

I'll kick off with one of my favourites in Edinburgh as well as a place I'd love to visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked there for 4 - 5 years as an apprentice then tradesman Stonemason. 

Wonderful building. The engineering in the bits that you don't get to see is also fantastic.

[Ulysses]

Plaza de España, Seville.  Very difficult to capture it in a single photograph.

 

 

 

The Alhambra, Grenada.

 

 

 

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia.

 

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

1 hour ago, Tazio said:

I enjoy a good look at architecture. The centre of Chicago has some amazing buildings from the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, the super high modern skyscrapers and the sheer oddness of Marina City (familiar to Wilco fans).

The Chicago suburbs have some brilliant Frank Lloyd Wright houses too, including his home and studio, and the Robie House which is classic prairie style.

 

Just a wee detail maybe, but the use of natural light in this bathroom (at the home and studio) is incredible…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[New Town Loafer]

3 hours ago, Ally said:

Is that the Mumbai railway station?

 

I was there a few years ago with work. Great building.

 

My own favourites from this year's travels...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bombay to you and me 👀 but yes indeed - looks fabulous.

 

All great pictures there, too.

[New Town Loafer]

2 hours ago, il Duce McTarkin said:

 

I worked there for 4 - 5 years as an apprentice then tradesman Stonemason. 

Wonderful building. The engineering in the bits that you don't get to see is also fantastic.

Something that always amazes me with European cathedrals is the sheer detail. Outstanding craftsmanship.

[Morgan]

2 hours ago, Ulysses said:

Plaza de España, Seville.  Very difficult to capture it in a single photograph.

 

 

 

The Alhambra, Grenada.

 

 

 

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia.

 

Three fantastic examples.  👍❤️

[John Findlay]

Personal favourite of mine.

[John Findlay]

This too.

 

[Ulysses]

Dean Village, Edinburgh.

 

 

 

Aerial view of York Minster and surrounding area.

 

 

 

The Crown Bar, Belfast.

 

 

 

And not a building as such, but possibly the most iconic piece of architecture in Scotland.

 

 

 

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

Durham Cathedral.

 

 

And just as importantly, its Lego version…

 

 

 

 

[luckyBatistuta]

7 hours ago, Craig_ said:

Was fortunate enough to be in Milan earlier in the year. You'll struggle to see a more beautiful building than this IMO:

 

 

Did a great tour where you can walk around the rooftops. Quite incredible level of detail in the stonework, a real pity no-one has the vision to build things like this any more!

They do, just nobody wants to pay for it. Imagine how much something like that would cost now, mind blowing.

2 hours ago, John Findlay said:

This too.

 

Agree John, absolute crime what they’ve done with it imo

[New Town Loafer]

Couldn’t actually find a photo that did it any justice but Cologne Cathedral was spectacular when I was over for the football in the summer.

[Kalamazoo Jambo]

10 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

They do, just nobody wants to pay for it. Imagine how much something like that would cost now, mind blowing.

Plus it would take (checks notes) 579 years, give or take 

[John Findlay]

19 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

 

Agree John, absolute crime what they’ve done with it imo

It is indeed.

[John Findlay]

This place is not to shabby piece of architecture either.

[Jamboross]

5 hours ago, Ulysses said:

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia.

 

 

Big fan of Santiago Calatrava. The City of Arts and Sciences is probably his best work but he's also designed some pretty cool railway stations and bridges (not least the Joyce and Beckett bridges in Dublin). 

 

World Trade Centre Transportation Hub

 

Liege Station 

 

Reggio Emilia high speed station 

[luckyBatistuta]

15 minutes ago, Kalamazoo Jambo said:

Plus it would take (checks notes) 579 years, give or take 

🤣🤣🤣 and the roof would still collapse after a couple of months

[John Findlay]

2 hours ago, Ulysses said:

Dean Village, Edinburgh.

 

 

 

Aerial view of York Minster and surrounding area.

 

 

 

The Crown Bar, Belfast.

 

 

 

And not a building as such, but possibly the most iconic piece of architecture in Scotland.

 

 

 

Forth bridge most iconic bridge in the world for me.

[John Findlay]

Was fortunate to walk round the top of the this structure away back in 1980. You get a cracking few right inside the local football team's stadium too.

[Ulysses]

1 hour ago, New Town Loafer said:

Couldn’t actually find a photo that did it any justice but Cologne Cathedral was spectacular when I was over for the football in the summer.

 

You're not wrong.  The close-up shots don't give any sense of the scale of the building, while the wide-angle pictures don't capture the intricacies and the details.

 

 

[Ulysses]

1 hour ago, John Findlay said:

Was fortunate to walk round the top of the this structure away back in 1980. You get a cracking few right inside the local football team's stadium too.

 

Feck, it's amazing the damage that a load of celebrating Italian football fans can do to a building, eh?   

[Ulysses]

Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm.

 

 

 

Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna.

 

 

 

Palace of Versailles (another one that's very difficult to do justice to in a photo).

 

[New Town Loafer]

5 hours ago, Ulysses said:

 

You're not wrong.  The close-up shots don't give any sense of the scale of the building, while the wide-angle pictures don't capture the intricacies and the details.

 

 

Spot on. A stunning building.

[hughesie27]

15 hours ago, Ulysses said:

 

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia.

 

Came here to post that. Save some buildings for the rest of us. 

[Jacques de Gatineau]

8 hours ago, Ulysses said:

Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna.

 

 

Was there this year. Beautifully lit up at night. Walking around central Vienna on a crisp winter's evening after an afternoon of stuffing oneself with an Einspänner and Apfelstrudel  is a lovely experience.

[John Findlay]

I have always liked this too.

[Craig_]

11 hours ago, Kalamazoo Jambo said:

Plus it would take (checks notes) 579 years, give or take 

 

😀Fair point. Makes the Sagrada Familia look like a Barratt new build!

[the posh bit]

12 hours ago, John Findlay said:

This place is not to shabby piece of architecture either.

 

Cracker. Used to use those steps very regularly and the view always impressed me. 

[John Findlay]

One of my favourites.

[leginten]

I’ve always been a huge fan of Art Nouveau/Jugendstil/Secession/Liberty Style. Seems to me it was the last great flourishing of creativity and beauty before Europe converted itself into an abattoir in 1914. Although many would say the whole thing derived from the English Arts & Crafts movement, it didn’t really have much impact on Britain, with notable exceptions  - the most notable being Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

 

The Glasgow School of Art was (😢) certainly one of the most remarkable buildings in Scotland. Jugendstil with a distinctly unfussy, sober, linear Scottish twist. Just extraordinary.

 

 

[John Findlay]

Another architectural beauty imho.

[The Gorgie]

19 hours ago, John Findlay said:

Was fortunate to walk round the top of the this structure away back in 1980. You get a cracking few right inside the local football team's stadium too.

We stayed in Pisa before heading to florance. The tower and its surrounding area are lovely but I thought as a whole Pisa was a bit of a shithole. 

[ArcticJambo]

23 hours ago, Ulysses said:

The Crown Bar, Belfast.

 

 

 

Coincidently, today on Radio 5, Matt Chorley's afternoon program he typically randomly generates a constituency from which he offers folks to call in and state why they would be an ideal MP for that particular constistuency, basically!  Well today, it was West Belfast and the very last boy to call in ws asked right at the end of the program (quickly!) what was great about the area, and he very matter of factucally stated, The Crown.

Edited October 2, 2024 by ArcticJambo

[ArcticJambo]

Was down at Granton Harbour  couple of weeks ago and what was probably a wee tunnel that went under the railway, I happened upon this interlacing of stone blocks, which impressed me anyway.

Edited October 2, 2024 by ArcticJambo

[Ulysses]

Paris

 

Arc de Triomphe.

 

 

 

Palais de Louvre (another building to which it is hard to do justice in a photo).

 

 

 

 

A view along the Champs-Élysées to the Louvre from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

 

 

 

La Conciergerie.

 

[il Duce McTarkin]

30 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

Paris

 

Palais de Louvre (another building to which it is hard to do justice in a photo).

 

 

 

 

I often think that Palais de Louvre outshines the many outstanding artworks that it guards. 

 

Imo, Paris is one of those cities in which the city itsef steals show.

[Ulysses]

1 hour ago, il Duce McTarkin said:

 

I often think that Palais de Louvre outshines the many outstanding artworks that it guards. 

 

100% agree with this.  The interior and exterior architecture is stunning.

 

 

1 hour ago, il Duce McTarkin said:

 

Imo, Paris is one of those cities in which the city itsef steals show.

 

It is indeed.  Mme U and I were there during the Paralympics, and even with all the disruptive effects of the Olympic and Paralympic temporary buildings, signs and traffic diversions, the city itself was still really impressive and elegant.

 

 

[John Findlay]

Madrid is not to shabby either.

[Lovecraft]

 

Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan.

 

World's largest wooden structure made without using nails.  

 

Edited October 3, 2024 by Lovecraft

[King prawn]

On 01/10/2024 at 18:51, Ulysses said:

Plaza de España, Seville.  Very difficult to capture it in a single photograph.

 

 

 

The Alhambra, Grenada.

 

 

 

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia.

 

Thanks for posting these.

 

When I moved to Spain 5 years ago I started a competition with my friends whilst we were stood in Plaza de España in Sevilla - for those that haven’t been they have a mosaic for all of the provinces (and 2 autonomous cities). The first person to compete them all (by having a menú del día in each one) would win.

 

Ive completed 40 of them now and seen some truly brilliant places, been to numerous village parties and got to learn a bit about each region. 
 

Recently moved to Valencia and the modern architecture is fantastic. They’re situated in the old river that’s now a  park and a great place to spend time exercising, reading or having a rest. 

[King prawn]

2 hours ago, John Findlay said:

Madrid is not to shabby either.

Madrid is a superb city - I miss it a lot. Shame that building was always covered in scaffolding mind you