Top 10: The world’s most beautiful buildings are inspired by culture

The Sydney Opera House: Australia

“The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was reflected off this building,” once said American architect, Louis Kahn.

The arresting spectacle that is the Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, Australia. This artistic, unconventional, and unimposing monument is carefully set in a remarkable waterscape of the Sydney harbour, marking its place as an architectural object of great beauty. It can be seen from the sky, the land, and the water.

Its white sail-like segments sit with splendid serenity, arching gracefully on the sun-glazed harbour, modestly and imaginatively stealing the limelight from the adjacent Sydney central business district.

The internationally admired masterpiece was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, whose entry was selected out of 200 others at an international competition to design an international opera house at Bennelong point in Sydney.

For this design, Jørn Utzon was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, the highest award in the field, in 2003.

The building was constructed between 1957 and 1973, and in its short lifetime has earned a reputation as a world-class performing arts centre and a symbol of both Sydney and the Australian nation.

Due to its remarkable beauty, its excellence in creativity in both form and design, the Sydney Opera House was formally recognised as one of the most outstanding places on earth through its inclusion on the Unesco World Heritage List in 2007.

Shwedagon Pagoda: Yangon city, Myanmar

It is a temple complex consisting of hundreds of colourful temples, stupas, and statues. The luxuriously decorated stupas rise with grace to peer at the sky above. All around, the rich golden look of the temple seeps into one’s vision, filling the soul with a delicate desire to walk in and soak in more of the beauty.

It is a cocoon of sheer luxury planted on the surface of the earth, made entirely of real gold plates and decorated with more than 2,000 rubies and more than 4,500 diamonds (the largest of which is 72 carats), sapphire, and other gems. It also has more than 1,000 golden bells.

According to some historians and archaeologists, the pagoda was built by the Mon people between the 6th and 10th centuries AD. The people of Myanmar, including monarchs and ordinary citizens, have over the centuries donated gold for its maintenance.

Every day, the pagoda is filled with people, ranging from monks dressed in their saffron-coloured robes to yogis meditating and hundreds Lord Buddha worshippers.

Questions abound as to why the temple is yet to be included in the Unesco World HeritageList.

Lotus Temple: New Delhi, India

It was designed by architect Fariborz Sahba, a Canadian of Iranian origin, and took 10 years to complete in 1987. The building gets its name from its perfect, well conceived shape of a lotus flower. It is this lighting, together with the water and plush green gardens, that form the ornaments of this temple.

The exterior lighting is most spectacular at night, when yellow light falls on the white marble, casting golden shadows and reflecting the form of the temple in the pond below.

Due to its striking features and beauty, the architect who designed it has won several awards around the world. The building has also featured on stamps, in music, and in books.

In 2001, it held the Guinness World Record for the most visited building in the world. In India, it is said to receive more visitors than the Taj Mahal. On average, 8,000 to 10,000 people visit the Bahá’í House of Worship daily.

Kinkaku-ji Temple: Kyoto, Japan

Kinkaku-ji translates to the golden pavilion. Whether snow-capped in winter or sun-kissed in summer, nothing compares to the magnificent splendour of the Kinkaku-ji as it reflects on the “mirror pond” it stands on.

The lush green of the surrounding landscape, with the joyful fish and small islands of rock and pine in the pond and the shimmering reflection of the Kinkaku-ji, create perfect harmony with nature and an enchanting, endearing beauty.

The surrounding gardens attest to the typical Japanese attention to detail. The trees are well trimmed and blend with each other in a way that creates perfect serenity and harmony. The beauty and calmness penetrate the soul, inviting one to delve in the silence and tranquillity.

The two upper floors are splendidly covered in gold leaves, hence the name golden pavilion. It has burnt down numerous times through its history, most recently in 1950, so the current structure was built in 1955.

Each floor represents a different style of oriental architecture and its remarkable beauty got it into the Unesco World Heritage Sites listing in 1994.

Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport, Terminal 2: Mumbai, India

The terminal is a dramatic and aesthetically breathtaking structure designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) architects and built by India-based conglomerate GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd. It opened its doors to the world In February 2014.

From the moment of arrival, the terminal embraces travellers, smacking the unwitting ones with marvels untold.

The enormous roofscape is supported by white, enormous mushroom-like columns that taper at the top, spreading out to the roof to form several oculi in the pattern and shape of a peacock.

The arrivals hall is flanked by a 30-feet rippling gold curtain dappled with specks of light that shimmer as you pass. Artificial water bodies and plants abound, while coloured skylights in the shape of peacock feathers let in dapples of light.

The main spaces are defined by lighting features that give each area a unique atmosphere and a feeling of infinite space. The walkways are dotted with a profusion of artworks, including paintings, artistic installations, and multimedia works. The three-kilometre-long Art Wall is said to be the largest ongoing art project in the world.

The interior decor is imbued with India’s diverse and rich heritage, making the terminal a re-creation of India’s art through the ages so that walking through it feels like being in a grand art museum.

Burj Al-Arab: Dubai, UAE

The dhow-shaped Burj Al-Arab, or the Tower of the Arabs, is a luxurious hotel complex located on an island of reclaimed land near Jumeirah beach in Dubai. This property, referred to as the “the world’s only seven-star hotel”, was designed by architect Tom Wright of WKK Architects and completed in 1999. The hotel comprises 28 floors with 202 suites with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the waters of the island and the Dubai coastline. The royal suite is said to cost approximately $18,000 (Sh1,566,000) per night.

Djenne Mosque: Mali

It is the largest mud brick structure in the world and since 1988 has been part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites. The natural textures blend with African craftsmanship to create the rustic and opulent look of this temple. Built entirely of ferey — sun-baked mud bricks — and covered with mud plaster, the structure and its patterned walls give a potent mix of ethnic culture and creativity

The interior of the mosque can only be viewed by Muslims. This is a result of a ban that the local community placed on non-Muslims after the French magazine, Vogue, held a fashion shoot of scantily dressed models inside the mosque.

Cathedral of St Basil the Blessed: Moscow, Russia

It consists of a group of eight chapels around a central pillar structure. It was designed by two Russian architects, Posnik and Barma (rumoured to be one and the same person). However, popular legend has it that it was designed by an architect named Postnik Yakovlev, who was later blinded so that he could never construct anything as beautiful again.

The vibrant, multicoloured, onion-like domes of this cathedral peek at the sky in a bold and exhilarating manner. The building oozes raw energy that can almost be felt physically, inspiring both local residents and visitors alike. The interior is a maze of galleries winding from chapel to chapel and level to level via narrow stairways and low arches. The walls are painted in floral and geometric patterns.

The cathedral is now a museum and, since 1990, part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites

The Grand Lisboa: Macau, China

This testament of extraordinary elegance is the tallest building in Macau and the 118th tallest building in the world. It was designed by Hong Kong architects Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Man and opened in 2008. The buildings’ design was inspired by the lotus symbol of Macau combined with the flamboyant head-dress plumes of Brazilian carnival dancers and the Fabergé egg.

At night, the base of the building is awash with a vivid, changing and massive electric artwork from the millions of LED lights on the surface of its structure.

Valencia Opera House: Valencia, Spain

It is the tallest opera house in the world with three floors underground and 14 above. It was designed by Valencia-born architect Santiago Calatrava and, despite its outstanding beauty, has suffered several disasters, including damage by floods and having parts of its roof fall off. The house is a marriage between architecture and sculpture. Its silhouette is somewhere between a bird’s skull and a storm trooper’s helmet.