Wired’s Weekly Picks of Stunning Architecture

Each week, Wired Design brings you a photo of one of our favorite buildings, showcasing boundary-pushing architecture and design involved in the unique structures that make the world’s cityscapes interesting. Check back Fridays for the continuing series, and feel free to make recommendations in the comments, by Twitter, or by e-mail. 

The Shard, London

Pritzker prize-winning architect Renzo Piano designed The Shard as an irregular pyramid with a glass exterior, evoking a shard of glass. At 1,016 feet, it’s the tallest building in the European Union, about the height of the New York Times Building (also designed by Piano). But The Shard is more than just a pretty facade — it’s urban planning embodied in architecture. Opened in July, 2012, it houses offices, apartments, restaurants, and a 5-star hotel. The concept, developed by Sellar Property, was to integrate a “vertical city” into the node of London’s transportation system, located in the London Bridge district nearly on top of the busy train terminal there. The Shard was named as a finalist for Design Museum’sArchitecture of the Year 2012, and The View from The Shard will open the 68th through 72nd floors to tourists starting in February.

Photo: Tom Godber/Flickr

 

GT Tower, Seoul

In addition to a dance fad, Seoul’s Gangnam district is responsible for some interesting architecture, not least Consort Architects‘ wavy Garak Tower East, completed in 2011. There’s no GT West, yet, but the 31-story East tower was designed to recall the form of traditional Korean pottery. The shape isn’t just trippy; the way the facade is aligned helps allow natural light to reach deep inside the building.

Photo: Courtesy of Consort Architects

 

CCTV Tower, Beijing

The 768-foot-tall CCTV building became the new headquarters for China Central Television — the government-run television network — when it was completed in 2009. Architects from OMA designed its rough donut shape as a three-dimensional alternative to traditional skyscrapers, as though two had bent at 90-degree angles to meet in the middle. A grid of tubes, designed by engineering firm Arup and visible on the exterior, help brace the 75-meter cantilever.

Photo: Dmitry Foronov/Wikimedia

 

Gateway Towers, Singapore

Completed in 1990, the trapezoidal shape of I.M. Pei‘s Gateway Towers in Singapore create an optical illusion when viewed from certain angles — the 37-story office buildings appear strangely two-dimensional.