Mudhifs are monumental guest houses built by the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq entirely from reeds and papyrus. Thick bundles are planted in the ground, bent together into arches and covered with woven screens—without conventional timber. The form appears on a 5,000-year-old carving from Uruk and remains in use for meetings, ceremonies and receiving guests. Few buildings have changed so little, partly because their construction material continues growing outside the door.
La Grande-Motte is a seaside resort near Montpellier, built almost entirely from scratch by the French government during the 1960s and 1970s. The project was intended to transform a marshy, mosquito-heavy coast into a domestic rival to Spain’s increasingly popular beaches. Architect Jean Balladur responded with an entire town of white concrete pyramids, curved apartment blocks and geometric sun screens, drawing inspiration from Mesoamerican temples and his idea of the 21st century
The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is an immense Catholic church built by Côte d’Ivoire’s first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, in his hometown and newly appointed capital, Yamoussoukro. Completed in 1989, it closely resembles St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, only larger by some measurements: its dome rises 158 metres and its interior holds 18,000 people. Each of its 7,000 seats has an individual air vent, while one stained-glass window includes Houphouët-Boigny kneeling beside Jesus.
Gbadolite is a city in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the ancestral home of Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the country—then called Zaire—from 1965 to 1997. Mobutu transformed the remote settlement into his personal capital, complete with three palaces, a five-star hotel, hospital, Coca-Cola plant and a 3,200-metre runway built to receive chartered Concordes from Europe. Foreign leaders were entertained among marble, fountains and Chinese pagodas in what became known as the “Versailles of the Jungle.” When Mobutu fell in 1997, the palaces were looted and abandoned. Vegetation entered the ballrooms and the airport nearly emptied.
The Vittoriale degli Italiani is Gabriele D’Annunzio’s nine-hectare monument to Gabriele D’Annunzio. Created above Lake Garda from 1921, it contains his darkened house, 33,000 books and thousands of objects arranged according to a private system of symbols and mottos. The entrance has separate waiting rooms for welcome and unwelcome guests; the dining room displays a tortoise that supposedly died from overeating. Outside are D’Annunzio’s aeroplane, a torpedo boat and the prow of the warship Puglia, transported in pieces on twenty railway carriages and rebuilt in the hillside.
In 1968, Ferruccio Lamborghini ordered a mahogany Riva Aquarama and decided its standard V8 engines were inadequate. He replaced them with two 4-litre Lamborghini V12s, giving the turquoise-upholstered boat 700 horsepower and a top speed of 48 knots. It was the fastest Aquarama ever built. After Lamborghini sold it in 1988, the expensive V12s were removed and the boat eventually disappeared beneath a tarpaulin in a boatyard. Rediscovered in 2010, it was restored using replacement engines recreated with help from the Lamborghini Museum. Hull number 278 remains the only Aquarama built this way.
Wat Sam Phran is a Buddhist temple outside Bangkok consisting of a 17-story pink tower wrapped in a giant green dragon. The dragon is hollow and doubles as a staircase.
Cogels-Osylei is a residential street in Antwerp where nearly every house appears to belong to a different century. Built around 1900, its mansions combine Art Nouveau, neo-Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture in improbable succession.
Grand Lisboa is a hotel in Macau.
Survey of London is a long-running and highly respected series of publications that document and analyze the architectural and historical development of the city of London. First published in the early 20th century, the Survey provides in-depth studies of various areas and buildings within the city, offering insights into the history, design, and significance of London’s urban landscape. The project was initiated in 1894 by the London County Council (LCC) and later continued by the Greater London Council (GLC) and other entities. Its primary goal was to record and preserve the history of London’s architecture, as well as to examine the social and cultural impact of its built environment. The Survey has become an invaluable resource for scholars, architects, urban planners, and historians, offering detailed descriptions, photographs, and illustrations of London's buildings and neighborhoods.