1. National Congress, Brasilia (1958)
Easily one of the world’s most distinctive buildings, Oscar Niemeyer’s jewel in his Brasilia crown provokes extreme reactions. Some find its Brobdingnagian proportions and rigid geometries antiseptic and its austerity cold. Then, they go inside and realise that space and light are the real luxury - not the decorative detail - and screaming Futurism is passé, its promise has never been bettered.
2. National Assembly Building, Dhaka (1961)
Designed by one of Modernism’s not-sung-enough geniuses, Louis Kahn, Dhaka’s legislative complex may seem solemn, even forbidding from without but its graceful, soaring interiors are poetry in stone. Masterful manipulation of space, light and shadow create drama that awes without overpowering, an apposite stage for making the Law.
3. Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco (1972)
William Pereira’s lanky pyramid (albeit the one with ‘wings’ for an elevator shaft that sprouts from its upper half) remains San Francisco’s tallest building and according to one local reverie, resembles the pyramid that towered over Atlantis, another city famous for its unfortunate relationship to earthquakes. It’s also the second tallest pyramid in the world, only Pyongyang’s unfinished Rugyong Hotel is higher.
4. Lloyd's Building, London (1986)
Like Paris’ Pompidou (on which he worked with Renzo Piano), Richard Roger’s HQ for banking behemoth Lloyd’s treats structure as sculpture, creating the impression of working inside a machine. Softening this impact, the building’s vaulted glass-roofed atrium floods the interior with natural light and comes with a surfeit of artificial alternatives to cope with darker days.
5. Torre Agbar, Barcelona (2004)
Cucumber, shell case, suppository and, well, let’s just leave it at that, shall we? Jean Nouvel’s glass-clad tower has been compared to many different things, but rarely to an office building (though it is one, designed for water suppliers, Aïgues). Still, this hasn’t stopped Agbar from becoming a landmark, thanks in part to its ingenious LED-lighting system that can turn the tower into a giant cylindrical ‘screen’ at the flick of a switch.
6. Hearst Tower, New York City (1928 & 2006)
Begun in 1928 by Joseph Urban and finished in 2008 by Norman Foster, this hybrid beast combines (at ground level) the heritage of the past with the LEED certification of the present. The diagrid structure reduces the need for steel, most of which is recycled anyway, as is rainwater and the under-floor plumbing controlling devices mean artificial climate control doesn’t need to be used too much.
7. CCTV HQ, Beijing (2008)
Poor Rem Koolhaas. Barely had his incredible new building been completed, when half of it burned (spectacularly) to the ground. Not a country to let a conflagration stop them, China rebuilt its new national television HQ, so now all CCTV employees can enjoy the vertiginous views and the thrill of working suspended in mid-air.
8. White Mountain Office, Stockholm (2009)
Part teenage daydream, part Bond baddie pad (the office occupies a former nuclear bomb shelter and the suspended glass meeting pod’s floor is actually printed with an image of the Moon’s surface), Albert France-Lanord’s HQ for a Swedish internet provider treats raw rock as a backdrop for his retro-futurist fantasy. He adds living walls and plentiful lighting to compensate for being 30 metres underground.
9.Selgas Cano Architecture Office, Madrid (2009)
As a structure, it couldn’t get simpler. The head office of this Madrid-based architectural practice is a **metre-long asymmetric rectangle, with rounded corners. Where it gets interesting, is that this glass walled rectangle is partially recessed into the ground, which not only keeps it warm in winter and cool in the summer, but means that for those inside, there is an uninterrupted view of the surrounding gardens and trees.
10. Al Dar HQ, Abu Dhabi (2010)
Occupying the opposite end of the spectrum to Selgas Cano, the striking Al Dar HQ on Abu Dhabi’s seafront is an essay in defying gravity. Designed by über-contractors, Arup, the world’s first round skyscraper (though at 110 metres, that scraping is relatively modest) offers workers uninterrupted views of the coast. Though it looks like it’s poised to roll away at any moment, the dynamism doubtlessly reflects the workplace within.
