Are there any travelers out there?! Today, we would like to present you with a ranking of the best travel destinations, especially for architecture enthusiasts. Buildworld has curated the lists, and as we read on their website: โBuildworld identified the top 10 destination cities in every country according to each countryโs Tripadvisor page. We filtered the listings in each of these cities to find reviews of local architecture. Next, we calculated the percentage of architectural sites in each city with a 4.5- or 5-star rating and ranked the cities according to this metric.โ
Scroll down to find out which destinations should be included on your bucket list for your next vacation.
Chicago Is The Best North American Destination For Architecture Lovers.
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The U.S. boasts three of the ten North American cities with the highest โhit rateโ of first-class architectural sites. Chicago leads the way. The โWindy Cityโ has become associated with a brand of imposing but progressive buildings, having been redesigned mainly following the 1871 fire. Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Roche, and Jeanne Gang are the big-name architects on the show. And between the overbearing steel skyscrapers, youโll find unlikely treats such as the Rookery Building, ornamented with ironwork by original architects Daniel Burnham and John Root โ its central court later remodeled in glass by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Canada has four cities among the continentโs top ten. Quรฉbec City is significantly higher-rated than the others and offers an intriguing counterpoint to the continentโs number one: Chicago. Some of Quรฉbec Cityโs buildings date back to the 1600s, and their French and British flavors are distinctly more romantic than Chicagoโs modernist, industrial feel. Most uniquely for this part of the world, the three miles of rampart wall surrounding the west of the cityโs Upper Town are over 400 years old and were embellished with the neo-medieval SaintโLouis Gate in the 19th century.
Ecuadorโs Capital Is The South American Capital Of Architecture.
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Ecuadorโs capital, Quito, is South Americaโs stand-out venue for top-rated architecture, with 86.67% of its architectural attractions rated 4.5 stars or higher. In the Andes, the worldโs second-most elevated capital city may have been first inhabited as long as 6,000 years ago. Still, its architectural character is defined by colonial and modernist developments. The city was revitalized in the 20th century with ideas brought by European modernists and the eclectic approach of local designers who blended contemporary ideas with traditional, pre-Columbian styles โ adding color and organic flourishes to their bold new buildings.
Quito out-architectures second-placed Rio by over 12%. However, Rio does have the distinction of having been crowned the first-ever World Capital of Architecture by UNESCO and the International Union of Architects. โPerhaps no building better represents Rioโs innovative design than the Niterรณi Contemporary Art Museum,โ wrote House & Garden at the time. โIts distinctive saucer shape and bright red walkway make it resemble more of a UFO than a cultural space. Combined with its cliffside location, itโs one of the must-see cultural marvels in Rio, and perhaps even the world.โ
Philippine And Indian Cities Offer Sure-Fire Architectural Tours.
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Nine of ten architectural sites in Quezon City, Philippines, have 4.5- or 5-star ratings, making this the most robust Asian city for architecture. As a planned city, Quezon was designed in the 1930s to center on a โbig quadrangle in the heart of the Cityโ from which โfour avenues radiated toward the outskirts with rotundas placed on the four corners, the largest being a 26-hectare elliptical center, now known as the Quezon Memorial Circle.โ The art-deco Quezon Memorial Shrine is at the heart of this park, an extraordinary 66-metre-high sculpture atop the mausoleum of the cityโs eponymous founder, designed by architect Federico Ilustre.
India is the best-represented country in Asia, with three Indian cities making the Asian top ten. Three-quarters of the architectural attractions in Bengaluru, the capital of the countryโs southern Karnataka state, are rated 4.5 or 5 stars. Most unusual of all is the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple, a โrock-cut architectural marvelโ with an Indiana Jones-style twist: โEvery year on the day of Makara Sankranti, the evening sunlight spreads over the intricate monolithic sculptures and illuminates the Shiva linga inside,โ reports Culture Trip.
Europe: Manchester And Lucerne Offer Contrasting Architectural Wonders.
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Iaศi in Romania is the top-rated city worldwide (see Romanian and Northern English Cities above). But a brace of northern English cities takes second and third place.
Manchester and Liverpool have undergone massive redevelopment over the past few decades โ for better and worse. Manchester has become known for its blend of industrial history and corporate modernism, with imaginative warehouse refurbs brushing shoulders with 2006โs Beetham Tower โ formerly the tallest building in the U.K. outside of London. The neo-Gothic John Rylands Library may offer your best shot at inspiration, offering both scale and fine detail, inside and out.
Lucerne in Switzerland offers a less urban take on the built environment. Sat on the edge of idyllic Lake Lucerne and emerging from an early medieval monastery, this small city retains its historic feel. Lucerne is best known architecturally for its baroque churches, medieval ramparts, and the Early Renaissance-style Ritterscher Palace.
Romanian And Northern English Cities Are The Worldโs Best Architectural Bets.
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The worldโs most sure-fire hit destination for architecture lovers is Iaศi, the โcultural capitalโ of Romania, where over nine out of ten buildings are top-rated. Iaศiโs postcard piece is the 365-room neo-gothic Palace of Culture, completed nearly a century ago. Despite the palaceโs epic scale, its true wonders are found in the details.
Lest we forget that architecture is as much about light and space as bricks and mortar, Iaศiโs Botanic Garden Anastasie Fatu is rated 4.5 and boasts a pagoda and greenhouses among its carefully cultivated landscape โ a dreamy place to find inspiration for your garden.
Six of the top ten cities for architecture are in Europe, with the other four found in Southeast Asia, North and South America, and the Middle East. Overall, the U.K. seems a good bet, with second-placed Manchester and fourth-placed Liverpool just a 40-minute train ride from each other in Englandโs northwest. York, to their east, is also within easy traveling distance from these cities and qualifies for the worldโs top 20 architectural destinations, with 73.68% of its attractions rated 4.5 stars or more.
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