Best Architecture in Europe

[retow]

London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Vienna, Amsterdam, Barcelona are my favourites among the big ones. Between mid October and end of April, I'd rather visit the southern part of Europe, i.e. Rome, Barcelona, Madrid (temperature, weather, light) and generally not do city trips in August.

 

[Jerevan]

Oh, there is so much to see... 🙂 Europe is pretty big and very diverse. Just thinking one can see what Europe is by visiting Paris, Rome and Berlin is probably like thinking NY is the same thing as the rest of the US. 🙂 But a couple of favourite places: Riga in Latvia, Vilnus in Lithuania, Tartu in Estonia, the Tuscany region in Italy.

 

[jfserejo]

I wouldn't miss Berlin and, for a very different bucolic landscape, Oporto with all the Douro area (where the Port wine is produced) ...

Good Trip.
Joao

 

[lZr]

Moskow

Moskow

Better to be there

 

[Paul T.]

If you're in the UK, buy/borrow a Pevsner for the region. They're indispensable. Canal publishe good design guides to FLorence and Venice, and there's a terrific desgin guide to Barcelona by Juliet Leiz.

John RUskin was the great Victorian artistic theorist; he laid out rules of what constituted a great building, then used these rules to say, unequivocally that the greatest building was Giotto's campanile in Florence. He was wrong, of course.

Anyway, I vote for the small, deomestic, overlooked buildings.

Wren's tiny St Mary Abchurch, city of London, is better than St Paul's.
Jujol's unfinished Church of the Colonia Guell is better than the unfinished Sagrada Familia.
Palladio's La Rotunda is nicer than his pompous Venice churches.
Rietfeld's Schroder House in Utrecht is more radical, and more practical than most of its more ambitious rival buildings by Le Corbusier et al.
And at the bottom of my street there's a pumping station by Hawksmoor which I like more than any pumping station I've ever seen!

 

[robster180]

My tip for London is a short walk which would cover..

Lloyds of London - Richard Rogers inside out steel tower (he also designed the Pompidou in Paris)

The Gherkin - Foster & Partners

St Paul's Cathedral

cross over the Millenium Bridge (by Foster again) to

Tate Modern - interior by Herzog & de Meuron

walk along South Bank and see some 1950's Brautalism at The Southbank centre and have a look at the Rodchenko exhibition there

eventually you'll end up by the London Eye, cross the water you'll end up by the Houses of Parliament and St Stephens tower

For the real history of London...look up as the modern facades of shops hide the old stationed above them

Oh and you also have to see St Pancras hotel/Station

enjoy

 

[Sparrow]

My tip for London is a short walk which would cover..

Lloyds of London - Richard Rogers inside out steel tower (he also designed the Pompidou in Paris)

The Gherkin - Foster & Partners

St Paul's Cathedral

cross over the Millenium Bridge (by Foster again) to

Tate Modern - interior by Herzog & de Meuron

walk along South Bank and see some 1950's Brautalism at The Southbank centre and have a look at the Rodchenko exhibition there

eventually you'll end up by the London Eye, cross the water you'll end up by the Houses of Parliament and St Stephens tower

For the real history of London...look up as the modern facades of shops hide the old stationed above them

Oh and you also have to see St Pancras hotel/Station

enjoy

You walked straight past the Globe and forgot Festival Hall
🙂

 

[MickH]

All of the above are excellent suggestions. I have another. If you have a taste for the spectacular, and you can get over to Greece try Meteora. Do a Google Image search!

 

[robster180]

You walked straight past the Globe and forgot Festival Hall

yes i did forget the Globe oops - I classed the Royal festival Hall as the Southbank centre

 

[le vrai rdu]

Planning a trip which might include Paris. I love architecture and need your opinions on the best architectural locals. France? Italy?
London?

france italy, spain, belgium UK , eastern europe etc 😀

 

[Sparrow]

yes i did forget the Globe oops - I classed the Royal festival Hall as the Southbank centre

Yes, of course it is sorry