The Top Places With The Best Architecture You Should Visit, According To Buildworld

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. The lists have been curated by Buildworld, and as we read on their website: “Buildworld identified the top 10 destination cities in every country according to each country’s 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 that have a 4.5- or 5-star rating and ranked the cities according to this metric.”

Scroll down to find out which destinations should definitely be included on your bucket list for your next vacation.

Chicago is the best North American destination for architecture lovers

Image credits: Buildworld

The U.S. boasts three of the ten North American cities with the highest ‘hit rate’ of first-class architectural sites. Chicago leads the way. The ‘Windy City’ has become associated with a brand of imposing but progressive buildings, having been largely redesigned following the 1871 fire. Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Roche and Jeanne Gang are among the big-name architects on show. And between the overbearing steel skyscrapers, you’ll find unlikely treats such as the Rookery Building, ornamented with ironwork by original architects Daniel Burnham and John Root — its central court later remodeled in glass by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Canada has four cities among the continent’s top ten. Québec City is significantly higher-rated than the others and offers an intriguing counterpoint to the continent’s number one: Chicago. Some of Québec City’s buildings date back to the 1600s, and their French and British flavors are distinctly more romantic than Chicago’s modernist, industrial feel. Most uniquely for this part of the world, the three miles of rampart wall surrounding the west part of the city’s Upper Town are over 400 years old and were embellished with the neo-medieval Saint‑Louis Gate in the 19th century.

Ecuador’s capital is the South American capital of architecture

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Ecuador’s capital, Quito, is South America’s stand-out venue for top-rated architecture, with 86.67% of its architectural attractions rated 4.5 stars or higher. Up in the Andes, the world’s second-most elevated capital city may have been first inhabited as long as 6,000 years ago, but its architectural character is defined by colonial and modernist developments. The city was revitalized in the 20th century with ideas brought by European modernists, but also with the eclectic approach of local designers who blended contemporary ideas with traditional, pre-Columbian styles – 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. “Perhaps no building better represents Rio’s innovative design than the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum,” wrote House & Garden at the time. “Its distinctive saucer shape and bright red walkway make it resemble more of a UFO than a cultural space. Combined with its cliffside location, it’s one of the must-see cultural marvels in Rio, and perhaps even the world.”

Philippine and Indian cities offer sure-fire architectural tours

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Nine out of ten architectural sites in Quezon City, Philippines, have 4.5- or 5-star ratings, making this the strongest Asian city for architecture. As a planned city, Quezon was designed in the 1930s to center on a “big quadrangle in the heart of the City” from which “four 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.” At the heart of this park is the art-deco Quezon Memorial Shrine, an extraordinary 66-metre-high sculpture atop the mausoleum of the city’s 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 country’s southern Karnataka state, are rated 4.5 or 5 stars. Most unusual of all is the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple, a “rock-cut architectural marvel” with an Indiana Jones-style twist: “Every year on the day of Makara Sankranti, the evening sunlight spreads over the intricate monolithic sculptures and illuminates the Shiva linga inside,” reports Culture Trip.

Europe: Manchester and Lucerne offer contrasting architectural wonders

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Iași in Romania is the top-rated city in Europe and the world (see Romanian and Northern English Cities above). But a brace of northern English cities takes second and third place.

Both Manchester and Liverpool have undergone massive redevelopment over the past few decades — for better and worse. Manchester has become known for its blend of industrial history and corporate modernism, with imaginative warehouse refurbs brushing shoulders with the likes of 2006’s Beetham Tower — formerly the tallest building in the UK 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 today. 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 world’s best architectural bets

Image credits: Buildworld

The world’s most sure-fire hit destination for architecture lovers is Iași, the “cultural capital” of Romania, where more than nine out of ten buildings are top-rated. Iași’s postcard piece is the 365-room neo-gothic Palace of Culture, completed nearly a century ago. Despite the palace’s 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, Iași’s Botanic Garden Anastasie Fatu is rated 4.5 and boasts a pagoda and greenhouses among its carefully cultivated landscape — a dreamy place to find inspiration for your garden.

Six of the top ten cities for architecture are in Europe, with the other four are found in Southeast Asia, North and South America, and the Middle East. All in all, the UK seems a good bet, with second-placed Manchester and fourth-placed Liverpool just a 40-minute train ride from each other in England’s northwest. York, to their east, is also within easy traveling distance from these cities and qualifies for the world’s top 20 architectural destinations, with 73.68% of its attractions rated 4.5 stars or more.

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