These Are the World’s Best Architectural Photographs

Photographers see potential in architecture that oftentimes we overlook. They find dramatic angles or stunning light to take a still image of a static structure and give it dynamism, power and life. Architectural photography doesn’t just show off design; it sells an experience, allowing viewers to imagine themselves interacting with the space. In fact, seeing the built environment through a photographer’s eye, whether you like the image or not, can help you discover what personally attracts you to this world.

“Building Images,” the fourth annual exhibition of the world’s finest architectural photography, will give viewers that opportunity starting Feb. 9 at the Sto Werkstatt Museum in London. This year’s exhibition showcases the winning entries from The Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards 2016 announced last November at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin.

The selection will include images from overall winning photographer Matt Emmett as well as the short-listed entrants seen below. Emmett’s photograph of the subterranean Hornsey Wood Reservoir in London received the highest voting score of any single image in competition history.

British photographer Matt Emmett was the overall winner with this interior of a covered reservoir in Finsbury Park designed by the East London Waterworks Company in 1868.

“This year’s winning entry provided a unique glimpse into a historic architectural site, a place most people will not happen upon,” said Sto Werkstatt curator Amy Croft. “The capture image allows viewers access to a restricted area, furthering the democratization of art and architecture.”

The exhibition is divided into four categories: Sense of Place, Buildings in Use, Exteriors and Interiors. Keep scrolling to take in every remarkable entry on this year’s shortlist.

Baku National Stadium
Category: Sense of Place
Photographer: Victor Romero
Architect: ROSSETTI with Heerim Architects
Location: Azerbaijan

Hygge House Warming Hut
Category: Sense of Place
Photographer: Paul Turang
Architect: Plain Projects, Pike Projects, Urbanink
Location: Winnipeg, Canada

Blok 23
Category: Sense of Place
Photographer: Inigo Bujedo Aguirre
Architect: Aleksandar Stjepanovic
Location: Novi Beograd, Belgrade, Serbia

The stage of Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute
Category: Sense of Place
Photographer: Julien Lanoo
Architect: [a]FA [applied] foreign affairs
Location: Ghana

Bruder Klaus Field Chapel
Category: Sense of Place
Photographer: Mark Wohlrab
Architect: Peter Zumthor
Location: Mechenrich-Wachendorf, Germany

Musee de Confluences
Category: Buildings in Use
Photographer: Fabrice Fouillet
Architect: Coop Himmelb(l)au
Location: Lyon, France

Allianz Headquarters
Category: Buildings in Use
Photographer: Adrien Barakat
Architect: Wiel Arets Architects
Location: Zurich, Switzerland

Independence Square
Category: Buildings in Use
Photographer: Julien Lanoo
Location: Accra, Ghana

‘Forest of Light’ for COS, Salone del Mobile
Category: Buildings in Use
Photographer: Laurian Ghinitoiu
Architect: Sou Fujimoto Architects
Location: Milan, Italy

Dharavi
Category: Buildings in Use
Photographer: Torsten Andreas Hoffman
Location: Mumbai, India

Shanghai Tower
Category: Exteriors
Photographer: Nick Almasy
Architect: Gensler/Marshall Strabala
Location: Shanghai, China

SESC Pompeia
Category: Exteriors
Photographer: Inigo Bujedo Aguirre
Architect: Lina Bo Bardi
Location: Sao Paolo, Brazil

Lattice House
Category: Exteriors
Photographer: Edmund Sumner
Architect: sP+A Architects (Sameep Padora)
Location: Kashmir, India

Vitra Shaudepot
Category: Exteriors
Photographer: Julien Lanoo
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Location: Weil am Rhein, Germany

Olympic Stadium
Category: Exteriors
Photographer: Sebastian Weiss
Architect: Yrjo Lindegren and Toivo Jantti
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Jesus Church
Category: Interiors
Photographer: Fabrice Fouillet
Architect: Rafael Moneo
Location: San Sebastian, Spain

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
Category: Interiors
Photographer: James Newton
Architect: Selgascano
Location: London, U.K.

Interior and portrait of Derry Road Resident on the Queen’s Birthday
Category: Interiors
Photographer: Kilian O’Sullivan
Architect: Bell Phillips Architects

Covered Reservoir
Category: Interiors
Photographer: Matt Emmett
Architect: East London Waterworks Company
Location: Finsbury Park, London, U.K.

Helical Staircase in Workshop
Category: Interiors
Photographer: Will Scott
Architect: Finkernagel Ross Architects
Location: Littlehampton, U.K.

“Building Images” is free and open to the public from Feb. 9 until March 10 this year at Sto Werkstatt in Woodbridge Street, Clerkenwell, London. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of talks and seminars, also free to the public.

Images courtesy of Sto Werkstatt