This Week's Most Instagram-Worthy Architecture

The world is brimming with jaw-dropping built environments that are begging to be shot, and in this new weekly series, we round up the most photogenic architecture and interiors to surface recently. Whether its for a simple #sneakerhand shot or a full-blown high fashion photoshoot, these publicly-accessible places are guaranteed to help you rack up the Likes for their arresting visual aesthetic. Take a look at our selection below and get ready for your next photography outing.

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1200 Intrepid – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This office building by the Bjarke Ingels Group draws on the interplay between the city’s rectangular blocks and the curvature of the adjacent Central Green Park with a distinctive concrete facade that caves ever so slightly into itself. Through this feature, passers-by can perceive the “shock wave,” as the architects describe it, of the park’s presence. Meanwhile, the nearby Navy Yard is referenced with the incorporation of a periscope into the building — an angled mirror at the top reflects an image of the docks down to building’s inhabitants, providing subtle clues to the history and context of the environment surrounding the building.

Holy Ghost Chapel – Managua, Nicaragua

Churches normally evoke images of arcane, century-old stone hulks or drab, outdated ’70s-era pre-fabs, which makes this Nicaraguan chapel by Ricci Architetti Studio all the more striking in its grace and simplicity. Embodying levity and tranquility in the generous, sweeping curves of its whitewashed reinforced concrete exterior, the Holy Ghost Chapel changes tack within, with its warm-hued walls, diffused lighting, and latticed carpentry representing the branches of an olive tree. Adding to this sense of whimsy are the handcrafted balsa wood doves dangling from the ceiling and colored lighting, all of which work to transport the building’s users into a more exalted plane of existence.

Victoria Gate – Leeds, England

Similarly, the shopping mall is often a bland, cookie-cutter affair, but London-based practice Acme has turned Leeds’ newest shopping complex into an architectural focal point with a latticed concrete exterior evocative of cathedral designs. This visual vocabulary is echoed within — taking inspiration from Victorian-era shopping arcades, the shops are laid out along wide walkways that have been covered from the elements by a latticed glass-and-steel ceiling that floods the interior with natural light. As the tallest post-war department store in the UK outside of London, Victoria Gate’s design is respectful of the surrounding historic Leeds downtown while differentiating itself as a landmark of the future.

Euronews Television Headquarters – Lyon, France

It’s hard to miss Jakob+MacFarlane’s design for Euronews’ new headquarters. Apart from being a bright lime green cube parked on the bank of Lyon’s River Saône, the building also features two hollows in its facade, resembling two eyes symbolic of the TV station’s role in observing the goings-on of the world. The facade itself is porous and made from aluminum, its patterns inspired by the swirls and eddies of the adjacent body of water. Meanwhile, the “eyes” also serve the purpose of allowing light and views of the landscape deep into the building, while the twin atriums they contain act as spaces for its inhabitants to relax in.

Liuzhou Rare Stone Exhibition Hall – Liuzhou, China

Located next to the meandering Liujiang River that singlehandedly formed the local region’s remarkable karst topography, the Liuzhou Rare Stone Exhibition Hall honors this perennial battle between water and stone in its gentle profile. The building’s design resembles a boulder worn smooth by the assault of a current over the span of centuries, with one side beginning as jagged rock that gradually transitions into fluid geometry, thus uniting a mountain with the river, yin with yang. The building itself functions as a place to view the product of this ageless tug-of-war — beautiful scholar’s rocks that evoke the sheer forces of nature required to create their varied forms.