1) Manchester Civil Justice Center.
Manchester Civil Justice Centre employs advanced environmentally sensitive design principals, such as solar screening and natural ventilation systems, making it a beacon for sustainable design. It has achieved a BREEAM rating of excellent.
The project has been the subject of numerous architectural awards including the Royal Institute of British Architects National Award for Architecture and the RIBA Sustainability Award.
2) Pingpong Hotel - China.
China is set to build a hotel shaped like an upside-down ping-pong paddle as part of a new $45.8 million sports complex.
The China Daily newspaper reports rounded guestroom windows will resemble the surface texture of a table tennis racket, while the "handle" of the 500-foot hotel will be an observation deck, allowing tourists to take in a view of the city of Huainan, where the hotel will be built.
"An erected ping-pong racket has a perfect architectural shape for a hotel," Jin Chang, director with Huainan Municipal Bureau of Sports, tells the news outlet.
But the ping-pong racket hotel isn't the only oddly shaped building in the works for the 165-acre sporting complex: there will also be a main stadium shaped like an American football, plus smaller stadiums and gym facilities shaped like a volleyball, soccer ball, and basketball.
The sports bureau has signed an agreement with China Sports Industry Group that guarantees various sports games will be held in the stadiums over the next 20 years.
This is not the first time hotel designers have turned to sports for inspiration. The Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai is designed as a wave to compliment the sail-shaped Burj al Arab, one of Dubai's most iconic images.
In France, the Rugby World Cup was celebrated with the construction of a giant rugby ball hotel in 2007. During the event, rooms cost nearly $10,000 per night.
3) Roussanou Monastery, Meteora, Greece.
Rousannou Monastery stands on a low rock and is easily accessible by a bridge built of wood in 1868 and replaced by more solid material in 1930. Despite this, its situation is still quite dramatic, with the rock dropping off sharply on all sides.
The monastery covers the entire surface of the rock and consists of three levels: the church and cells occupy the ground floor, while the two upper floors house the guest quarters, reception halls, an exhibition room, and more cells.
The frescoes in Rousannou's Church of the Transfiguration of Christ, which is essentially a smaller version of Varlaam's church, date from 1560. The narthex is decorated primarily with gruesome scenes of martyrdom, as at other Meteora monasteries.
The resident nuns tend to be friendlier to visitors than their male counterparts in Meteora and often provide sweets to guests as they relax in the courtyard (if so, it is nice to put a small donation in the box).
4) - Sheraton Hotel, Huzhou China.
In keeping with its status as a rising global superpower, China is showing off its new wealth with an increasing number of landmark buildings.
But this could be the most incredible yet. The 27-storey Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, looms over the skyline of Huzhou, near Shanghai, in the shape of a massive glowing dounut.
Set on the shores of Lake Taihu and offering 321 spacious guest rooms, including 44 suites and 39 villas, it's an ideal destination for China's newly affluent business class.
The 27-storey Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, looms over the skyline of Huzhou, near Shanghai.
A classic Chinese junk sails the waters of Lake Taihu as the Sheraton Huzhou soars across the horizon.
The lobby of the Sheraton Huzhou is lit by 20,000 Swarovski and European natural crystal lamps arranged in a wave-like formation across its ceiling. The floor is paved with Afghan White Jade and Tiger's Eye Stone from Brazil.
The lobby lounge of the Sheraton Huzhou is an ideal spot to meet over coffee or cocktails.
5) - Wooden Gagster House (Archangelsk, Russia).
.jpg)
For the one-time gangster who built it, it is nothing less than "the eighth wonder of the world". The less charitably disposed dismiss it as a glorified barn, fire hazard and eyesore.
But on one thing everyone agrees: Nikolai Sutyagin's home is certainly different.
Dominating the skyline of Arkhangelsk, a city in Russia's far north-west, it is believed to be the world's tallest wooden house, soaring 13 floors to reach 144ft - about half the size of the tower of Big Ben.
The house that Sutyagin built is also crumbling, incomplete and under threat of demolition from city authorities determined to end the former convict's eccentric 15-year project.
