Four Buildings Around the Globe With Fantastic Facades

Go ahead and judge these international destinations by their fantastic facades.

Firm: BN Asociados

Project: Biblioteca Central y Archivo Municipal en Leganés

Site: Spain

Standout: Thousands of pigmented ceramic half cylinders represent book spines as they cover 23,000 square feet of surface area on the new library that has been nearly a decade in the making.  

Firm: Neri & Hu Design and Research Office

Project: Aranya Art Center

Site: Qinhuangdao, China

Standout: Molded concrete panels channel the rippling tide of the nearby Bohai Sea at a spiritually minded residential development’s event venue containing an amphitheater, galleries, and a roof deck. 

Firm: AOE

Project: Courtyard No. 1

Site: Heze City, China

Standout: Inspired by suprematism, the early 20th–century abstract art movement, a residential sales center’s glazing of UV-resistant panels is intercepted by geometric apertures framed in stainless steel. 

Firm: Pedro Reyes

Project: Pedro Reyes Studio

Site: Mexico City

Standout: The fabricators who collaborate on the sculptor’s Brutalist-inspired art constructed a workshop to match, punching portholes into the building’s precast concrete panels, then connecting its three floors with a spiral staircase in the same material. 

Keep scrolling to view more images of the projects >

> See more from the November 2019 issue of Interior Design