UKC

As the title really, most amaizing/awe-inspiring piece of engineering/architecture you've ever had the pleasure to witness.

Personally, the Burj Khalifa was incredibly impressive, as was St Peters Basilica.

More home grown, St Stephen’s Tower and the Palace of Westminster, Tower Bridge and the Humber too.

Any thoughts?

In reply to Richiehill:

I'm always impressed by the Nimes aqueduct built by the Romans to take 35,000m cubed of water a day fron a source at Uzes to the city of Nimes.
What's impressive is that it's 49km long but they only had 15m of height to play with.
They built the Pont du Gard too as part of it which is worthy of a mention on it's own.

E

In reply to Richiehill: The Doumo in Milan, most incredible building I've ever seen

In reply to punj: I've just had a look at that and all I can say is WOW.

I'd like to go to Milan, never been before. Probably the only thing stopping me is that my missus would try to buy everything in the shops.

The Nimes Aqueduct is impressive too, 50Km long using only gravity to transport water. The Romans were incredible!

In reply to Richiehill: yeah, i was in total Awe the first time i seen it

I've been to Milan a few times, unless your into fooball or fashion (I'm the former!) then there are far nicer and friendlier city's in Italy.

On the roman note, I've only ever passed through the train station in Rome but even the journey in and out was lined with ancient aqueducts. Ephesus in Western Turkey was a Roman city and has some very impressive buildings in it.

will visit Rome properly at some point

In reply to punj: I went as part of a cruise and I was thoroughly disappointed. Perhaps it was because I was much younger and it was redders so I was just bored and frustrated. But that's when I saw St. Peters Basilica and that impressed me enough.

In reply to Richiehill:
I've seen a few impressive Basilicas, but the most affecting cathedral I've seen is probably St Magnus' on Orkney. It's comparatively small and fairly plain, but some combination of the age of the place and its proportions and the old red sandstone really makes it feel special.

Ribblehead Viaduct is fairly awe-inspiring as you walk under it, as well.

In reply to Richiehill:
The Sagrada Familia:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sagrada+familia&client=opera&hs=S...

One end even looks like a crag!

In reply to Richiehill:

The Forth Rail bridge looks quite impressive close up.

In reply to Tony Naylor: Yes! I've seen this! Thank you for the reminder. What a beautiful construction this is!

I'll have a look at the cathedral on Orkney!

In reply to Richiehill:
Some i have seen:

The Potala Palace - Llasha
The Dome of the Rock - Jerusalem
The irrigation channels in Hunza valley - Pakistan, although i think many were destroyed in recent earthquakes.
The Karakorum Highway - Pakistan
The Hindu temples of Tamil Nadu - India.

In reply to Richiehill: Falkirk Wheel, Millau Viaduct. 2 of my favorites.

In reply to Richiehill:

I've not been to Dubai, so shouldn't comment I suppose, but I find all the 'biggest, tallest etc' buildings over there to be vulgar willy-waving, completely lacking in elegance or beauty.

The most impressive space I've sat in is probably Kings College Chapel in Cambridge, which is just sensational.

In reply to Richiehill: Stonehenge, you try knocking one of those up...

In reply to J Brown: I do tend to agree. But when you just see the sere scale of this building it is still impressive. I was based at Al Minhad Air Base, over 15 miles from Dubai city center and you could still see the building clear as if you were standing a few hundred meters from it.

In reply to Richiehill:

The collection of Wats and stone carvings around Siem Reap

Causey Arch is pretty spectacular, having been completed in 1726/7 purely to carry a double line of wooden waggonway for the Grand Allies (a coal owners' partnership of the time) to be able to access the loading stathes on the Tyne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causey_Arch

When we (ie, the Tanfield Railway) got the line back down to that neck of the woods in the early 90's, our first official 'passenger' was a dead guy- some poor unfortunate who chucked himelf off the bridge, and the simpleest wasy to retrieve him was to bring him back up to the bridge height and take him on the railway back to the station with good road access.

Sx

In reply to Sarah G: This

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontcysyllte_Aqueduct

is pretty bloomin' amazing,

In reply to Richiehill:

Probably the Pantheon in Rome.

It's probably its setting, but you are wandering around Rome looking at lots of quite nice old buildings, dating back 500-or-so years and suddenly there's this hulk of stone sitting there, looking like it was hewn directly out of the bedrock rather than being built, and immeasurably old.

OK, its not silly old - its a couple of thousand years old, but it is impressive. Then you learn that after 2,000 years its *still* the largest unreinforced concrete dome.

In reply to Richiehill: One of the most beautifully calm spaces I've ever been in, the exterior is pretty good too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_du_Haut

In similar vein, and by "rival" of the architect above:
http://www.guggenheim.org/guggenheim-foundation/architecture/new-york

For engineering I'm going to be Welsh biased and go for the Old Severn Bridge, for pure elegance and Newport transporter bridge for being, well, visible from a house I had. Newport also has UK's first cable stayed bridge btw.

Mark

In reply to Richiehill:

The Tay Rail Bridge, of course

In reply to Richiehill: Some outstanding contributions here thank you! A lot of places I didn't even know existed. I love learning about other peoples perceptions of structures, then when you boil it all down, every single one is incredible in its own right.

In reply to Richiehill:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-17090872

Clayton-Le-Woods underground Victorian reservoir in Lancashire. I just love it.

In reply to Collie Flower: if we're going subterranean, then Bazelgette's London sewers are jaw dropping (from a distance)

or some of the big canal tunnels, like Harecastle. I would love to get into Worsley Delph someday, before it collapses completely

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worsley_Navigable_Levels

In reply to Mark Morris:

Mmm - Le Corbusier's chapel.

If you gauge something by how long the impression it makes lasts, then I can still remember the interior of that place and I must have been about 6 when I went there. The Nimes aqueduct is from a similar period in my life and I remember walking along the top of that.

The Royal Naval College at Greenwich is spectacular - appearance was everything - there are rooms with small oval windows at knee height, because that is where the appearance of the exterior dictated that they should be.

In reply to Richiehill: The railway that runs through the eiger and the stolen lock door?

In reply to Richiehill:

Contemporary: most of Calatrava's work is incredible. You can see the mind of an outstanding engineer at work, coupled with a great sense of aesthetic. Some of Zaha Hadid's projects too, though I generally find her stuff less elegant and more wilful.

Historic: probably too many to mention. I'll get back to you on this one.

The cathedral in Cologne is jaw dropping.

The Millau Viaduct for sheer awesome, and for being the pride of France that was designed by a British architect.

The whole of Venice is incredible considering what they did to actually get it built, can a whole city count?

In reply to toad:

Agreed, it is fantastic.

Sx

In reply to Richiehill:

Having just had a tour inside this at the weekend, I would suggest Steven Holl's new building for the redevelopment of Glasgow School of Art. It's a seriously great piece of architecture, (although a touch too high imo as I feel it slightly dominates the old Art School building) and the interior is 'light & space sculpture' at its best. The south-facing, external terrace will give a truly exeptional perspective on the old building's main elevation once the former is completed.

More info here, for those that are interested:

http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=construction&id=111

I'll stick up some photos on Flickr when I get the chance.

In reply to Richiehill:

I like this one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouse_Valley_Viaduct