The Best Architecture of 2015

London’s Design Museum unveils its annual Designs of the Year exhibition tomorrow. Take a look at some fabulous finalists from the architecture category.

HANNAH MARTINPostedFebruary 28, 2015

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London’sDesign Museumwill unveil an exhibition of the top contenders for its 2015 Design of the Year award tomorrow. Category winners will be announced on May 4 and the winner at large on June 4.ADhighlights some standout architectural nominees.

The pristine glass façade of Szczecin, Poland’s Philharmonic Hall by Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga cuts a striking figure against the city's neo-Gothic churches and other traditional structures.

In Vo Trong Nghia Architects’ House for Trees project in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, trees emerge from concrete homes that resemble oversize planters, bringing something green back to the densely populated city.

Wendell Burnette Architects’ Desert Courtyard house in Scottsdale, Arizona, is built of desert soil excavated from the construction site.

Sancakler Mosque by Emre Arolat Architects almost disappears into its surrounding landscape on the outskirts of Istanbul.

Markthal Rotterdam—a giant arch by the firm MVRDV—brings produce stalls, shops, and 228 apartment units to the architecturally adventurous Dutch city's Laurens quarter neighborhood. Inside, the structure displays a massive mural painted on aluminum by artists Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam.

Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris resembles a fleet of elegant sailboats made of 3,600 sheets of glass and 19,000 concrete panels.

Danish architects COBE created an über-cool kindergarten in Copenhagen with undulating brick walls and roof gardens.

At Jean Nouvel’s One Central Park in Chippendale, Australia, 250 species of indigenous flowers and plants are incorporated into the façade of the 34-floor residential building.

The curving concrete form of Atelier Deshaus’s Long Museum in Shanghai was built around a 1950s bridge and a parking garage.

For the UC Innovation Center in Santiago, Chile, architecture firm Elemental conceived a blocky, almost Brutalist, concrete design that is stacked to create voids which let in natural light.