5. Biosphere at Treehotel
Harads, Sweden
For Treehotel’s latest addition, BIG–Bjarke Ingels Group and the ornithologist Ulf Öhman consulted on a spherical suite that is encased by 350 birdhouses—nurturing the local avian population while bringing lucky guests closer to the woodland ecosystem.

6. Taipei Performing Arts Center
Taipei, Taiwan
Responding to what Rem Koolhaas has described as “a city with an appetite for experiment,” OMA has combined three innovative theaters—including the spherical Globe Playhouse—into one flexible complex, the futuristic forms of which are lifted off the ground to allow for a landscaped plaza.

7. Munch by Estudio Herreros
Oslo, Norway
Rising 13 stories above the radically transformed Bjørvika waterfront, this enigmatic museum— conceived by Estudio Herreros to Passive House standards—pays loving tribute to Norway’s most famous painter, Edvard Munch, bringing together some 42,300 personal objects, including 26,000 of his own works (among them The Scream). Perforated recycled-aluminum cladding shields the interiors from the finicky Nordic sun.

8. Quzhou Stadium
Zhejiang Province, China
MAD Architects devised this futuristic arena—the centerpiece of a larger sports park—in response to the surrounding terrain, with a sinuous form that echoes distant mountain peaks and a network of public green spaces that blend the natural and built environments. Wrapped in an ethereal membrane, the monumental steel canopy appears to hover above the earth.