To be sure, Khufu can be accused of being a megalomaniac. But he engaged hundreds of thousands of rural workers in his enterprise and created a stunning mark of civilization on the land.
National Assembly
Dhaka, Bangladesh
In the last years of his life, American architect Louis Khan travelled across the globe, from the fat cat city of Philadelphia to a dusty battleground in Bangladesh, and there, against all odds, during war and peace, he created one of the world's greatest masterworks.
The $32-million parliament, or Sangsad Bhaban, is a monument of hope that rises up from a country that spreads flat, dry and poor in all directions. Constructed of concrete and detailed with marble, the National Assembly is framed against an oasis of water, palm trees and brick plazas.
As a young man, Kahn travelled to the great monuments of the ancient world and created his principles of architecture from the earliest examples of pure geometry.
His work, like Le Corbusier's and Barragan's, sculpted with light. He abhorred artificial light, and would work late into the afternoon in his Philadelphia office until darkness required him to give in to an electric bulb.
Quite simply, his work for American museums and academic institutions allowed us to see the power of light for the first time, but perhaps nowhere as powerfully as the National Assembly in Dhaka.
In a country that's known devastating hardship, Kahn undid the tragedy of life by framing a beautiful light. It enters the corridors like enlightenment and makes the National Assembly's chambers glow.
The culture of architecture runs deep in Bangladesh, a country where the per-capita income is about $380. Somehow, with a break for Bangladesh's liberation war, Khan's project was completed in 1983, 20 years after it was started and nine years after Kahn's death.
A recent decision by the High Court of Bangladesh safeguards the original vision of Khan's National Assembly building and the overall layout of the capitol. It forces the demolition of two nearly completed residences for the Parliamentary Speaker and deputy speaker, which were ruled to be gross violations of the architect's master plan.
Hagia Sophia
Istanbul
Architecture is threadbare without a larger context. In Istanbul, layers of history are piled as deep as the oceans, so to experience the Hagia Sophia means plunging into the riches of the Byzantine era.
The church, designed as the new Cathedral of Constantinople by Emperor Justinian I and completed in the year 537, rises up from the river's edge as a series of interconnected domes and colonnaded walkways. When the Ottoman Turks took Constantinople in the mid-15th century, the cathedral was converted into a mosque and, during the 1930s, the Hagia Sophia became a museum.
We know all too well the evils that humankind is capable of, but the Hagia Sophia presents a powerful counterpoint: Constructed in a mere five years according to a centralized plan, the cathedral is detailed with jaw-dropping mosaics and decorative plaques in green, red and yellow marble.
Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletus combined their knowledge of science, architecture and engineering to create an ideal of Byzantine architecture, the result of their joint venture can be argued to have influenced the design of all the traditional churches of the Byzantine, Slavic, Orthodox worlds built over the past 1,400 years. I wonder if they argued over their fees.
Angkor Wat
Siem Reap, Cambodia
A bike ride through intense heat, towering trees and farmers' fields leads to Angkor Wat. The main temple of the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire is introduced by a monumental rain forest that grows into and through the walled city. In this way, nature makes a creative invasion, enhancing the beauty of the hundreds of sanctuaries and temples through an artful state of decay.
