“We wanted the house to be environmentally conscious but luxurious, and above all very beautiful”, say its owners, Karen Guthrie, an artist and film-maker, and Adam Sutherland, director of Grizedale Arts. “Influences ranged from the film The Ice Storm to traditional Japanese architecture, to the Bat Cave ..." Overlooking Lake Windermere, it is simple, ingenious and very special Photograph: RIBA
One of a new generation of holiday homes devised by the writer and broadcaster Alain de Botton for those in search of a kind of Grand Designs-meets-Landmark Trust experience. This one, by the Dutch architects MVDRV, is certainly amusing Photograph: RIBA
Freight containers converted very convincingly into bird hides and set in the Essex marshes for the RSPB Photograph: RIBA
Set neatly into the landscape, another example of the RSPB and its architects proving how modest yet modern buildings can gently adorn the most precious British landscapes Photograph: Mike Page/RIBA
An ingenious house making use of many different materials, aspects and colours, and yet happily resolved Photograph: RIBA
The Irish Language Arts and Cultural Centre, Derry, is tucked away into what appears to be an improbably narrow site; it opens out unexpectedly inside through a light-filled atrium and stairwells to handsome performance spaces Photograph: RIBA/Dennis Gilbert
A gracious modern cafe designed to sit respectfully close to Lord Burlington’s Chiswick House and its restored William Kent gardens Photograph: RIBA
Victorian Gothic pile with beautiful rooms designed by George Gilbert Scott, of St Pancras fame, to commemorate Prince Albert and now subtly extended and remodelled by Page\Park Photograph: Andrew Lee
An elegant, low-lying, pavilion-like archive building designed to complement the Rothschild’s Victorian estate. A model of modern architectural decorum Photograph: Richard Bryant/arcaidimages.com
An architectural landscaping scheme, all wave-like curves and barely suppressed energy, aimed at brightening Dover’s promenade; part of a programme to liven up the Kent coast towns facing France across the Channel Photograph: RIBA/Robbie Polley
One of Britain’s most truly green buildings, making use of earth construction and locally sourced materials. The energy used to make the building and run it have been kept as low as possible Photograph: RIBA
After working with the BBC, the design of an exquisite retreat like this cancer care centre must have been balm for the hard-pressed architects of MacCormac Jamieson Prichard. A well planned and equally well-crafted gem Photograph: Peter Durant
Impressive reconstruction, remodelling and extension of this national shrine to the Bard. Rab Bennetts and his team have transformed this complex of Victorian and art deco buildings into the semblance of a small town within the town, complete with a new tower soaring over the auditorium, surrounding streets and the river Avon Photograph: Peter Cook/View
A primary school that teaches staff and pupils about environmentally friendly design and consciousness through its very fabric; a school unlike almost any other, and yet no more expensive than the most basic designs Photograph: Mark Hadden Photography
A bright red shelter in the forest overlooking Lake Kielder, that doubles up as a climbing frame for the adventurous Photograph: RIBA
A theatrical tour-de-force: Hadid’s opera house acts a cultural anchor for a vast new extension of Guangzhou’s city centre. The main auditorium is like some fairytale grotto brought bang up to date Photograph: Iwan Baan
Restoration and renovation of this 19th-century Haitian landmark damaged in the recent earthquake. Originally built in France, this whimsical structure, with its minarets and clock tower, was meant to have been shipped to Cairo where it would have been a railway station. Now it’s back in action as a much-loved market Photograph: RIBA
A luminous and arresting shopping mall that doubles up as an art gallery and public meeting place, blurring the boundaries between art and commerce Photograph: RIBA
A brave new attempt to create loft-like apartments within a high-rise concrete tower – a city of sorts within its own walls, complete with gardens, terraces and internal streets. The kind of thing Le Corbusier did 60 years ago, seen through fresh eyes Photograph: RIBA
The new eco-city being constructed close to Abu Dhabi’s city towers; a utopian architecture aimed at making modern living in the desert and intense heat both possible and as sustainable as possible Photograph: Nigel Young/Foster + Partners
