There are few things that fascinate us more than the sea. Its contemplation arouses a sense of peace, while its colors, textures, movements and amplitude provide a scientifically proven effect of relaxation in our nervous system. Above all, it makes us realize how small we are in the universe. It is not by chance that a house facing the sea is a dream of consumption for many, let alone with a pool right in front of it. Infinity pools play with this feeling of infinite sea and sky. Through a well-elaborated set of levels and plans, they create an optical illusion that leaves everyone speechless, making pool water appear as if merged with the horizon, overflowing at one or more edges. But before you plan your photo on Instagram with a glass of sparkling wine in your hand, let's take a look at how these pools are built.

+ 20

+ 53

Because, for all the inspirational works across the world, we would be lost without the photographers dedicated to sharing this inspiration with us. Here we present to you the 50 most influential architectural photographs of the year.

Widely used in infrastructure, gabion walls are structures made of mesh metal cages filled with stones. These permeable walls use galvanized steel wire to withstand outdoor conditions. 

+ 62

+ 20

• Architects

  SAOTA

• Location

  Miami, United States

• Category

  Houses

• Lead Architects

  Philip Olmesdahl, Mark Bullivant, Stefan Antoni, Dominik George, Meghan Ho-Tong, Dirk Olivier

• Area

  1670.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Adam Letch

Constructing places of worship has always been an intricate practice, managing to detach the human, and release the boundary between body, mind, and spirit. Holy presence has been crucial in designing and constructing sacred places, which is why almost all religious building possessed similar characteristics: grandiosity, monolithic material, natural elements, and a plan that compliments an individual’s circulation through the space. Contemporary religious structures, however, found a way to adapt to the evolution of architecture. Unlike the Gothic or Baroque periods, modern-day architecture does not have a dominant identity. It is, in fact, a combination of postmodernism, futurism, minimalism, and everything in between. Architects have found a way to transform these exclusive, religion-devoted places into structures of spirituality, manifestation, and fascination.

Here is a selection of contemporary religious buildings that prove once again that architects are breaking all boundaries of creativity.

+ 24

Let's think of a paper sheet. If we tried to stiffen it from its primary state, it couldn't support its own weight. However, if we bend it, the sheet achieves a new structural quality. The shells act in the same way. "You can't imagine a form that doesn't need a structure or a structure that doesn't have a form. Every form has a structure, and every structure has a form. Thus, you can't conceive a form without automatically conceiving a structure and vice versa". [1] The importance of the structural thought that culminates in the constructed object is then, taken by the relationship between form and structure. The shells arise from the association between concrete and steel and are structures whose continuous curved surfaces have a minimal thickness; thus they are widely used in roofs of large spans without intermediate supports.

In structural terms, they are efficient because they resist compression efforts and absorb at specific points on their surface, especially near the supports — small moments of flexion.

+ 27

• Architects

  SAOTA

• Location

  Pringle Bay, South Africa

• Category

  Houses

• Architects in Charge

  Philip Olmesdahl, Riaz Ebrahim, Nasreen Larney & Werner Lotz

• Consulting Engineers

  Moroff & Kühne

• Interior Designer

  ARRCC and Home Owner

• Area

  300.0 m2

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Adam Letch

+ 22

• Architects

  SAOTA

• Location

  Sydney, Australia

• Category

  Houses

• Lead Architects

  Philip Olmesdahl, Erin Gibbs, Duke Williams

• Area

  670.0 m2

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Adam Letch

+ 18

• Architects

  SAOTA

• Location

  Balearic Islands, Spain

• Category

  Institutional buildings

• Lead Architects

  Philip Olmesdahl, Stefan Antoni, Tamaryn Fourie & Werner Lotz

• Project Year

  2017

• Photographs

  Adam Letch

+ 20

• Architects

  SAOTA

• Location

  Cape Town, South Africa

• Category

  Renovation

• Architects & Interior Architects

  Gilbert Colyn (1969) and SAOTA

• Project Year

  2015

• Photographs

  Adam Letch, Stefan Antoni

Arcaid Images has revealed the shortlist of 20 images in the running for the title of World’s Best Building Image in their 2017 Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. The annual award selects photographs in four categories - Exterior, Interior, Sense of Place, and Building in Use - which are judged by an esteemed panel of designers, photographers and journalists based on their atmospheric quality, composition, use of scale and more.

“More than just informing people about the existence of such places, the best photos go beyond that and entice people to learn more about the buildings, cities, and landscapes – maybe even booking a flight to see them firsthand. That feeling hit me on numerous occasions,” said jury member John Hill, Editor of the World-Architects eMagazine.

This August 19th is World Photo Day, which celebrates photography on the anniversary of the day on which France bought the patent for the daguerreotype, one of the earliest photographic processes, and released it to the world for free in 1839. At ArchDaily, we understand the importance of photography in architecture—not only as a tool for recording designs, but also as a discipline that many of us enjoy. To celebrate the occasion, we decided to reveal the most popular images ever published on ArchDaily, as selected by you, our readers. Using data gathered from My ArchDaily, we have ranked the 100 most-saved images from our database; read on to see them.

+ 36

• Architects

  Malan Vorster Architecture Interior Design

• Location

  Cape Town, South Africa

• Category

  Houses

• Architect in Charge

  Pieter Malan, Jan-Heyn Vorster

• Area

  789.0 m2

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Adam Letch

+ 45

• Architects

  Three14Architects

• Location

  Cape Town, South Africa

• Category

  Houses

• Project Team

  Kim Benatar, Sian Fisher, Miles Appelgryn, Daniel Moreau

• Area

  650.0 m2

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Adam Letch