Architecture sights in Asia
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Fuji TV
Designed by the late, great Kenzō Tange, the Fuji TV headquarters building is recognisable by the 90-degree angles of its scaffoldinglike structure, topped with a 1200-tonne ball. You can actually go into the ball, which is a terrific observation deck. Pick up an English guide at the dog bone (err, desk?) out front, for information on a self-guided tour.
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Wat Ounalom
This is the headquarters of the Cambodian Buddhist patriarchate, founded in 1443, comprising 44 structures. The head of the country's Buddhist brotherhood lives here as do some monks. See the statue of Samdech Huot Tat, fourth patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism, who was killed by Pol Pot. Behind the main building is a stupa containing an eyebrow hair of Buddha.
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Choam-Choam Srawngam border crossing
Next to a ramshackle smugglers' market, is the old Choam-Choam Srawngam border crossing. A bit to the west, right on the nicely paved main road, the Thais have built a spiffy new crossing, but the Cambodians say it's on Cambodian territory - yet another Thai land grab. So for now, with no end to the dispute in sight, the old facilities will have to do.
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Toto Tokyo Center Showroom
The Shinjuku L Tower is home to the Toto Tokyo Center Showroom, a high-tech kitchen, plumbing and bathroom showcase that gives you a great idea of what a contemporary Japanese home looks like, if you can’t visit one yourself. There’s lots of automation; the toilet lids that automatically lift when you approach are nifty.
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Five Officials Memorial Temple
Five Officials Memorial Temple is an attractive Ming temple (restored during the Qing dynasty) dedicated to five officials who were banished to Hǎinán in earlier times. The famous Song dynasty poet, Su Dongpo, was also banished to Hǎinán and is commemorated here. Take bus 11 or 12 and get off one stop after the east bus station.
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Design Festa
One of the strangest buildings in Aoyama, the headquarters of Design Festa looks like an industrial, spider-webbed diorama, though the space is actually home to a slew of galleries. It’s also responsible for the enormous art and design festival, Design Festa, that takes place biannually at the Tokyo Big Sight.
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Five Phoenix Hall
Five Phoenix Hall is a striking Ming dynasty, Naxi 20m-high edifice dating from 1601 but only moved to its current location in 1979. Its three roofs with eight eaves each are supposedly in the shape of phoenixes. It's located at the far side of the Black Dragon Pool near an art exhibition building and a pavilion with its own bridge across the water.
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E
KazMunayGaz
About 1.5km past Duman on Kabanbay Batyr, the huge curved headquarters of the state energy company, KazMunayGaz, appears on the right (west), looking across a flyover and along the main showpiece axis of the new capital, 2km-long bulvar Nurzhol. The most daring of all Astana's architectural fantasies, the Khan Shatyr, is going up behind KazMunayGaz.
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Assembly Hall of the Hainan Chinese Congregation
Built in 1851, the Assembly Hall of the Hainan Chinese Congregation is a memorial to 107 merchants from Hainan Island who were mistaken for pirates and killed in Quang Nam province during the reign of Emperor Tu Duc. The elaborate dais contains plaques to their memory. In front of the central altar is a fine gilded woodcarving of Chinese court life.
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Jokhang Temple
Also known in Tibetan as the Tsuglhakhang, the Jokhang is the most revered religious structure in Tibet. Although little remains of its 7th-century origins - most of its sculptures postdate the Cultural Revolution - it is thick with the smell of yak butter and the murmur of mantras, and bustles with awed pilgrims. An unrivalled Tibetan experience.
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Louis Vuitton
For several years running, the Japanese have had something of a love affair with Louis Vuitton, which is why this flagship store is usually packed wall-to-wall with shoppers. Meant to evoke a stack of clothes trunks, Aoki Jun’s design features offset panels of tinted glass behind sheets of metal mesh of varying patterns.
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Vittala Temple
From the eastern end of Hampi Bazaar, a track, best covered on foot, leads left along the riverbank to the Vittala Temple, about 2km away. The undisputed highlight of the Hampi ruins, the 16th-century temple is in fairly good condition, though a few cement scaffolds have been erected to keep the main structure from collapsing.
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Ramakrishna Mandir
The centrepiece of the Ramakrishna Mission is the huge 1938 Ramakrishna Mandir which somehow manages to look like a cathedral, Indian palace and Istanbul's Aya Sofya all at the same time. That's deliberate and perfectly in keeping with the message of 19th-century Indian sage Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who preached the unity of all religions.
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Wat Phra Ram
Displaying a sturdy prang, Wat Phra Ram has a complicated lineage, indicative of much of Ayuthaya's chronicled structures. Claims of construction are often attributed to numerous kings throughout a 300-year time period. Some accounts state that this was the cremation site of King U Thong (the founder of the Ayuthaya kingdom).
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Rani Sipri's Mosque
The small Rani Sipri's Mosque is also known as the Masjid-e-Nagira (Jewel of a Mosque) because of its graceful construction, with slender minarets - again a blend of styles. It's said to have been commissioned in 1514 by a wife of Sultan Mahmud Begara after he executed their son for some minor misdemeanour - she is also buried here.
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Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim
Sitting magnificently atop Bukit Timbalan, designed by Palmer & Turner architects, the imposing Bangunan Sultan Ibrahim is a mighty melange of colonial pomp, Islamic motifs and indigenous design. Completed in 1942, the city landmark was employed as a fortress by the Japanese as they prepared to attack Singapore.
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Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery
Take a few hours to explore the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, Singapore’s largest (12 buildings) and most stunning. ‘Don’t speak unless it improves the silence’ is the creed here, the resultant quiet a surreal counterpart to dragon-topped pagodas, shrines, plazas and lawns linked by Escher-like staircases.
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Sidi Saiyad’s Mosque
Sidi Saiyad’s Mosque, close to the river, was once part of the old citadel wall. Constructed in 1573 by Sidi Saiyad, a sometime slave of Ahmed Shah, it is one of Ahmedabad’s most stunning buildings, with exquisite jalis, spiderweb fine, depicting the intricate intertwining branches of the ‘tree of life’.
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Tan Ky House
Built two centuries ago as the home of a well-to-do ethnic-Vietnamese merchant, Tan Ky House has been lovingly preserved and today looks almost exactly as it did in the early 19th century. Don’t be spooked by the portrait of a stern-looking matriarch over the entry hall; this gem of a house is worth lingering in.
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Bhimsen Temple
The two-storey Bhimsen Temple, variously dated to 1605, 1645, 1655 or 1657, is squat, rectangular and open on the ground floor. It's fronted by a platform with a small double-roofed Vishnu/Narayan Temple and a pillar topped by a brass lion with his right paw raised. Steps lead down behind it to the deeply sunken Bhimsen Pokhari.
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Monasteries 45 and 47
The earliest monasteries were made of wood and are long gone. The usual plan is of a central courtyard surrounded by monastic cells. Monasteries 45 and 47, standing on the eastern ridge, date from the transition from Buddhism to Hinduism, with strong Hindu elements in their design. The former has two exceptional sitting Buddhas.
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Holy Trinity Cathedral
British spiritual needs were well served in Karachi, and its churches provide some of Karachi's finest remaining examples of British Raj architecture. The Anglican Holy Trinity Cathedral has some fascinating plaques inside erected to the memory of British soldiers who died in various campaigns. Services at 09:00 every Sunday.
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Chettiar Hindu Temple
Officially known as the Sri Thandayuthapani Temple, the open-walled, blue-green Chettiar Hindu Temple was completed in 1984, replacing a temple built by Indian chettiars (moneylenders). Dedicated to the six-headed Shaivite god, Lord Subramaniam, it’s at its most active during the Thaipusam festival.
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Tokyo Big Sight
Odaiba is full of oddball architecture and Tokyo Big Sight (officially known as Tokyo International Exhibition Hall) is no exception - appropriate, since it's the semi-annual venue for Tokyo's coolest design festival, Design Festa. Look for the upside-down pyramids of the conference tower rising above the exhibition complex.
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Wat Pha Phutthabaht
Around on the northeastern flank of Phu Si are the ruins of Wat Pha Phutthabaht, originally constructed in 1395 during the reign of Phaya Samsenthai on the site of a 'Buddha footprint'. The ruins are of mixed style but are said to show a definite Lanna or Chiang Mai influence, as well as some later Vietnamese augmentation.
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