The most iconic buildings of modern architecture
The top 3 according to 117 votes from people: Sydney Opera House · Fallingwater · Burj Khalifa. (Updated Aug 19, 2026.)
The 20th- and 21st-century landmarks that architecture magazines such as Arch2O and Parametric Architecture always name as the icons of modern architecture, with architect and year.
Top 20
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1
Sydney Opera House
Jørn Utzon, opened 1973. Its sail-like shells made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.
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2
Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1935-1939, Pennsylvania. A house cantilevered over a waterfall.
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3
Burj Khalifa
SOM (Adrian Smith), 2010, Dubai. The world's tallest building, at 828 metres.
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4
Villa Savoye
Le Corbusier, 1928-1931, Poissy. His 'five points of architecture' in one house.
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5
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1959, New York. A spiral ramp gallery on Fifth Avenue.
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6
Seagram Building
Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, 1958, New York. The model glass-and-bronze skyscraper.
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7
Barcelona Pavilion
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1929; rebuilt in 1986. 'Less is more' in marble, glass and steel.
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8
Bauhaus Dessau
Walter Gropius, 1925-1926. The school building that gave modern design its name.
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9
Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp
Le Corbusier, 1955. A sculptural concrete chapel.
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10
Salk Institute
Louis Kahn, 1965, La Jolla, California. Concrete and a channel of water pointing to the Pacific.
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11
Glass House
Philip Johnson, 1949, New Canaan, Connecticut. Walls made entirely of glass.
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12
CCTV Headquarters
Rem Koolhaas and OMA, 2012, Beijing. Two leaning towers joined at the top.
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13
Brasília Cathedral
Oscar Niemeyer, 1970. Sixteen concrete columns reaching for the sky.
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14
Heydar Aliyev Center
Zaha Hadid, 2012, Baku. A building without a single straight line.
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15
The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe)
Norman Foster, 2004, London. The bullet-shaped tower of the City.
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16
Casa Batlló
Antoni Gaudí, remodelled 1904-1906, Barcelona. Modernisme with a dragon-scale roof.
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17
Centre Pompidou
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, 1977, Paris. Its pipes and escalators on the outside.
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18
Lloyd's Building
Richard Rogers' 1986 'inside-out' building in the City of London.
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19
Louvre Pyramid
I. M. Pei, 1989, Paris. Glass and steel in the courtyard of a royal palace.
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20
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Frank Gehry, 1997. Titanium curves that transformed a city: the 'Bilbao effect'.
Candidates
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21
Chrysler Building
William Van Alen, 1930, New York. Art Deco crown, briefly the world's tallest.
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22
Farnsworth House
Mies van der Rohe's glass-walled weekend house in Plano, Illinois (1951).
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23
Casa da Música
Rem Koolhaas's angular concert hall in Porto, opened in 2005.
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24
Elbphilharmonie
Herzog & de Meuron's concert hall built on a brick warehouse in Hamburg (2017).
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25
Unité d'Habitation
Le Corbusier, 1952, Marseille. The prototype of modern housing blocks.
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26
TWA Flight Center
Eero Saarinen's 1962 terminal at JFK Airport, now the TWA Hotel.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (3)
Fallingwater in person is even better than in pictures.
Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier's manifesto in concrete.
The Bilbao effect, a museum that changed a whole city.