Completely camouflaged among the rocky cliffs of the Risco de Famara near the village of Yé, on the northern tip of Lanzarote and near the remains of an old 19th-century military battery, the Mirador del Río offers the island's most spectacular panoramic view of the Chinijo archipelago. If on the outside the visitor's path is practically unnoticeable, the interior space carved out of the rock, which houses a cafeteria and a souvenir shop, is meticulously designed and, despite its cavernous configuration, is flooded with light thanks to the large windows that open onto the landscape.

Commissioned and managed by the Hualapai Indian tribe to revitalise the area's economy - not without controversy from environmentalists and natives who have seen sacred sites desecrated - Grand Canyon Skywalk is a scenic walkway located near the Colorado River on top of a canyon. The horseshoe shape with four layers of glass flooring, metal structure and a 21m cantilever over the void at a height of 220m from the plateau below, evokes the thrill of lightness and freedom felt by the eagles soaring over the area.

At the top of the Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps, the “Pas dans le vide” lookout overlooks the Mont Blanc massif at a height of about 1,000 m above ground and an overall altitude of more than 3,800 m above sea level. The work, inspired by the Grand Canyon Skywalk, features a terrace with glass walls, floor and roof, projecting the visitor into an immersive experience of the Alpine landscape.

The viewpoint, located in the north-east of the island of La Gomera in the municipality of Agulo, is a place to test one's static equilibrium. Situated at the top of the Abrante cliff, 620 m above sea level on the edge of an impressive cliff with a drop of about 200 metres and a seven-metre overhang over the void, the structure with its glass walls and floor offers a resting place and services to visitors and is definitely a challenge for those suffering from vertigo.

Aptly named 'Yuanduan', meaning 'at the end of the clouds', the horseshoe-shaped glass walkway that juts out over the edge of a 718-metre-high cliff in the Longgang National Geological Park in Chongqing is the longest in the world, surpassing even the Grand Canyon's Skywalk, and gives thrills (and chills) at the sight of the mountains and canyon below.  

Foto Sally V da commons.wikimedia

In the Nordkette, the mountain range north of Innsbruck, along a meandering scenic path that starts at an altitude of 1,905 m above sea level and runs for 2.8 km over a height difference of 142, Snøhetta has designed ten architectural elements made of cortén steel and wood that are perfectly integrated into the natural landscape - seating, flooring and viewing platforms - that allow you to take in the spectacular Alpine scenery from different perspectives. Quotations from Ludwig Wittgenstein are engraved on the elements, for those who wish to pause for philosophical reflection.

Tij (Dutch for "tide" but also "egg") is a birdwatching observatory located in the De Scheelhoek nature reserve which, following the reopening of the Haringvliet locks and the consequent restoration of biodiversity, lends itself to being an unmissable destination for the discovery and appreciation of the rich local ecosystem. The entirely prefabricated, decomposable and recyclable wooden structure has the zoomorphic shape of an outsized Sterna sandvicensis egg resting on a nest created in the sand, as this bird commonly does. The lower part, which can be submerged by the tides, is made of radiata pine wood, which is particularly resistant to water, while the upper part is made of pine and covered with local reed straw. Inside the belvedere, the path for contemplating nature is spiral-shaped on two levels, with focused views of the landscape.

Situated on a former World War II military base that once housed anti-aircraft guns at the highest point of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, Skywalk is a viewing platform offering a breathtaking 360° view of Europe and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. A glass walkway and balustrade cantilever over the steeply sloping terrain, creating an effect of lightness and suspension in the void, while steel stairs lead to the top of the original platform where the old octagonal concrete base now serves as a resting space for visitors.

On the highest part of the Val Senales glacier ridge, the border line between Italy and Austria, the viewing platform incorporating the pre-existing summit cross offers an extraordinary experience of contact with the mountain: characterised by an architecture that reflects the natural topography of the site and bound to the ground only at necessary points, the platform is made of steel grids and surrounded around the entire perimeter by vertical corten slabs. Glass balustrades blur the boundary towards the void, contributing to the thrill of vertigo or contemplation of the 'Sublime'.

In the forest of Cerro Blanco, a protected area in the south-west of Ecuador, an educational viewpoint for observation and knowledge of the grandiose local natural ecosystem stands as a construction that is clearly integrated in its context: the cantilevered structure made of wood charred using the Japanese technique of "shou sugi ban" to ensure greater durability, and covered with a fabric impregnated with cement mortar, offers a unique visual and emotional experience in its simplicity and essentiality.

Like a solitary totem stuck in the flat Danish landscape, this 25 m high observation and watchtower, with a double helix shape and made entirely of steel, provides a 360° view from a height of 110 m² over the natural landscape surrounding the Wadden Sea and the Wadden Sea National Park, an important migratory stopover for thousands of birds and a refuge for as many native species.

If you are anxious to be observed, this is not your place. The enchanted garden of heads is a surreal and disturbing place that hosts hundreds of tufa sculptures of faces, of every size and expression, made by Filippo Bentivegna, a very particular character with some obsession and no technical mastery. Sad, happy, enigmatic, smiling, thoughtful, angry, bewildered heads, stacked, side by side and two-faced, grouped in clusters as in a votive act: the works acquire the strength of spontaneity and naturalness of art brut that, as Dubuffet said, "arises from the material and feeds on instinctive dispositions”.  

The garden, created at the end of the 19th century by the Luchini family, is a manifesto of the English romantic park, tinged with subtle and obscure symbols. Here a free and sovereign nature dominates and envelops the only traces created by man, from the dry stone walls, to the small stone bridges, to the visible fragments of the past (the remains of a Sienese fort and of a probable Etruscan place of worship). In the middle of the luxuriant nature winds, perceptible only to a few, an initiation-esoteric path of Masonic matrix: so have been conceived the arrangement of some essences in groups of three, symbolic number; the underground jar that recalls the basin of the Temple of Solomon; the box hedge in the shape of a circle that represents the eye that oversees; the pyramid with a triangular base, the main symbol of Massoneria.

Like the Sculpture Park in Chianti, the Gori Collection - Fattoria di Celle, home to the first private collection of environmental art in Italy, houses in the rooms of the eighteenth-century Fattoria and in its large park open to the public since 1982 site-specific works of art created specifically for these places by major exponents of the contemporary scene, including Robert Morris and Richard Serra. In addition to making the permanent collection visitable, the structure organizes annual exhibitions and performances inside the sculpture-theater.

Conceived on the one hand to respond to the client's need for suitable spaces for the production, storage and sale of wine and on the other as an iconic manifesto for the prestigious "Rioja Alavesa" brand, the winery is located in a context of irregular orography punctuated by vineyards. The clear and simple longitudinal layout is developed in elevations with powerful fronts clad on the north by prefabricated concrete panels, on the east and west by aluminium sheets, and on the south by cedar wood slats reminiscent of wine barrels. A sinusoidal roof of laminated wood beams and aluminium lends a dynamic and sculptural character to the architecture.

The complex sits on an estate of almost 300 hectares of land between hills and vineyards. The building is characterised by a central cylindrical volume sectioned by an inclined plane parallel to the hill, crossed by an imposing staircase and planted with greenery on the roof, and by two porticoed side buildings. The ground floor houses the barrique cellar, the areas for ageing, vinification, bottling and packaging, and the tasting areas; the first floor houses the crushing areas and the technological rooms. With its Prun stone cladding, the work evokes the image of a flower blooming in the heart of the Maremma.

A "new bottle for a historic wine": this is how the intervention commissioned to Zaha Hadid by one of the oldest and most renowned winegrowing families in the region was conceived to protect and enhance an old wooden exhibition pavilion originally transported to the Brussels International Wine Exhibition in 1910 and since then disused. The Iraqi architect has thus designed an enclosure with sinuous and enveloping shapes that seem to evoke a decanter, or a spaceship landed in the Rioja.

A purely functional building conceived to optimise the winery's wine production process but also to host conferences, concerts and events: this is Renzo Piano's vision for the winery in the heart of the Maremma, which revisits the traditional forms of Tuscan architecture in a contemporary key and with an industrial language. The complex consists of an open square, a glass pavilion housing administrative and commercial spaces, a tower towering above the building and from which light filters into the underground spaces, and a wine cellar characterised by a large underground hall, arranged like an amphitheatre, with a capacity of 2,500 oak barrels. Glass and terracotta embody the contamination between industrial and traditional processes in winemaking today.

"A strip of land raised to open a thin, long slit in the natural slope of the land (...): not a winery, but a large seagull's wing facing south that can enjoy a very special microclimate due to its proximity to the sea". This is how the architects describe their work, set in the Maremma landscape like a seagull's wing, in fact, or like the prow of a ship pointing towards the sea. The industrial building, perfectly integrated among the hills and covered with greenery and trees, with its sinuous forms seems to want to embrace the landscape, in a perfect synthesis of artifice and nature.

The complex located in one of Spain's most vibrant wine-producing areas is characterised by a three-lobed geometry functional to the different phases of the production process: processing, conservation and pouring, which take place in each of the buildings. The concrete structure clad in reddish-coloured cortén steel shingles is reminiscent of the bright, full-bodied colours of the wine.

The "Boutique Winery" dedicated to the production of AOC wines (from Douro to Port to Moscatel), divided into four floors, houses on the first level, almost completely underground, a storage area and services for personnel and warehouses; on the ground floor, the second storage area, dressing rooms and services; on the mezzanine floor, the reception and a tasting room; and on the upper level, an auditorium. The complex clad externally in slate, stone and cork retains an "artificially natural" character that blends well with the vineyards.

To connote the image of one of the largest wine cellars in Bordeaux, the architect designed a sinuous and enveloping volume in exposed concrete. The work takes the form of a majestic "wine atelier" of 5,500 square metres developed on two levels: the first floor houses 52 rough concrete tanks for maturing wine and a tasting room; the basement houses the production rooms. The building was designed according to sustainability criteria, thanks to the presence of a green terrace on the roof, the studied ventilation system and the mechanism for filtering and reintroducing rainwater.

In the Umbrian countryside, Arnaldo Pomodoro's "Carapace" is a work halfway between art and architecture: an "inhabited" sculpture in which artifice and nature blend admirably. The large dome covered in copper and etched with cracks that evoke the earth from which the construction springs encloses an interior with a twilight atmosphere as if inside the belly of a primordial animal, with a majestic structure of three-hinged arches made of laminated wood lattice girders and bright red furnishings that evoke the leaves of the vine.

Literally immersed in the soft hilly landscape of the Chianti region, the Antinori Winery is first and foremost a "geo-morphological" experiment: excavated up to 15 metres into the hillside, the complex of almost 45,000 square metres is for the most part hypogeal and almost invisible from the outside, except for the horizontal slits that follow the green terraces under which the productive and recreational areas are articulated. In the interiors, warm and natural materials such as terracotta, red pigmented concrete and cortén give the spaces a sacred and timeless aura as in a secular cathedral, where the rituals of an ancient rural world coexist with advanced industrial technologies.

The renovation of a pre-existing warehouse purchased by the client in the woods of the Medoc peninsula eschews mimetic and vernacular language in any way: the building takes the form of a monolithic white concrete block studded with LED light points that shine, signalling the iconic and unusual presence of the architecture in the rural landscape. The concrete is mixed with a self-cleaning agent that preserves the brightness of the façades and reduces maintenance costs. A shallow pool of water surrounding the structure reflects the image of the building and seems to make the mighty mass magically float.

A work of land art: this is how this winery - an extension of an existing stone barn in the centre of the estate - appears. It is inserted among the vineyards with an essential and abstract geometry: four vertical mirrored walls and a terrace/belvedere floating over the landscape. The east and west facades are made of concrete covered with a series of horizontal stainless steel staves polished and lacquered in a bright red, the colour of wine. The north façade features a large mirror that reflects the vines during the day and reveals the fermentation room at night. The roof is a thin horizontal plate, with the lower part covered with the same material as the façades.

The building nestled in the rolling hills of Bordeaux stands as an avant-garde structure to promote an internationally renowned wine. The building, with a circular layout, is characterised by a combination of two ramps: one outside to emphasise the perceptive relationship with the landscape and the other inside to lead the visitor through the different stages of the wine-making process. A gallery on the upper level, with tasting tables, wine bar and entertainment areas, offers a panoramic view of the adjacent vineyards. A wood-clad concrete outer shell envelops the spaces, while a 40-metre diameter wooden roof, composed of sloping beams and recycled terracotta tile cladding, opens into a 6-metre wide central oculus from which natural light filters in.

This small structure in the forest, surrounded by tall trees, provides a place for locals to stop and relax and a lively market at weekends. The construction is made entirely of locally available materials and assembled by hand, from the lightweight metal structure to the sloping roof made of leaves from native trees, traditionally used in the region to build tools, roofs and house walls.

Hopkins Architects has planned the largest built-up area of Expo 2020: the 'Thematic Districts' comprising 87 permanent buildings distributed over three 'petals', dedicated to the three themes of Mobility, Opportunity and Sustainability. Designed according to the principle of a modern reinterpretation of the traditional Islamic city, each of the petals is a unique universe to be discovered, in which tree-lined streets and courtyards with vegetation and pools of water accompany visitors to the pavilions. Under the hot desert sun, the shading structures are essential: inspired by the shape of the date palm, thin at the base and wide at the roof, they rise up to 16 metres to create an interconnected canopy from which evocative plays of light and shadow filter through.

Overlooking the rice fields of Noakhali in Bangladesh, 'Matter. Space. Soul' is a bamboo and wood pavilion initially intended by the client as an extension of his restaurant, where customers could relieve urban stress in a peaceful natural setting. Due to the climatic specificities of the area, which is strongly affected by monsoon rains, the decision was made to create a flexible space with temporary furniture to allow an informal break in contemplation of the landscape. Removable bamboo screens were introduced to ensure privacy for visitors.

Located in the botanical garden of the University of Freiburg, the livMatS Pavilion is an innovative experiment in the direction of an ever more concrete commitment to environmental sustainability. It is in fact the first building with a supporting structure made entirely of robotically wound flax fibre, a completely biodegradable material available in Central Europe. The characteristic and intricate appearance of the linen structural elements evokes zoomorphic suggestions, between technology and ecology.

Xianmo Flower Field is an urban park with vast areas for seasonal blooms: a lovely place but little used due to the absence of shaded areas. In order to attract a greater influx of visitors, reception services have been enhanced, including the installation of bamboo parking pavilions with aerodynamic shapes, made possible thanks to the high-performance tensile and flexural properties of the material, which easily lends itself to the formation of three-dimensional shapes.

As part of the 'Pavilion Tokyo 2021' initiative, Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has designed the 'Kokage-gumo' pavilion, a temporary structure conceived to breathe new life into the garden of an abandoned 1927 villa in Chiyoda-ku and to offer visitors a pleasant, shady space to rest. The work features a canopy made of charred wood according to the traditional 'yakisugi' technique of preserving the material by lightly charring the surface of the cedar wood. The rough, dark construction stretches across the garden, gently enveloping the existing trees as if it had always been part of this magical and mysterious place.

In the dramatic mountain karst landscape of Yangshuo County in the Guangxi region of southern China, the architectural firm lllab has designed a light pavilion for an open-air theatre performance. The ethereal bamboo structure with its soft and enveloping shapes, from which animated chiaroscuro plays filter, seems itself to 'dance' suspended amidst the rich vegetation of the site.

Amidst the vast green expanses of Montana, inside the Tippet Rise Art Centre, Kéré Architecture has "imported" a bit of its Africa: a pavilion that emerges in a clearing surrounded by aspen trees, facing a small stream, carved from raw pine logs from a sustainable pruning process. The logs of the canopy are grouped in circular bundles within modular hexagonal steel beam and column structures. The roof, at once massive and light, is inspired by the "tuguna", the sacred gathering space of many small Burkinabè communities: a low shelter made of wood and straw that offers ventilation and protection from the sun.

The Vietnamese studio Vo Trong Nghia Architects (VTN) defines bamboo as "the green steel of the 21st century": and it is precisely with this material that they design flexible structures that can be easily duplicated and transported anywhere. Bamboo Stalactite is an installation for the Venice Biennale 2018 located on the waterfront: the pavilion comprises 11 modules, each of which is formed by the combination of 2 hyperbolic shell structures that offer a shaded space for anyone seeking relief from the heat.

Continuing its research on bamboo, one of the fundamental materials in Vietnamese architectural tradition and already experimented in Venice, VTN Architects creates an eye-catching and iconic space for a bar-club on the roof of a modern building with no particular qualities in Vinh, in the north of the country. The structure of self-supporting domes and vaults that shape the Nocenco Café houses a vibrant textured environment with varied geometries, from which there is a pleasant view of the cityscape.

A small wooden pavilion on the campus of Kyoto University of Art and Design, set against a steep hillside covered with lush vegetation, offers visitors a pleasant shaded space for contemplating the view amidst plum forests. A light, sloping roof resting on slender pillars protects the sequence of handcrafted, mushroom-shaped stools - grouped at the base of the pillars, in the corners and in the cracks of the stone walls and stairs - evoking, rather than furniture, natural elements sprouting spontaneously from the ground.

The work is conceived as an immense "parasol", a perforated umbrella to provide shelter from the sun for visitors to Plaza de la Encarnación, originally the site of the city's largest market, which was then suppressed and recently returned to "new life" thanks to an effective urban riqualification project. The project is developed on five levels and accommodates different functions: on the basement level a platform allows views of archaeological remains; the second level houses a market space; the third level a plaza for performances and shows; the fourth level a restaurant and the fifth a terrace overlooking the old quarters of Seville. The mega-structure of wooden lattices providing shade to the square, about 150 metres long, 75 metres deep and 28 metres high, is a marvel of structural engineering designed by the Arup company  and described by the German architect as 'a cathedral without walls'.

Commissioned by the wealthy businessman and intellectual Eusebi Güell, impressed by the phenomenon of garden cities of Anglo-Saxon origin, the park is the only built work of a larger urban plan to create a green suburb on the hills outside Barcelona. The park, studded with buildings in sinuous, primordial shapes and bright colours, is an enthusiastic hymn to life and an example of the balance, between the dreamy and the playful, of architecture and nature. The porticos, variously cavernous and shadowy, lend themselves well to offer a refreshing break to the sweltering tourists.