Architectural Breaks

Ten great destinations for the architecturally discerning traveller from Brazilian Modernism to twelfth-century Cambodian temples.

Angkor, Cambodia
The imperial heart of the Khmer empire, Angkor was lost in the Cambodian rainforest until French explorer Henri Mahout rediscovered it in 1860. Today its remote location ensures it’s still dramatic on first sight. The empire reached its height in the twelfth century, during which time the ancient metropolis’s first building, the majestic temple of Angkor Wat, was constructed, followed by Angkor Thom, a royal city within a city.
A five-day tour of the classic Angkor sights with Guerba World Travel costs from £265 per person. Flights are not included in the price of the tour, but can be arranged and cost from around £500 return.
Guerba Travel (01373 826 611/ www.guerba.co.uk).

Glasgow, Scotland
The home city of architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh is littered with examples of his style, which meshes Scots baronial with gothic and art nouveau influences. Mackintosh produced his main works at the end of the nineteenth century – the Glasgow School of Art, which he designed in 1896, is his most famous construction, while the towering Lighthouse on Mitchell Lane and Scotland Street School, south of the River Clyde, provide further testament to his genius.
Glasgow is served by a number of low-cost airlines, including British Airways, EasyJet and EUjet. Train tickets cost from £40 return if booked in advance.
British Airways (0870 850 9850/ www.ba.com).
EasyJet (08717 500 100/ www.easyjet.com).
EUjet (0870 414 1414/ www.eujet.com).
National Rail (08457 484 950/ www.nationalrail.co.uk).

Graz, Austria

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Presiding over the semi-alpine region of Styria, Austria’s second city, Graz, boasts an old town (Altstadt) filled with medieval streets, baroque façades and Renaissance courtyards. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Altstadt’s focal point is the wooded mound of the Schlossberg rising above the River Mur. But it’s more recent architecture that’s brought the city to Europe’s attention. Graz’s contemporary arts centre, the new Kunsthaus, is nicknamed ‘The Blob’ for its globular organic form and is now the most dominant building on the waterfront.
Fly to Graz from London Stansted with Ryanair from £43.92 return.
Ryanair (0871 246 0000/ www.ryanair.co.uk).

Jaisalmer Fort, India
Sitting at the crossroads of ancient trade routes and once ruled by the marauding Bhatti Rajputs’ feudal chiefs, the revered city of Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan was founded in the twelfth century. Rich merchants poured their wealth into this walled citadel, which sits atop Trikuta Hill and affords views of the Thar Desert for miles around. Within the fort’s 99 bastions lie a warren of cobblestone streets, squares, mansions (havelis) and temples adorned with intricate stone-carved façades, latticework, screen windows, pavilions and balconies. Still a bustling city and built using local sandstone, it’s in danger of crumbling away, but is being restored with the help of the World Monument Fund.
A 15-day tour of Rajasthan, which includes three days in Jaisalmer, with Imaginative Traveller costs £410, plus a local payment of $135 (approx £70). Flights are not included in the price of the tour, but can be arranged and cost from around £400 return.
Imaginative Traveller (0800 316 2717/ www.imaginative-traveller.com).

Miami Beach, Florida
While prime sun, surf and people-watching are often seen as Miami Beach’s main attractions, it’s arguably the destination’s sublime art deco architecture that provides its real allure. Compacted into an area no bigger than Soho (but with a seafront, of course), the 800 or so 1920s and ’30s buildings are all playschool shapes highlighted with green, pink and blue pastel paintwork. A stroll down Ocean Drive at night is a thrilling blur of art deco forms illuminated by blinding neon; stop on chic Collins and gritty Washington Avenues to admire less ostentatious examples.
Fly to Miami from London Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic from £362 return.
Virgin Atlantic (08705 747747/ www.virgin-atlantic.com).

San Francisco, California
As gobsmacking as it is, the Golden Gate Bridge is not San Francisco’s only jaw-dropping structure. Also on the must-see list are the Financial District’s 260-metre-high Transamerica Pyramid; the pretty Victorian houses in the Western Addition, exemplified by so-called Postcard Row; the $60 million red-brick San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta; the Hobart Building; and the extensively restored historic Ferry Building, with a soaring clock tower modelled on Seville’s twelfth-century bell tower.
Fly to San Francisco from London Heathrow with British Airways
from £269 return.
British Airways (0870 850 9850/ www.ba.com).

San Gimignano, Tuscany
Rising 334 metres above the Elsa Valley in the western Sienan province of Tuscany, the village of San Gimignano offers a medieval prelude to the modern skyscraper. Influenced by architecture from nearby Florence, Siena and Pisa, 72 stone towers were built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by opposing factions of the Ardinghelli (Guelphs) and Salvucci (Ghibellines) families, as symbols of their wealth and power. Sadly, only 13 remain today.
Fly to Pisa from London Stansted with Ryanair from £55.34 return.
You can book a Hertz hire car to pick up from Pisa airport through the Ryanair website. It costs from £85.51 for four days.
Ryanair (0871 246 0000/ www.ryanair.co.uk).

São Paulo, Brazil
São Paulo, the largest city in South America, is a disorienting urban sprawl. Yet, amid the chaos of the high-rises and the traffic, you’ll find exciting, controversial works by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, whose name is synonymous with the country’s modernist movement. The Memorial da America Latina, the Copan building and the city’s main park, Ibirapuera, are key examples.
Fly from London Gatwick to São Paulo, via Lisbon, with TAP Air Portugal from £408.30 return. Or fly from London Heathrow to São Paulo direct with Varig from £633.60 return.
TAP Air Portugal (0845 601 0932/ www.tap-airportugal.co.uk).
Varig (0870 120 3020/ www.varig.co.uk).

Therme Vals, Switzerland
The Therme Vals spa gives you the perfect excuse to combine an appreciation of breathtaking design with a love of luxury. Originally constructed in the 1960s on the natural thermal spring from which it takes its water, it was rebuilt in 1996 by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Using quartz taken from local deposits, the result is a modernist building set into the mountainside above St Peters, with stone walls, high ceilings and grassed-over roofs.
Therme Vals, Hotel Therme, 7132 Vals/GR, Switzerland (0041 81 926 8080/ www.therme-vals.ch).
Doubles from €138, including use of spa.
Fly to Zürich from London Gatwick with British Airways from £52 return.
British Airways (0870 850 9850/ www.ba.com).

Toronto, Canada
With the Ontario SuperBuild programme pumping money into Toronto’s architectural landscape, this lakeside regional capital is one to watch. The Ontario College of Art & Design’s Sharp Centre is a monochrome block elevated on coloured stilts. The new opera house, the Four Seasons Centre, is a work in progress, while the new home of the Toronto Film Festival has only just left the drawing board. And Daniel Libeskind’s ‘Crystal’ extension of the Royal Ontario Museum opens in late 2005. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the C$500-million redesign and expansion of the Art Gallery of Ontario by homegrown genius Frank Gehry, which gets under way this year.
Fly to Toronto from London Heathrow with Air Canada from £166.
Air Canada (0871 220 1111/ www.aircanada.com).

Jessica Eveleigh
Time Out London Issue 1811: May 04-11 2005

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