High-tech architecture, also known as structural expressionism, is a type of late modernist architecture that emerged in the 1970s, incorporating elements of high-tech industry and technology into building design. High-tech architecture grew from the modernist style, utilizing new advances in technology and building materials. It emphasizes transparency in design and construction, seeking to communicate the underlying structure and function of a building throughout its interior and exterior. Here is a list of some of the most impressive high-tech buildings around the world.
Renault Centre
The Renault Centre (or the Renault Distribution Centre) is a high-tech building in Swindon, UK commissioned by the French car company Renault for their UK operations. Designed by the British architect Norman Foster of Foster Associates, it opened in 1982 and Renault moved out in 2001.
Centre Pompidou
Nestled in the center of Paris since 1977, the Centre Pompidou building, a glass and metal structure bathed in light, resembles a heart fed by monumental arteries in bright primary colors. Envisioned by its two architects, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, as a genuine living organism, it is also built in one of the capital’s oldest districts and the beating heart of Paris since Medieval times, the Beaubourg plateau.
HSBC Building
Portcullis House
Lloyd’s Building
The Lloyd’s building is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd’s of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, in London‘s main financial district, the City of London.
The Eden Project
The Eden Project complex, located in Cornwall, England, UK, is dominated by two huge enclosures consisting of adjoining domes that house thousands of plant species and each enclosure emulates a natural biome. The biomes consist of hundreds of hexagonal and pentagonal ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) inflated cells supported by geodesic tubular steel domes. The project was conceived by Tim Smit and Jonathan Ball, and designed by Grimshaw Architects and structural engineering firm Anthony Hunt Associates (now part of Sinclair Knight Merz).
Žižkov Television Tower
