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In Spain’s Canary Islands, a striking concrete church has been crowned World Building of the Year after architect Fernando Menis channeled Tenerife’s volcanic spirit and harnessed natural light to shape a serene sacred space that revitalizes a once-neglected community. In Barcelona, Antoni Gaudí’s famously unfinished Sagrada Família has finally claimed the title of the world’s tallest church at 162.9 meters, a triumphant milestone in a 143-year saga of visionary design and engineering.

A curated tour of ten visionary buildings, from a concrete chapel in Japan bisected by a blade of light to a museum in the UAE dappled with a rain-of-light canopy, reveals how master architects use natural illumination as a sculptural material, infusing structures with quiet drama and depth through the shifting interplay of light and shadow.

Across continents, sacred architecture continues to mirror cultural identity – from Italy’s magnificent churches that embody a rich religious and artistic heritage to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine cathedral-turned-mosque that exemplifies how faith and history layer together in architectural form

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