The High Line, NYC; Dyson HQ, Singapore; Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall, Hamburg

First constructed in the 1930s, the West Side Line – an elevated viaduct section of the New York Central Railroad, freighting goods to storage and construction companies in Manhattan – was abandoned in the 1980s. But since 2009, it's been totally revitalised, and become a modern icon of contemporary architecture. The railway line is now home to The High Line – a 1.5-mile-long park in the sky, running across the original railway line. But how do you keep thousands of plants watered, just metres above the busy New York roads?

In the 1920s, Singapore was growing fast, so the stunning St James's Power station was built, soon producing over 20,000 kW of power. But by the 1970s, oil-fired power stations like this were becoming inefficient and expensive and so the building was deserted. In 2022 it was reborn by technology company Dyson to become their global headquarters and research labs. The result is an incredible new office and laboratory, full of light and air.

A disused Hamburg cocoa warehouse is now the city's tallest inhabited building, and one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world. The Great Concert Hall has a capacity of 2,100 and contains a pipe organ with 69 registers. Its acoustics – the most advanced in the world – were designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, who installed 10,000 individually micro-shaped drywall plates to disperse sound waves.