Sanchinarro's 21 stories define an epic void: a massive, sculpted terrace bridged over by its upper floors. Bright-orange fire stairs connect many of the 156 units to thisa nd other public areas. More to MVRDV's point, the multicolored donut comprises nine unique housing blocks, each with its own variety of apartment plans. Stone, concrete and tile façades echo the diversity of spacesand familiescontained within.

10. Best House:
Art Collectors' Residence
Toronto
Architect: Hariri Pontarini Architects

The best houses in the world are now designed in Toronto; the latest is by Siamak Hariri and David Pontarini. The sleek, materials-first modernism the designers espouse puts the world of "custom home" builders to shame.

Last year, the deliciously stoic Art Collectors' Residence garnered praise and awards by upstaging its high-end Toronto enclave with an image at once feather-light and fortified. Detailed with teak, copper and limestone, the house gently and unself-consciously melds functions with arcs and angles. These are new modernists, not ideologues. Perhaps Americans will catch on?

11. Best Hospital:
General Hospital of Ciudad Real
Ciudad Real, Spain
Architect: Ángel Fernández Alba

In the heart of La Mancha, where Don Quixote tilted at windmills, a super-hospital of some 800 beds has appeared like a mirage on the outskirts of this relatively small city south of Madrid. But this is no dream. It's the real emblem of Spain's commitment to cutting-edge, universal healthcare.

Fernández Alba is influenced as much by Finnish and Swedish modernism as by the arid, ruddy earth surrounding this sprawling city-like structure. Its roofscape and public program are serene and, at times, surrealistic in the way that medieval cities can be. Rendered in earthy tones of brick, travertine and copperand an array of mighty boulders pulled from its native landsthe hospital at Ciudad Real unites Spain's past and present as much as its land and its people.

12. Best Convention Center:
Milan Trade Fair
Milan, Italy
Architect: Massimiliano Fuksas

Seemingly knitted together by an undulating glass-and-steel canopy above its main, mile-long axis, the Fiera di Milano contains over 2 million square feet of exhibition hall, espresso bars and support program. The blobby veil of its spine contrasts starkly with the simple steel posts and boxy shapes it connects. But as he aspires to, Rome's future-focused Massimiliano Fuksas produces an architecture "of the emotions" by allowing forms that are organic (albeit computer-generated) into the artificial and often inhuman realm of the dreaded convention center. The results are strikingand, whether or not you have business to do there, definitely worth a peek.

C.C. Sullivan is a writer and consultant specializing in architecture, design and building technology. Formerly chief editor of Architecture and Building Design & Construction magazines, Sullivan has written for such magazines as SD Space Design (Tokyo), Architectural Review (London) and Progressive Architecture. Prior to that, he studied architecture at Yale and has worked for architects in New York, Madrid and Hartford, Conn.

Images (top to bottom): Courtesy of Steven Evans/Hariri Pontarini Architects; Courtesy of The Scottish Parliament, © Scottish  Parliamentary Corporate  Body 2005; Courtesy of The De Young Museum. © Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums, Herzog & de Meuron, Primary Designer, Fong & Chan, Principal Architects, Photo by Mark Darley; Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects, London; Courtesy of The High Museum, Atlanta, © Jonathan Hillyer 2005; Courtesy of Shaw Center for the Arts, Schartz-Silver Architects; Courtesy of Steven Evans/Hariri Pontarini Architects; Courtesy of the writer.