Luke Griffith’s post about Bhutanese Architecture

Dzong architecture is some of the most beautiful on the planet, it would seem. It’s the stereotypical Buddhist style, the kind one sees in Tibet. What’s interesting about Bhutan, officially known as the Kingdom of Bhutan, is that its capitol city Thimphu actually forbids buildings that aren’t traditional in terms of architecture and limits tower height at seven stories. This is actually a good idea— with today’s architecture, one could barely tell Paris apart from Berlin, other than the language. If you were teleported somewhere, and that somewhere had a 50% chance of being Shanghai and a 50% chance of being Seoul, you probably wouldn’t know where you ended up. Most architects nowadays make a grotesque glass rectangle and call it a day. It’s somewhat interesting to see how much more unique Thimphu is when compared with other cities around the globe.