Istanbul, Turkey, conjures to mind far-off days of Constantinople and historic works of architecture, from stone masonry homes ot ornate mosques, but there is a colorful variety to the city’s more modern buildings, too, as captured in this photo series.

An architect and photographer, Yener Torun photographs elements of the city’s past, but focuses mostly on more contemporary structures with minimalist forms, modern geometries, and above all: rich rainbows of color.

One could get the wrong impression looking at his work, because indeed it takes work at times to find the most vibrant examples.“I dig every corner of the city to unearth these colorful gems,” he explains. “Finding these places in this gray mass is quite like a treasure hunt.”

“My primary motive was to document a different, less-known part of Istanbul to escape from the one dimensional and orientalist perception…I believe increasing the variety of aspects provides a better understanding of the city, both for the viewers and me. Even long-term residents can’t believe these pictures were taken in the city they live in.”

So in some ways, he surfaces lesser-seen sides of the city. Together, his photos paint a picture, or create a collage, of a very selective sort, but then again: what architectural photographers really do otherwise? Near San Francisco, the colorful hilltop houses of Daly City often become stand-ins for local vernacular, even if they only show one side.

Among the winners and honorable mentions from the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Contest are an expected array of wilderness scenes and animal portraits, but also a surprising number of unnatural environments.

Over 12,000 submissions for this year’s competition included mesmerizing images of art installations, aerial views of urban architecture, suspenseful shots of elegant bridges and window-reflected construction scenes.

Even some photographs of purely natural places seem strikingly architectural, like this photo of rocks carefully perched on eroding earthen columns.

Above: People’s Choice, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” by Daniel Cheung; Honorable Mention, “Alone in the Crowds” by Gary Cummins; Third Place Winner, “Reflection” by Gaanesh Prasad; Nature:Third Place Winner, “Mars” by Marco Grassi.

Even rather mundane settings can make for wonderful photos. Above and below: People’s Choice, “Traveling to Heaven” by Trikansh Sharma; Cities: First Place Winner, “Another Rainy Day in Nagasaki” by Hiro Kurashina.  (via Colossal).

Composition, color and contrast and go a long way toward reframing photographic subjects, in this case: making familiar architectural forms seem like parts of dark and looming alien spaceships.

German photographer Lars Stieger has a knack for capturing ordinary building surfaces, materials and details and rendering them uncanny, especially in this Spaceships series photographed across Europe.

Glass-and-metal cladding in the fog can easily looked like the curved hull of an otherworldly vessel in the right light, while intersecting geometries taken out of context call the posters of science fiction classics to mind.

Stieger’s subjects range from the inside of an old gasometer to Olympic parks — often large, public and industrial works of design that already appear a bit strange even under normal circumstances. Check out more from this Spaceships series as well as his other photo sets on Behance and Instagram.

With a background and interests in skateboarding, anime and architecture, this photographer brings both a youthful imagination and an outsider’s eye to an area of the world famous for speculative fiction-worthy landscapes and high-tech cityscapes.

Sam Pritchard‘s interest in architecture evolved alongside his interest in Japanese cities and culture, which in turn helped inspire his recent Phokus Archives remodel (years in the making and with audio accompaniment by Reso). The child of an architect, he grew up seeing the built environment through the lens of a skateboarder and urban explorer in England. Meanwhile, he developed fascination with futuristic cityscapes through (often Japanese) video games and movies, from Sega, Nintendo and Atari to Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

After spending time as an architectural photographer in London, Pritchard moved to Japan to follow up on his childhood fascinations and see what structures are really like in the fabled land of futuristic tech. The results were surprising: “Since living in Japan the reality of day-to-day life isn’t really any more tech or futuristic than it is in any other developed city or country. But in my photography, I try to create the illusion that it is some kind of digital future world that lives up to my childhood expectation of the place.”

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Cyberpunk City Reframing Tokyo As A Futuristic Wonderland

Shaping both living spaces and modular work studios, a set of shipping containers were combined with a series of green building strategies to make this a place the ultimate home for a versatile creative with professional spatial needs.

Eight used cargo containers provided a starting point for the design by architect Maria José Trejos in Costa Rica (photos by Sergio Pucci, enclosing rooms around the periphery of the plan and leaving a central day-lit void for photography, gatherings and natural cross-ventilation.

The staggered containers create porches, patios and decks on the upper levels while framing social spaces, including a kitchen and dining room, on the main floor.

As the architect describes it, “The house dresses and undresses according to what you want to use it for, be it a living room, an audiovisual space, a photographic or advertising studio.”

A reflective roof and rain harvesting techniques help keep the building cool and create graywater reserves, while the central open volume has raised windows for cross-ventilation purposes. Natural light and cooling help reduce energy consumption and associated costs.