Designed to look right-side-up when reflected off the water below, this series wall murals features a series of nautical themes, including depictions of swimmers, rowers and swans. While the image above is accurate and not retouched, a modified photo (shown below) shows a more idealized version that does not really reflect reality.

New York-based Ray Bartkus made this mural for the Lithuanian city of Marijampole, set alongside the river Šešupe, which flows through the city’s center. The artist is known for other works that rely on mirrors and reflections as well.

A bit like a trompe l’oeil illusion, the viewer’s position changes the composition, and their is an ideal spot for the optical effect in relation to the various vertical planes onto which the murals were painted.

These intricately choreographed dances of light and color are at once static but ephemeral, lasting longer than conventional light graffiti but nonetheless made of impermanent light.

Stephen Knapp is a sculptor and muralist who has worked in metal and glass, but his latest array of light paintings turn the latter toward a new and more indirect purpose.

His pieces are not sketched, programmed or otherwise visualized in advanced, but emerge as he begins cutting, polishing, shaping and places pieces of glass on the wall. Unlike many light graffiti artists, the work does not rely on a photographer capturing a fleeting moment, but can be put up on museum walls indefinitely.

“The fun of what I do with light, is that there is nothing in our visual memory that prepares us for what I’m doing,” says Knapp. “The fact that what I create can just be done with light, that there is no paint on these panels, is absolutely astounding to people. What I am trying to do most of all here is challenge any traditional notion of perception. What is it? Is it real? Is it not real? Does it matter?”

His work has been featured in galleries around the world from Boise to Naples and a solo exhibition is currently on display at the Pensacola Museum of Art.

Dazzling in the most literal sense, architecture clad in mirrored glass or stainless steel almost seem to become part of the sky and landscapes that surround it so you can’t quite tell where the man-made objects end and nature begins. That’s often the point, with architects creating structures that virtually disappear into their surroundings (to the chagrin of more than a few birds.)

Reflection Field by Phillip K Smith III, Indio, California

Reflecting the vast open sky and signature palm trees of Indio, California, where Coachella is held each year, the installation ‘Reflection Field’ by Phillip K. Smith III consists of five monolithic volumes that transform all day along with the environment. At night, colored light is projected from within.

Refinished French Country House

It’s safe to say there’s no French country estate quite as dazzling as this one, now that its facade has been entirely replaced with mirrors. Architecture studio Bona-Lemercier worked with artist Xavier Veilhan and set designer Alexis Bertrand to transform a 1960s home into ‘Le Château de Rentilly,’ a contemporary art gallery.

Guest Houses by Peter Pichler, South Tyrol, Austria

A pair of vacation homes in the South Tyrolean Dolomites by Peter Pichler offer up space for guests without interrupting the property owners’ view of the stunning mountains. Reflective, but coated in a glare-reducing film to prevent bird collisions, the two ‘Mirror Houses’ blend into the property so they don’t compete with the client’s garden and existing 1960s farmhouse.

Mirrored Ziggurat by Shirin Abedinirad

“In this installation I have been inspired by the pyramidal structure of ziggurat, a common form of temple in ancient Mesopotamia, attempting to connect earth and sky, so humans could be nearer to God,” says artist Shirin Abedinirad. “The Mirrored Ziggurat acts as a staircase, which seeks to connect nature with human beings and to create union of ancient history and today’s world. The installation offers a transformative view of the self. The Mirrored Ziggurat has seven levels that represent seven heavens. For me, mirrors amplify this paradise, giving light; an important mystical concept in Persian culture, and a medium creating an optical illusion.”

Mirrored Auditorium by MVRDV, Tianjin, China

It’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s reflection when gazing inside the transparent facade of MVRDV’s beautiful new library at the Binhai Cultural Centre in the Chinese city of Tianjin. A mirrored spherical auditorium inside the main atrium reflects both the interior space around it (including all those books!) and the park outside.

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Disappearing Architecture 15 Mirrored Buildings Distort Perception

A brilliantly low-tech way to provide a unique view of the surrounding landscape, this massive yet cost-efficient shipping container periscope uses the same elementary construction principles as those childhood do-it-yourself milk carton equivalents.

Framing a clear vista of the nearby Lagoa Santa, a Brazilian lagoon, this upturned container designed by Pedro Barata e Arquitetos Associados sits alongside a structure likewise built in part from containers.

Though a one-off idea for now, this would be a great low-cost solution for sites where excellent views are close but building permanent staircases and decks would not be feasible.

Analogous to the traditional role of a fireplace and chimney inside a home, the tall structure is also a natural focal point for outdoor gatherings.

A simple system of wood supports and set of mirrors tilted at 45 degree angles reflects the view above for onlookers below. It is ultimately designed to travel, set up to similarly enable views elsewhere, before coming to rest in a final spot yet to be determined.

The architect is pleased with resulting reactions so far: “there’s always someone peeking through the vertical tunnel, trying to understand the ‘technology’ allowing them to do so. By connecting directly two different and faraway spaces, the Superiscope introduces people to architecture as hypertext”

To gain entrance to this darkened slaughterhouse chamber filled with seemingly infinite reflections, you’ll have to dial a phone number that produces a ripple on the surface of the water covering the building’s floor. Outside the otherworldly scene you’ll find a stack of business cards with instructions in two languages “to activate this artwork.” Your presence, the artist insinuates, is an interruption.

Even the title of the work, ‘Every Word is Like an Unnecessary Stain on Silence and Nothingness,‘ makes a statement on the potential sacredness of forgotten spaces, no matter what their origins may be. In this case, the charred room in which you’ll find yourself is the former cooling chamber of a slaughterhouse in Madrid.

Artist Eugenio Ampudia needs very little in the way of augmentation to create the atmosphere within this disused space. The water makes it seem to go on and on, and carries echoes so far that every little squeak of a shoe or muffled cough is amplified.

Ampudia explains that the work is a critique of modern communication. “It’s true that modern technology has allowed us to connect with thousands of people almost simultaneously. But what is happening with communication? Why is draft legislation eing put forward tov eto the flow of information among citizens? What is more disturbing: people trying to communicate something or people uniting with the same intent? Who is scared of the words ‘network’ and ‘community’?”