“Bodies in urban spaces” is a temporarily intervention in diversified urban architectonical environment. The intention of “bodies in urban spaces” is to point out the urban functional structure and to uncover the restricted movement possibilities and behavior as well as rules and limitations. Photo: “Bodies in Urban Spaces”, September 26, 2010. (Photos by Andrew Russeth)

At the end of rice harvesting season, the folks of the Kagawa and Niigata Prefectures in Japan hold a straw festival to celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Dried straws cover wooden frames to form larger-than-life sculptures from animals like sharks and gorillas to vessels such as ships and tanks. The family-friendly event invites visitors of all ages to engage, interact, and play on the enormous structures.

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

An aerial view of a man standing on Lake Tuz, Turkiye's second largest lake, during sunset in Ankara, Turkiye on April 22, 2024. The lake, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List with its unique natural structure, welcomes many local and foreign tourists every year as it provides 70 per cent of the country's salt needs. (Photo by Hakan Nural/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Masakatsu Sashie is a Japanese painter, born in 1974 in Kanazawa. His paintings of spherical structures floating above rubble on the streets, envision a future where environmental disasters have made the cities depicted uninhabitable. While he has been painting since 1999, his work caught more national intention in 2005 at the Geisai art show.

The London 2012 ArcelorMittal Orbit Sculpture at the Olympic park nears completion on November 4, 2011 in London, England. The Ј22 million sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor is nearly complete. Standing at 115 meters tall the permanent structure is Britain's largest artwork and houses an observation deck near the top. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)