Even if your knowl­edge of archi­tec­ture begins and ends with Ted Mos­by, you prob­a­bly know Zaha Hadid from her splashy sports are­nas. (She built the Lon­don Aquat­ics Cen­tre and Tokyo Olympic sta­di­um.) But her fir­m’s been clock­ing in impres­sive work all over the globe for years, and one of the finest exam­ples is this Chi­nese opera house. The twin­kling lights and cas­cad­ing tiers promise to keep you engaged, even as those Car­me­nar­ias are bor­ing you to tears.