Marriage is a terrifying prospect – unless you get married here

Wedding chapels usually only appear in print after a Hollywood starlet has spent too long in Vegas. Architect Hiroshi Nakamura’s Ribbon Chapel disproves the rule, by virtue of both its dramatic location and its integrity as a piece of architecture.

At its heart are two spiralling staircases that intertwine, intended by Nakamura – who also designed Hiroshima’s Optical Glass House – to symbolise the union of marriage. He describes it as ‘a device symbolic of the bride and groom’s path of marriage and formal union as one.’

The building opened last year and made the shortlist for the World Building of the Year 2015, picking up a number of other awards, including Wallpaper magazine’s ‘best chapel’.

The two staircases start at different points and meet at a viewing platform, 15.4 metres up, from where there are panoramic views of the Inland Sea of Japan. It seats a modest 80 guests underneath an oculus skylight that floods the building with natural light.