The year’s most striking architectural photos revealed

CNN  — 

From a seashore chapel in Qinhuangdao, northeast China, to an abandoned power station in Budapest, some of the world’s most eclectic buildings have appeared in images shortlisted in the annual Architectural Photography Awards.

The 20 finalists, named across four main categories (exterior, interior, buildings in use and “sense of place”) will be exhibited at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam from Nov. 28-30. Winners will be announced on the last day of the event.

Photographs from almost 50 different countries, including Australia, Canada and India, were entered into this year’s competition.

Chinese photographer Zhu Wenqiao captured swimmers on the riverside opposite the construction of Raffles City Chongqing, China designed by Safdie Architects.

Two very different images of London attraction, The Hive, were shortlisted in the sense of place category. Omer Kanipak captured children peering through the glass of the multi-sensory installation, while Jeff Eden shot the sculpture’s exterior in the snow.

Elsewhere, a photograph of the “Vortex,” the timber-clad lobby of Bloomberg’s European headquarters, was a finalist in the interior category. And an eerie aerial shot of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau border crossing was shortlisted in the exterior category.

While most images are devoid of people, several photographers used human subjects to illustrate the social impact of architecture. A powerful image by Chinese photographer Zhu Wenqiao shows swimmers wading into waters where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet, opposite the construction site of a new building complex by Safdie Architects in the Chinese city of Chongqing.

Browse the gallery above to see all 20 shortlisted photographers’ works.