Shopping and star-gazing: the New Labour years in buildings

An antidote to icons ... the publicly funded Kielder Observatory (2008) in Northumberland is a gateway to the heavens open to all. An antidote to 'icons' designed by 'starchitects', and a model of low-cost public design Photograph: Charles Barclay Architects Photograph: guardian.co.uk Most talked about ... the Swiss Re tower in London, aka the Gherkin, is one of the world’s most advanced skyscrapers. Looking like an upended dirigible airship, this Foster & Partners design remains one of Britain’s most talked-about buildings Photograph: Dan Chung Photograph: guardian.co.uk Garden of delights ... rising from old Cornish quarries like a bubbling mass, the Lottery-funded Eden Project (2001) is a Hanging Gardens of Babylon for 21st-century Britain Photograph: Jonathan S Blair/National Geographic/Getty Images Photograph: Jonathan S Blair/guardian.co.uk Hype and hubris ... the Millennium Dome in London (1999) was a contemporary take on a big top, with stylistic references to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Richard Rogers’s £45m design was undermined by the £1bn Millennium Experience housed inside Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Photograph: John Stillwell/guardian.co.uk Devolution architecture ... Edinburgh’s striking Scottish Parliament building (2004), designed by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue, was a brilliant, and costly, way of signifying a new dawn for the country Photograph: Murdo Macleod Photograph: guardian.co.uk Temple to shopping ... Selfridges in Birmingham (2003), by Future Systems, is a potent symbol of Britain’s extraordinary passion for shopping. Its voluptuous, colourful and decorative form was the best feature of the city’s redeveloped Bull Ring Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Photograph: Christopher Furlong/guardian.co.uk The fun one ... the 2002 Serpentine gallery summer pavilion by Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond in London’s Kensington Gardens was hugely popular and quietly dramatic Photograph: Eamonn McCabe Photograph: guardian.co.uk An old gem restored ... the splendidly revamped St Pancras station (2007) in London celebrates an unlikely marriage between Victorian neo-gothic and the latest in high-speed railway engineering Photograph: Sarah Lee Photograph: guardian.co.uk Riverside renewal ... the bold and popular Lottery-funded development along the Tyne, with the Sage Gateshead music venue (2004), the Baltic arts centre (2002), and the fun Winking Eye pedestrian bridge (2001) Photograph: Don McPhee Photograph: guardian.co.uk