T Houyel
On the coast of Normandy, this fortified village built in the shadow of a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey appears to float on the ocean at high tide. Despite its seemingly unstable sandbank foundations, the picturesque village has survived since the 11th century.
Jordan Tourism Board
Between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, Petra was the capital of the Nabataean caravanning kingdom from around the 6th century BC. Abandoned in the 2nd century AD after an earthquake, the desert city carved from rose-red limestone is one of the world's most important archaeological sites.
Steen Heilesen
Founded in the 5th century and spread over 118 small islands, Venice is an architectural masterpiece in which even the smallest buildings contain works by some of the world's greatest artists. Italy has the most World Heritage Sites of any nation (47).
Clive Vella
Ruled successively by various ancient empires, Valletta is one of the world's rare urban inhabited sites that's been preserved near perfectly. The tiny peninsula contains 320 monuments, making it one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world.
Martien Jansse
It's still on the tentative list of sites to be brought into the UNESCO fold. But as Myanmar's tourism industry expands, Bagan's profile is gaining prominence. The capital city of the first Myanmar Kingdom, this enormous Buddhist complex contains more than 2,500 intricate monuments dating to the 10th century.
Turkish Culture and Tourism Office
Sculpted by erosion, the Goreme valley and its surroundings contain rock-hewn sanctuaries that provide unique evidence of Byzantine art in the post-Iconoclastic period. Underground towns dating to the 4th century can be observed.
Barney Smith
Scattered between the twisting roots of the Cambodian jungle, this site dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu contains the remains of Khmer Empire capitals dating from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Among the most famous of its 100-strong group of monuments is the Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the sculptural Bayon Temple.
City of Athens Development and Destination Management Agency
Looming over Athens, this Grecian citadel was built in the 5th century BC and continually beautified through the years. Despite being pillaged by everyone from the Byzantines to the Venetians, the site still provides insight into Greek mythology.
sarah reid/cnn
Located between emerald banana plantations in eastern Karnataka, the enormous group of monuments that comprise the former capital of the last great Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara date to the 14th century.
Sarah reid/cnn
The sites that comprise Cusco's Sacred City are spectacular in their own right, but nothing prepares a visitor for sunrise over the Incan city of Machu Picchu. At 2,430 meters above sea level, in the midst of a tropical mountain forest, the 15th-century settlement was among the few Inca sites that wasn't plundered by Spanish invaders.
Jake Haggmark
Comprising the Pyramid fields from Giza to Dahshur, including the majestic Great Sphinx, the Old Kingdom of Egypt was considered one of the seven wonders of the world in Hellenistic times.
sarah reid/cnn
Idyllically situated on a rocky cliff facing the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, Tulum was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Mayans, managing to survive around 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico in the early 16th century.

Editor’s Note: Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind was CNN Style’s guest editor for July 2015. Exploring the theme of architecture and emotion, he commissioned a series of features on the relationship between the buildings we create and the way they make us feel.

CNN  — 

Many minds and hands are involved in the creation of great architecture: the planner’s vision, the architect’s sketch, the engineer’s calculations and the builder’s skill all contribute to the look and feel of the eventual outcome.

From the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona to the Sydney Opera House, the world’s most recognizable landmarks display the character of the people who created them, but can individuality in architecture stand up to increasing pressure from developers to deliver universally popular designs?

CNN Style guest editor and internationally renowned architect Daniel Libeskind warns that his profession is currently battling against commoditization and a “design by committee” approach that devalues the architect’s role.

Architecture’s dirty word

Throughout his career, Libeskind has sought to create buildings that engage people’s emotions, and he feels this is best achieved when the architect’s own vision and feelings are expressed through the design.

“Individual expression is what makes people different from other animals,” he says. “It’s what defines us as a species and yet, increasingly, individuality is a dirty word in architecture.”

For German architect, Jürgen Mayer H., modern architecture is a layered and complex process in which the architect’s individual vision is inevitably tempered by the demands of the brief. But individuality is still possible.

Mayer H. has applied his technically innovative approach to projects ranging from urban master plans to artistic installations, including an undulating timber structure covering a plaza in the Spanish city of Seville.

“Each project is a unique research into context and culture,” the architect explains, “and we always develop individual designs for specific programs, sites and clients. Our architecture is based on a repertoire of strategic explorations that we developed over the years, on pushing limits and being driven by a curiosity for the new.”

According to David Rockwell, the founder of New York architecture and design firm Rockwell Group, individuality is still viewed by some clients as a desirable quality that can help their project stand out from the crowd.

“It is the individual expression of ideas that gives our culture its richness and diversity,” Rockwell explains. “I find our clients come to us for unique solutions and not repetition so I don’t think they believe individuality is a dirty word.”

Ideas that Rockwell finds personally fascinating, such as stagecraft and spectacle, are evident throughout his projects but are applied in ways that respond to the unique requirements of the space and client.

The outcomes, including stage sets for the Academy Awards and interiors for Virgin Hotels and the Nobu restaurant group, provide the sorts of memorable experiences that are key to promoting brand recognition, suggesting that creativity and individuality can add value when used appropriately.

Banality: The new normal?

Sadly, the majority of modern city planners and developers tend to forego curiosity and instead consider most new projects as exercises in box-ticking aimed at producing the safest and least controversial outcomes. The inevitable result is the proliferation of banal architecture that currently blights cities all over the world.

“The systems and protocols of construction are increasingly bureaucratic,” suggests British architect and writer Sam Jacob, “which actively suppresses any sense of individuality, preferring instead a risk averse genericness that comes from the institutional fear of individuality.”

Jacob’s former architectural practice, FAT, regularly challenged established architectural conventions by developing designs that combine diverse cultural references in a postmodern style. He feels there is a “strange fascination and complete distrust of individuality” in architecture and contemporary culture more generally, which has created a dichotomy that discourages many architects from following their own path.

“It’s a schizophrenic situation where we end up endlessly expressing our individuality but in ways that seem increasingly similar,” he adds. “Ironically, the more individualized society becomes, the less space there is for individuality.”

Jacob’s concerns echo those of the 19th century writer and critic, John Ruskin, who argued in his essay, “The Nature of Gothic,” that society’s preoccupation with the accuracy and consistency enabled by the introduction of division of labor nullified opportunities for creative expression within construction.

“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless an important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect,” said Ruskin, who advocated retaining aspects of craftsmanship so that a human touch could still be discerned in new buildings. “No good work whatever can be perfect,” he added, “and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.”

Ruskin’s passion for imperfection feels particularly pertinent at a time when a fear of making mistakes is causing architects and developers to opt for conservative homogeneity over unique and innovative architectural proposals.

The awe and delight evoked by the Sagrada Familia and the Sydney Opera House illustrates how important it is to celebrate, rather than stifle, single-mindedness and creative ambition. For the millions of visitors who flock to see these great buildings each year, individuality is most certainly not a dirty word.