麻豆社

In a special edition, Max Pearson finds out more about Chandigarh, the modernist city in India commissioned by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Freedom Tower in Teheran, originally commissioned by the Shah but now a focal point for public protest in Iran.

There's also a personal account of the painstaking reconstruction of a historic church in Dresden that was bombed during World War Two, and, from the 21st century, the stories behind two very modern buildings: the Shard in London and Zaha Hadid's landmark Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinatti.

Max Pearson is joined by Catherine Croft from The Twentieth Century Society, a modern architecture charity.

PHOTO: The Chandigarh Legislative Assembly building. 1999 (AFP PHOTO / John Macdougall)