Nordpark Cable Railway Station

Aggressively futuristic and sensual, the four Alpine railway stations along the line linking Innsbruck's city center to Hungerberg are eye-popping biomorphic forms in glass, floating over simple concrete platforms. At first glance the stations seem to evoke rocket-fueled, supersonic air travel. But as the yellow and blue train cars glide slowly through snowcapped mountains, it's clear: the streamlined shapes connote not speed but just the opposite—a glacial melting of ice, the slow freezing of water. Zaha Hadid has made architecture that speaks to the landscape.