Sometimes you don't even have to set foot inside a gallery or museum to witness great art. In a few very special cases, the architecture of the building housing the artwork is a masterpiece itself – a work of true genius that delights our senses and challenges our sensibilities.

Frank Lloyd Wright's 1959 design for the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum on New York's Fifth Avenue once set the standard. Famously cylindrical, and wider at the top that at the bottom, its unique spiral gallery rises elegantly from ground level to the ceiling skylight. Yet, half a century later, it has been joined by another Guggenheim Museum that some would argue is even more outstanding.

Here's my top 10 (and, by the way, the art inside them is worth seeing too!).

1. MUSEUM OF OLD AND NEW  ART, HOBART.

For once, Australia doesn't need to feel any sense of cultural cringe. Professional gambler David Walsh has built one of the world's most extraordinary galleries to house his idiosyncratic collection. In just three years, MONA has firmly established itself an international destination.

Unlike most of the other galleries on this list, MONA's superb architecture is only apparent when you are inside. The museum was built almost entirely underground because Walsh wanted to preserve the integrity of the hillside setting and the two heritage homes that are the most visible signs of the museum.

2. THE CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, VALENCIA.

Strictly speaking, the Ciudad de las Artyes y las Ciencias isn't one gallery, but a complex of visually striking museums and galleries – all designed by Spanish architects Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela.

The first, L'Hemisferic (containing an IMAX, planetarium and laserium), was opened in 1998. It is meant to look like the emerging eye of some gigantic creature emerging from a pool of water.

Other notable buildings include an interactive science museum built to look like the skeleton of a whale and one built in the shape of a water lily.

3. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, BILBAO.

Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry's most famous creation opened in 1997 but by then was already being hailed as the greatest building of the late 20th Century, comparable to Utzon's Sydney Opera House.

Unlike the Sydney Opera House, however, it was not only built on time but within budget.

The Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation was offered a financial incentive to bring a new Guggenheim Museum to Bilbao. Gehry, known for his use of unorthodox methods and environmental sensitivities, was chosen to deliver an unusual vision. He did.

4. THE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG.

No cutting edge use of glass and concrete here. Just the 18th Century beauty of Imperial Russia, conceived and founded in 1764 by the empress, Catherine The Great.

Though Catherine was one of the world's most extraordinarily gifted female leaders, she was also a massive art patron, buying one of the world's finest collections, but how exquisite is it that, despite 80 years of communist rule, the most famous artworks are those fabulously silly Faberge Eggs? 

5. DALI THEATRE AND MUSEUM, FIGUERES.

Salvador Dali spent much of the final years of his life working on this suitably surrealistic museum in his home town of Figueres in Catalonia. In a sense, it's his last great work: his body lies in the crypt beneath the distinctive glass geodesic dome roof.

Dali said he wanted the building to be "a totally theatrical museum", with visitors feeling that they were having "a theatrical dream".  Architects Joaquim de Ros i Ramis and Alexandre Bonaterra were selected to bring Dali's fantasy into reality.

6. THE MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART, DOHA.

Chinese-born, American architect IM Pei – best known for his glass and steel entrance to the Louvre (see below) – subsequently designed this highly-regarded building in the Qatari capital, dedicated solely to Islamic art.

Then in his 90s, Pei had to be coaxed out of retirement before taking on the commission. He spent six months travelling the Muslim world, learning about Islamic architecture.

7. LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, COPENHAGEN

This extraordinary arts complex, on the shore of Oresund Sound some 35 kilometres north of the Danish capital, is the most visited art museum in Denmark, with a superb collection including works by Warhol, Picasso, Lichtenstein, Henry Moore and Jean Arp.

But the complex itself is recognised as a milestone in Danish architecture for its perfect synthesis of nature, landscape and art. Architects Vilhelm Wohlert and Jorgen Bo spent several months walking around the property before settling on the original design – three buildings connected by glass corridors.  However, the complex now has a circular outline because of subsequent additions.

8. HAGIA SOPHIA MUSEUM, ISTANBUL.

This magnificent, hugely influential building began life as a Christian cathedral (the largest in the world for 1000 years), became a mosque in the 15th Century when the Ottomans took over Constantinople, and finally became a secular museum in 1935. It remains arguably the greatest surviving example of Byzantine architecture.

9. MUSEU OSCAR NIEMEYER, CURITIBA

Brazil's most celebrated architect was 95 when the museum he designed, and which is named after him, was completed in 2002. Also known as "The Museum of The Eye", the main structure (which looks like an eye) appears precariously balanced on a massive 20 metre high yellow pillar.

10 THE LOUVRE/MUSEE D'ORSAY, PARIS

Take your pick. IM Pei's fabulously functional glass pyramid which somehow adds an element of fantasy to the august lines of the Louvre, the former royal palace turned world class museum. Or the equally imaginative conversion of the former Gare d'Orsay – the 19th Century Beaux-Arts railway station which was saved from demolition in the 1970s and is now home to one of the world's greatest collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings.

You can see both in one day and be reminded that architecture, at its best, is the equal of any other art form.