11 Unusual Buildings From Around the World

Humans need shelter while we do the things we do—eat, sleep, work, play. Therefore, architecture in its simplest form is a basic necessity of human life. But somewhere along the line, it became much more than a basic necessity. At some point in history, someone thought to ask, “why build a regular old house or office building, with right angles and usable space, when you could build a weird curvilinear thing that looks like a frog?” And of course, there is no answer. It’s a rhetorical question. One that I imagine was asked by every one of the architects whose work is featured on this list of 11 Unusual Buildings from Around the World. From the slightly strange to the utterly bizarre, there are sure to be some things on this list you’ve never seen before, and which are likely to leave you scratching your head. So scroll on down and have a look.

11. The Mushroom House (Cincinnati, Ohio)

When Cincinnati architect Terry Brown decided to build himself a second home for himself, he chose the Hyde Park neighborhood on the city’s East end. And, for some reason, he made it look like a mushroom. Built between 1992 and 2006, this home has since become one of the cities most well-known land marks. And yes, that is a “for sale” sign in the front of the house. So if you know anyone looking for a $525,000 one-bedroom house in Cincinnati…

10. The Longaberger Corporate Headquarters (Newark, Ohio)

This is the corporate headquarters for the Longaberger Company. Can you guess what it is they make? I’ll give you a hint: it’s baskets. They call this “novelty architecture” for rather obvious reasons. I couldn’t find out who designed the building—probably because whoever did design it refused to put his or her name on it. Legend has it that old Mr. Longaberger wanted all the company’s buildings to be shaped like the baskets they sold, but he died without realizing his dream.

9. The Swiss Re Building (London, England)

Completed in 2003, this Foster and Partners-designed skyscraper has 40 floors and measures almost 600 ft. Londoners called it “The Gherkin Building” because they think it looks like a pickle. And they have a point. If Faberge made pickles instead of eggs, this is probably what it would look like. Cool? Yes, but also kinda weird.

8. Habitat 67 (Montreal, Canada)

This complex was the brainchild of architect Mashe Safdie—his master’s thesis that became a reality as part of 1967 World’s Fair held in Montreal. His idea was to envision a way people could live happily together in an increasingly urban world. Thus the idea was to create dense but private housing units that each contain their own little piece of green space. Today the complex is owned by its tenants, and has become a well-known landmark in the city.

7. Museum Moderner Kunst (Vienna, Austria)

This museum of modern art in Vienna was founded in 2001 and is the largest museum in Austria. This photo does not depict the original or even current architecture of the building, but the building as it was modified in 2006. That is when sculptor Erin Wurm instilled this piece, called “House Attack,” on the exterior of the otherwise simple monolithic building. But while the museum may consider it a sculpture, I say, if there’s buildings, it’s architecture. Then again, Wurm is all about having people question what sculpture is. The point of the whole thing was surely to make people wonder what the difference is between sculpture and architecture—buildings really are kind of big sculptures, aren’t they?

6. The Sharp Centre for Design at OCAD (Toronto, Canada)

This funky box on stilts was designed by architect Will Alsop and completed in 2004. It is part of the Ontario Academy of Art and Design, a well-respect visual arts university in Toronto. You usually want your artists to think outside the box; however, if they must think inside the box, this is the kind of box it should be.

5. Bibliotheca Alexandria (Alexandria, Egypt)

This unusual building is meant to be a tribute to the legendary ancient Library of Alexandria (the largest and most important in the ancient world) as well as a bold statement about modern Egypt. They first had the idea for the huge trilingual library in the 70s, but this building was completed in 2002. Some critics have said it’s too ambitious of a project for the government to have taken on. Looking at the architecture, you can get an idea of what they might mean.

4. China Central Television Headquarters Building (Beijing, China)

This 768 ft, 44-story skyscraper in the middle of the Beijing business district was designed by architects Rem Koolhaas and Ole Sheeren and completed in 2008. It is considered quite a technical masterpiece, give the challenging design. They built it in three stages, almost as if it were three separate buildings—the legs were constructed simultaneously, then connected.

3. Kubuswonigen (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

Kubuswonigen is Dutch for Cube Houses, which is what you are looking at here. These innovative homes were designed by Piet Bloom in 1984. The complex consists of 38 small cubes and 2 large ones. The idea was basically to take a typical cube-shaped house, tilt it 45 degrees, and place it on a pedestal. Somehow, this was supposed to create a more communal type of housing. It has something to do with the sloping windows, or something like that. All I know is there’s a lot of wasted space in each unit, what with all those slanting walls.

2. The Nationale-Nederlanden Building (Prague, Czech Republic)

This strange structure is more commonly known as the dancing building, or Fred and Ginger (after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers—kids, ask your grandmas who they are), because it resembles two people dancing. It is home to a major Dutch insurance company, and was designed by Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić (with assistance from the world-famous Frank Gehry) in 1992 and completed in 1994.

1. The Kunsthaus Graz (Graz, Austria)

Designed by architects Peter Cook and Colin Fornier and built in 2003, this museum of contemporary art in Graz, Austria is known as the “Friendly Alien” by locals (but personally I think it looks more like one of the Friendly Alien’s extracted internal organs). It is an example of “blob architecture.” No, really, “blob architecture” is a real thing. It’s an architectural movement in which buildings take on organic, amoeba-like, blob forms. Try to work this little trivia nugget into a conversation next time you’re mingling at a cocktail party.

http://unique-building.com/house-attack-viena-austria/

http://www.wikipedia.org