Architectural Works...: "Strange Buildings of the World 2"

1. Conch Shell House (Isla Mujeres, Mexico)

(Image credits: Mark Stadnik)

This unusual building was designed by architect named Octavio Ocampo and built in a lovely island of Mujeres in Mexico. The house is said to be the most outstanding and original house on the island. Surrounded by Caribbean Ocean it gives you an unique opportunity to experience what it’s like living in a Sea Shell.

2. Device to Root Out Evil (Vancouver, Canada)

(Image credits: papalars)

Yea yea, I know… It’s not a house, it’s a statue. However it’s unusual, unique and still a peace of architecture.

Rod Mickleburgh in his article (May ‘08) wrote: “It was too hot for New York City; too hot for Stanford University. But a controversial, imposing sculpture by renowned international artist Dennis Oppenheim finally found a public home in laid-back Vancouver.”

It was too hot for Vancouver as well…:) The project has been removed from the city, and is now in Calgary, Alberta.

3. Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA, USA

(Image credits: EMP)

Experience Music Project (EMP) was founded by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. It is a museum of music history sited near the Space Needle and is by one of the two stops on the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building. The structure is also home to the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

Designed by Frank Gehry, the building resembles many of his firm’s sheet-metal construction works, such as Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall and Gehry Tower.

4. Upside Down House (Szymbark, Poland)

(Image credits: Radziooz)

Daniel Czapiewski, Polish businessman and philanthropist, built this house as an artistic statement about the Communist era and current state of the world. Many tourists who visit complain of mild seasickness and dizziness after just a few minutes of being in the structure.

5. Puzzling World Lake Wanaka (Otago, New Zealand)

(Image credits: Somerslea)

Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World is a tourist attraction near Wanaka, New Zealand. It started out as just a maze in 1973, but over the years expanded to accommodate a “puzzling café” where guests could try out several puzzles, rooms with optical illusions, the and other things.

One of the biggest attractions is the leaning tower. The Leaning Tower of Wanaka is, as the name implies, a tower that is seemingly impossibly balanced on one corner, making the whole structure lean at an angle of 53 degrees to the ground. Exactly how this is achieved is yet to be unveiled, but it can be assumed that some kind of counterbalance or anchoring device has been used.

If you feel like visiting this place check out the website.

(Image credits: Broken Piggy Bank)

6. Low impact woodland house (Wales, UK)

Once in a while you find something really amazing on the web. And I’m really happy that someone sent us a link of this truly astonishing house.

One guy with the help of his father in law and friends built this house for his family. “The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature.” he says.

This building is one part of a low-impact or permaculture approach to life. This sort of life is about living in harmony with both the natural world and ourselves, doing things simply and using appropriate levels of technology.

When asked why he is doing this, he gave this answer: “ It’s fun. Living your own life, in your own way is rewarding. Following our dreams keeps our souls alive.”

You can learn more about this project on this website.

7. BWM Welt, Munich, Germany

(Image credits: meironke)

The open style of architecture and the glass facade allow a lot of light into the rooms and open up the building towards its surroundings. Simultaneously, the BMW Welt harmonically blends into the context of the architecture of the Olympiapark and the existing BMW buildings.

8. Cowboy Boots Bathroom (Seattle, WA, USA)

(Image credits: kuow949)

These boots used to be the restrooms for a kitschy gas station. Now they adorn a park in Seattle. You can see the door on the side of the boots.

9. The Big Duck (Flanders, NY, USA)

(Image credits: the real janelle)

The Duck was built in 1930-1931 and was originally used as a retail outlet selling Long Island Duckling on West Main St. in Riverhead.

10. Lucy the Margate Elephant (Margate, NJ, USA)

(Image credits: amy_kearns)

Over the years, Lucy has served as a real estate office, a tourist attraction, a rental “cottage”, a bar, boarding house, hotel, restaurant and refreshment stand.

11. House Boat (California, USA)

(Image credits: TailspinT)

These are house boats, built in 1925 from the remains of a hotel and a bathhouse, now moored on Third St. between F and G in Encinitas, CA.

12. Giant Muskie (Hayward, WI, USA)

(Image credits: Staciaann Photography)

Giant Muskie at the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame

13. The Big Chicken (Marietta, GA, USA)

(Image credits: The Rocketeer)

The Big Chicken was built in 1963 by S.R. “Tubby” Davis as a method of advertising a restaurant on U.S. 41, a main thoroughfare through Marietta, Georga.

14. Guitar Museum (TN, USA)

(Image credits: jakekrohn)

The sign advertises the “world’s only guitar shaped music museum.”

15. Weird House Boat (Croatia)

(Image credits: lo_sgabuzzino (del guercio) )

Just another strange building sent by our commentators.

15. Doll’s Theatre (Torun, Poland)

(Image credits: _waj)

Building that looks like an old cupboard.

16. The sheep building (Tirau, Waikato, New Zealand)

(Image credits: PhillipC)

It’s a wool shop

17. Sheepdog building (Tirau, Waikato, New Zealand)

(Image credits: Susan Renee)

18. House Between The Rocks (France)

(Image credits: Blog-trotter)

19. Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada)

(Image credits: wvs)

20. UFO house (Chattanooga, Tennessee)

(Image credits: josephleenovak)

This house, on Signal Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee is shaped like a UFO. If you look closely you can see the staircase descending from the underbelly that leads up to the living quarters.

21. Wonder egg (Ishigakijima Island, Okinawa, Japan )

(Image credits:Ken@Okinawa)

This big wonder egg is built for a lookout of migratory birds point.

22. Bart Prince house (Albuquerque, USA)

(Image credits: Diluted)

23. The Amazing Flying House (Sarzana, Italy)

(Image credits: Babele Dunnit)

This is a real house. It goes up and down, can rotate 360°, runs on rails… the man built that all by himself alone and lived in it for seven years with his wife.

24. Teakettle Building (Rockbridge County, VA, USA )

(Image credits: taberandrew)

25. Cinema (Kongsberg, Norway)

(Image credits: Damiel)

It is the cinema in the town of Kongsberg, Norway.

26. Universum Science Center (Bremen, Germany)

(Image credits: Bogdan Morar)

27. SunTrust Bank (Annapolis, MD, USA )

(Image credits: Radio Rover)

28. Steam World Museum (Gramado, Brazil)

(Image credits: Mauro Mello)

As the name says, it is dedicated to showcase the many applications of the steam engine — in manufacturing, transportation, arts & crafts etc. The “disaster” reproduced in the front is a reference to a real accident, that occured at Gare Montparnasse, Paris, on 22 October 1895 (a picture of the real accident is also attached).

29. Seattle Public Library (Seattle, WA, USA)

(Image credits: mastermaq)

30. Peter B Lewis building at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH, USA)

(Image credits: bryan.norwood)

31. Oscar Niemeyer Museum. (Curitiba, Brazil)

(Image credits: Gestalteando)

Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filhois a Brazilian architect who is considered one of the most important names in international modern architecture. He was a pioneer in the exploration of the constructive possibilities of reinforced concrete. His buildings have forms so dynamic and curves so sensual that many admirers say that, more than an architect, he is a sculptor of monuments, a trait some critics consider to be a defect.

32. The Sage Gateshead (Gateshead, England)

(Image credits: wikipedia)

33. Turtle building (Niagra Falls, USA)

34. Ysios wine cellar in Laguardia, Álava, Spain

35. Oakley headquarters, Foothill Ranch, California, USA

(Image credits: MentallyRetired.com)

36. Angkor Wat (Cambodia)

(Image credits: `◄ccdoh1►)

The largest religious building in the world, Angkor Wat, was built by Suryavarman II (r 1112 – 52) to honour Vishnu, his patron deity. The central tower is 55m above the ground, which is surrounded by 800m worth of carved galleries or bas-relief friezes which depict religious scenes. The most celebrated of these scenes is the ‘Churning of the Sea of Milk’ in which asuras and devas are shown using the serpent, Vasuki, to churn the sea under Vishnu to extract the elixir of immortality.

37. Little Man Ice Cream Shop (Denver, CO, USA)

38. Church with an A (Madrid, Spain)

(Image credits: R.Duran)

A Parish Church at the beginning of Alcalde Sainz de Baranda St. (Madrid, Spain).

39. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, (Milwaukee, WI, USA)

(image credits: Ricky Irvine)

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, and completed in 1961. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church is one of Wright’s last works. Its shallow scalloped dome echoes his Marin County Civic Center.