The most unusual architectural projects are scattered around the world, amazing tourists and visitors.
Modern and popular architects have recently been creating incredible buildings, trying either to get away from generally accepted standards or find their own creative self-expression, seeking to isolate their creations from the gray mass of ordinary buildings.
1 / 14
An unusual complex of house-cubes appeared in Rotterdam and Helmond in 1984. From above, the project of the architect Piet Blom resembles a huge Penrose diagram - an optical illusion in geometry. The walls and windows in the apartments are tilted at an angle of 54.7 degrees to the ground.
2 / 14
Casa do Penedo, also known as Stone Castle or a Stone House, looks like a giant rock house from The Flintstones and is placed between Celorico de Basto and Fafe, in northern Portugal. It is a two-story house.
CC BY-SA 3.0 / Pablo García Chao / Parte posterior de la Casa do Penedo
3 / 14
This futuristic complex was created in Taiwan in 1977. It was originally planned to be a resort complex, but the construction company went broke and this space-like ghost city continues to be a wasteland.
4 / 14
One of the most original buildings of the Russian capital has five rooms and was built in the 2000s. Architect Sergei Tkachenko was inspired by the famed Fabergé eggs.
© Sputnik / Valeriy Melnikov
/ 5 / 14
Prague's Dancing House was built in 1996. The building looks like a dancing couple, where one of the partners supports the other. The two towers were even nicknamed "Ginger and Fred" after the famous American duo. The building is also sarcastically called the Drunken House.
6 / 14
Shoe tycoon Mahlon N. Heinz built a house in the form of a boot for himself in 1949. This house is spacious and comfortable inside, where everything speaks of the owner's love for his business. Even the mailbox and the doghouse are made in the shape of a boot.
7 / 14
An office in the form of a coin with a height of 33 stories in the Chinese city of Guangzhou was designed by Italian architects as a symbol of high moral qualities. However, the construction of the building is more reminiscent of the desire for material goods. Another skyscraper in the form of a coin is located in Abu Dhabi.
CC BY-SA 3.0 / Midip / Guangzhou Circle
8 / 14
The most famous monument of native architecture was created by an ordinary rural postman from France, Ferdinand Cheval. His "ideal palace" consists of stones of unusual natural form, which Cheval collected in a wheelbarrow while carrying out the mail. For more than 30 years, he alone built this surreal building, completing his work in 1912.
9 / 14
One of the most famous architectural landmarks of China is Piano House. The building consists of two parts - a transparent violin and a translucent grand piano. Strangely enough, this is not a concert hall, but an exhibition complex.
© AFP 2023 / STR
10 / 14
This residential complex looks like it is composed of Lego pieces and consists of 354 cubes. Architect Moshe Safdi built it for the Expo-67 world exhibition in Montreal, Canada. There are 146 apartments and green gardens inside.
11 / 14
This building made the small Polish town of Sopot popular among tourists. The house, which looks like an optical illusion, was built in 2004. It really is curved, as the building does not have any flat wall or corner.
12 / 14
A typical building, the 16-story hotel "Karelia," in the 1980s turned into a unique art object and entered in the Guinness Book of Records thanks to a drawing on the facade. A three-dimensional image of two suitcases with a total area of 15,000 square meters from local artists took almost 10,000 liters (2,600 gal.) of paint.
© Sputnik / Aleksander Demyanchuk
/ 13 / 14
A residential complex in the form of a spiral was designed by the legendary Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The 12-story building resembles a snail. The wavy roof, multicolored curved lines of the facade and 1,408 non-repeating windows create a fabulous atmosphere.
14 / 14
A museum building in the Austrian city of Graz in the Blobitecture style was designed by London architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier. According to their concept, the building should resemble the black box of a magician, but local residents have nicknamed Kunsthaus "a friendly alien."
CC BY-SA 2.5 / Marion Schneider & Christoph Aistleitner / Graz Kunsthaus vom Schlossberg
