20 of the World’s Strangest Buildings. WOW #19 is Ugly.

Fan of strange things?  Well so are we and you are in for a treat.  We have scoured the web and found 20 of the world’s strangest buildings.  Some are beauties, while others are beastly.  But take a look and judge for yourself.

1) Cubic Houses located in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Rotterdam_Cube_House_living_room

cube houses neatherlands

Cube houses can be found in Helmond and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  The architect, Piet Blom, wanted the design to represent a village within a city, where each house represents a tree, and all the houses together represent a forest.  Photo credit.


2) Atomium in Brussels, Belgium

atonium day atonium at night 2

Atomium is a building originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.  It has since been renovated.  The building stands 335 feet tall (102 meters), and its nine 59 foot (18 meters) diameter spheres are connected so that it forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times.  Photo credit (1, 2)


3) Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi, Rio de Janerio, Brazil

niteroi museum of contemporary art Niteroi-Contemporary-Art-Museum

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this building was that it looks identical to Tony Stark’s house in Iron Man.  This magnificent UFO-like building was completed in 1996.  The MAC Niteroi is just over 52 feet tall (16 meters) and has a diameter of 160 feet (50 meters) with three floors.  Photo credit (1, 2)


4) Low impact woodland house in Wales, United Kingdom

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

First thing that will pop up in your head is “this looks exactly like the house in Lord of the Rings.  That’s because the architects, Simon and Jasmine Dale, built it to look exactly like a hobbit house.   The house was built with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 man hours and about $5,000.  Not too shabby right?  Photo credit.


5) Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada

1280px-Montreal_-_QC_-_Habitat67 1280px-Habitat_panorama

Habitat 67, or Habitat for short, is a housing complex in Montreal, Canada.  It is considered an architectural landmark in Canada but many bloggers call it one of the ugliest buildings in the world.  Photo credit.


6) Nautilus House in Mexico City, Mexico

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This shell-shaped architectural masterpiece was built in 2006 by Javier Senosiain.  He wanted to build the building based on principles of organic forms in order to create harmony with nature.  Photo credit.


7) The Crooked House in Sopot, Poland

Krzywy_Domek_w_Sopocie crooked house sopot

Originally built in 2004, the Crooked House (Krzywy Domek) is a popular tourist destination for those visiting Sopot.  It is 4,000 square meters in size and is part of the Rezydent shopping center.  Photo credit.


8) Case de Penedo (the Stone House), Fafe Mountains, Portugal

Casa_da_Pedra_em_Fafe_12

Commonly referred to as the Flintstones House, this camouflauge house was built in 1974 with four different  boulders.  This getaway has no electricity so candlelights are used to see inside.


9) The Church of Hallgrimur (Hallgrimskirkja), Reykjavik, Iceland

The Church of Hallgrimur

This Lutheran church is the largest church in Iceland and the sixth largest man-made structure in Iceland.  This church took 38 years to build and stands 244 foot (73 meter) tall.   Photo credit.


10) Wooden Gagster House (Sutyagin House), Arkhangelsk, Russia

Wooden Gagster House

This is a 144 foot (44 meter) tall house of entreprenuer Nikolai Petrovich Sutyagin.  This house took over 15 years to build and is considered Russia’s tallest wooden house.


11) Mushroom House (Pod House) in Perinton, New York

mushrom house new york

This contemporary house has been featured in many tv shows and magazines for its odd appearance.  The house features four 80 ton pods which is raised by reinforced concrete that stems 14 to 20 feet high.  The house has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and is 4, 168 square feet.  The house sold for just under $800,000 in 2012.  Photo credit.


12) House Attack (Museum Moderner Kunst) in Vienna, Austria

House-Attack-Vienna-1

This is the largest art museum in Austria which has a collection of over 7,000 modern and contemporary art works, including the works of famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein.  Photo credit.


13) Upside Down House in Syzmbark, Poland

upside down house poland

This peculiar house was built in the 1970s and is one of the many popular tourist destination in the area.  Visitors enter through the roof window and walk around on ceilings.


14) Idea Palace (Palais idéal) in Hauterives, France

ideal palace

ideal palace 2

Ideal Palace is the masterpiece of Ferdinand Cheval, who spent 33 years of his life building it.  The palace is known for it extraordinary simplicity and a great example of “naive art.”  Ferdinand was a postman with no formal training in art or architecture—and that is part of what makes this building so extraordinary.  Photo credit.


15) Kansas City Public Library, Kansas, USA

kansas city library central community bookshelf

Kansas City Public Library has 10 branches and the above picture is the one that belongs to the Central branch.  The Community Bookshelf (as it is called) are book spines that measure 25 feet by 9 feet and features 22 books from a wide variety of genres, and selected by the Kansas City Board of Trustees.


16) Montreal Biosphere, Montreal, Canada

montreal biosphere sunset

Biosphere

The Montreal Biosphere is a museum dedicated to showcasing the natural environment.  The building originally formed an enclosed structure of steel and acrylic cells, 250 ft (76 meters) in diameter and 200 ft (62 meters) high.  A complex system of shades is used to control the internal temperature of the biosphere.  If you are a fan of the original Battlestar Galactica, you recognize this as it was used prominently in one of the episodes.


17) Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, USA

WonderWorks-Pigeon-Forge-Tennessee-USA

WonderWorks is an interactive science attraction combining education and affordable, quality entertainment for people of all ages and gender.  Photo credit.


18) Solar Furnace in Pyrénées-Orientales, France

solar furnace france

A solar furnace is a building strucutre that uses concentrated solar power to produce extremely hot temperatures.  Solar furnaces use parabolic mirrors or heliostats to concentrate light onto a focal point.  The one in France pictured above is the largest solar furnace in the world, and can reach up to 6,330 Fahrenheit at its focal point.  Photo credit.


19) Waldspirale in Darmstadt, Germany

Waldspirale

Waldspirale is a residential building built in the 1990s.  The name translates to English as forest spiral, as reflective of its exterior and its green roof.  The main draw of the building is its purposeful chaos, nothing appearing in order, or with any rhyme or reason.


20) Longaberger Basket Building, Newark, New Jersey, USA

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Pictured above is the Longaberger headquarter building, modeled after a Longaberger Medium Market Basket.  The building opened in 1997 and weighs almost 150 tons, taking up 180,000 square foot.  Photo credit.

 

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