Good Saturday morning and welcome to the weekend! I’m so excited about my Saturday plans I can barely contain myself! After my shower and morning routine, I’m gonna throw a load of laundry in the washer, then spend the next 15 hours in front of my computer! Whoo Hoo!!! {Sarcasm very much intended} I hope you have fun plans, as well!
I was at a loss for a topic for Saturday Surprise … I trolled my usual sources, but nothing jumped out at me, and I was ready to give up, but I also didn’t feel like writing yet another political post just at the moment. And so, I let my mind meander for a while and came up with something …
While I’ve never had any desire to become an architect, I’ve always been fascinated by different {read weird} buildings, so I went in search of, and found, some weird buildings I thought might make for a fun way to kick off the weekend.
This is a residential complex located in Darmstadt, German, called the Waldspirale, which translates to “forest spiral” in English. On the outside, some of its most notable features are the tower that resembles Russian onion domes, an absence of straight lines and sharp colors, and the multicolored painting of the building. I was more intrigued by the appearance of uneven layers, as if someone had tried to squish it like a sandwich!
This is the Krzywy Domek (Crooked House) in Sopot, Poland. It is actually part of the Rezydent shopping center. It was designed by Szotynscy and Zaleski, who were inspired by fairy tale drawings. It reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of some buildings in San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906 … or it makes me think of a huge giant coming along and just squeezing the building from the sides.
Here we have the Casa do Penedo, located in the Fafe Mountains of Portugal. This is a private home built between 4 large boulders. The property includes many amenities, including a fireplace and swimming pool.
I think this one, the Lotus Temple in Delhi, India, isn’t weird so much as beautiful … it somehow reminds me of the Sydney Opera House. Its renowned flower-like shape has won it numerous architectural rewards.
Needless to say, this one captured my attention. It is the Kansas City Library in Kansas City, Missouri. The “community bookshelf” runs along the south wall of the parking garage. The book spines measure 25′ by 9′ and reflect a variety of reading interests, all suggested by Kansas City readers. Several of my readers are huge “Lord of the Rings” fans, so you’ll be pleased to note that is one of the books featured on the wall!
What you see here is a Low-Impact Woodland House located in Cynghordy, Wales, in the United Kingdom. Using only £3000, a chisel, a chainsaw and a hammer, Simon Dale and his father-in-law raised this cozy, woodland home up from the ground in just four months. Built in 2005, the house is set into the earth, giving it the appearance of a hobbit home. The design allows for increased energy-efficiency, keeping the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
This is the one building in today’s collection that is not yet built, but is still in the planning stages. Still, I thought it interesting enough to include. It is a Rotating Tower that is to be built in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and once completed, all 80 floors will rotate independently, spanning 360 degrees every 90 minutes. While that may not be a dizzying speed … you might never know which direction to walk when you exited the building at the end of the day!
The Nautilus House in Naucalpan, Mexico, is shaped like a sea shell (on first glance I thought it was a snail shell). Built by architect Javier Senosiain, it was constructed to be a livable home and features smooth surfaces, spiral stair cases, and natural paintings. According to Senosiain it is both earthquake-proof and maintenance-free.
The Museum Moderner Kunst in Vienna, Austria, appears to have had a house dropped on it! Somehow this reminds me of “The Wizard of Oz”! Artist Erwin Wurm is known for his unusual, sometimes humorous, and occasionally puzzling work. While his “House Attack” piece could fall into any or all of those categories, it’s at the very least intriguing. It was completed in 2006, but I read that the house atop the museum has since been removed. Still, I thought it deserved inclusion here.
This is the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandrina, Egypt. It is a major library and cultural center located on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It resembles an angled discus or giant sundial. It was created to reincarnate the famous ancient library of Alexandrina, which held the largest collection of manuscripts in the world but burned down in the 3rd century.
Kubus Woningen, or Cubic Houses, are located in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. They were constructed by architect Piet Blom in the 1970s after he was asked to solve the dilemma of building houses on top of a busy road. With 38 regular units and two “super-cubes”, each slanted cubic residence is held up by a hexagonal pillar, some of which are located atop a pedestrian bridge spanning the four-lane Blaak Street. While it solved the urban planning problem, it created some highly odd residences in the process. Although each cube house contains about 1,080 square feet of floor space, only a quarter of this, approximately 270 square feet, is usable due to the sharp angles of the architecture. Even worse, this 270-square-foot area is spread out across four floors. After entering on the ground level, residents must take a narrow staircase to reach the first floor, a tiny, triangle-shaped room which features a living room and kitchen. A flight of stairs up are two bedrooms and a bathroom, and the top floor is a small free space, typically used as a garden.
Wonderworks is a local attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains. It’s primarily an entertainment center focused on science exhibits. It was designed to look as if the building was picked up by severe weather and dropped upside down on an existing building. And once again, I am reminded of the “Wizard of Oz”!
The header image is Casa Terracota, or Ceramic House, located in a mountain village of Colombia. It is known by locals as the Flintstone House. The house is is entirely built by hand with clay and parched in the sun, freely shaped to look like a cottage.
I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of a few of the worlds oddest buildings. Now, have a wonderful weekend, my friends!
This is whimsical and fabulous! The Kansas City library and the house between the boulders are my favorites. Thanks, Kim!
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Glad you liked it!!!
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Nice topic change!
The Rotating Tower that’s to be built in Dubai doesn’t surprise me. From what I’ve seen/read, this is a typical “look” for that area … very modernistic.
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Glad you liked it, Nan! Yes, that is very typical of the UAE … I think they believe it shows the world how wealthy and ‘successful’ they are.
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Humans can be quite creative! I especially liked the Kansas City Library and the hobbit-styled house in Wales.
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Those were my two favourites, too!!! The cubes were intriguing and I’d love to see the inside of one, but I cannot imagine living in them!
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This was a super surprise Saturday, Jill. These architectural pieces and amazing. Thank you.
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I’m so glad you liked it, John! There were so many to choose from that I’ll surely be doing another before too long.
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😁
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That’s what I call taking architecture to a whole new level of imagination — and then….
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It definitely does! And a perfect video clip for the circumstances! Unfortunately, that kind of imagination eludes me, as I think it does most of us.
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These architectures are an amazing combination of art and science! The only one of these buildings that not only am I aware of but also have been fortunate enough to visit is “The Community Bookshelf” at the Kansas City Public Library. The books are made of concrete covered with a metal surface (aluminum, I think) and then covered over with a mylar surface on which the covers of the book titles were printed. They are bolted together with bolts that can be seen when one is closely viewing the edifice. This garage addition to the late 1800’s library was completed in 2004, after the K.C.P.L.’s Board of Trustees final selections of the 22 book titles was made from those submitted by the general public…I loved that fact! My favorite book is “Children’s Stories” which includes some of the best children’s books : Goodnight Moon, Winnie the Pooh, Green Eggs and Ham and The Wonderful World of Oz are the books that I recall as being amongst the longer list on the book’s spine. Another favorite is “Black Elk Speaks”. If I were given the opportunity to purchase the Woodland House in Wales, I would beg or borrow the money and mayhaps even sell the sad remnants of my soul, dust off my long unused passport and move straight away! Should this come to pass, you would be a most welcome visitor! Thank-you!
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How awesome to have actually been there and seen it in person! I agree with you about the ‘Hobbit House’ in Wales … it looks so cozy! Thank you for the invitation to visit, and that is one I would happily take you up on, too!
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Now I want to see inside all of them! Happy weekend 🙂
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I had the same thought! You too, my friend!
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that was fun; thanks for putting all these odd buildings together in one place!
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Glad you enjoyed it, Jim! There were so many to choose from … I’ll likely do another such post before too long!
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I’ll look forward to it…
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😊
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Good Morning, Jill! I so enjoyed your post, this morning! Very interesting and visually fun! Be safe! Hope you have a Magical Day! 💙
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Hi Patty! I’m so glad you enjoyed the quirky buildings! Takes such imagination. You keep safe too, my friend! ❤
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Jill, these are so cool. Some seem like the jumped out of a sci-fy film. I keep looking for Rod Serling to narrate. Keith
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That was my first thought, especially the cubes! I surely wouldn’t want to live in those cubes, though!
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Thanks for sharing all this quirkiness with us, Jill. There are a few interesting buildings near where I live created by a man who calls himself a ‘bio-architect’. I’ll see if I can dig up the article I wrote about him years ago.
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My pleasure, Frank! Yes, please do … I would love to see that!
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Extraordinary! One wonders at the imagination of the creators but even more so at those who actually constructed the buildings!
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I thought so too, and yes … both architect and builder have vast imaginations! There are many, many more I could have included, too, so I’ll likely do another, similar post sometime in the future.
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Your example from Darmstadt, Germany, the “Waldspirale”, is by a man who called himself Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000). He designed hundreds of such buildings, particularly in Austria and Germany. Whenever I see one, I take a picture of it, but I haven’t yet posted any on my current website. His buildings have no straight lines, no right angles and no uniformity — no two windows are the same. Unsurprisingly, these buildings are notorious for requiring constant maintenance, so my advice is the same as for half-timbered houses and other listed buildings: don’t even think about buying one.
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Fascinating! Thanks for the additional background, Don! I’ll have to go check out pictures of some of the others, too!
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Thank you. I;m hoping they’re going to build something more exciting in my area for rental.It’ll look like the Titanic so I know I’;m going down with it.
Cwtch
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Now that would make for an interesting structure, tilted as it was after hitting the iceberg. I rather liked that little one in your neck of the woods that’s partly underground and looks like a Hobbitt House … it looks cozy.
Cwtch
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Thanks for this lovely post. I was intrigued that you are interested in weird architecture too. That house in Darmstadt looks like a Hundertwasser house. He is one of my most favourite artists and architects. His idea was that western architecture isn’t good for mental health because it’s all hard lines. Nature doesn’t do straight lines and so our man-made environment should be the same. https://hundertwasser.com/en/biography/biography.
Happy Saturday despite everything. 🙋♀️🐝
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As you can see from Don’s comment, you are absolutely right about the architect of the Darmstadt House! And thank you so much for the link to his fascinating biography! Happy Saturday … er, um … Sunday now, to you too, dear friend! 💞
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