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Hello Archi Hacks fam, before the realities of building construction and experience to determine good or bad designs, we are sure everyone had dreamt of the strangest or most elaborate building possible! The building blocks or legos from our childhood felt like the beginning of our legacy in the world, but the world hasn’t advanced enough for all of that. What if architects had free reign over their designs? It would be pretty interesting, to say the least, and there’s always a time and place for different designs. However, looking through today’s design lens, it’s not always the case for the architecture projects below, but it did give our team a fun time looking over them.
Although the list of architectural oddities can continue, we selected a handful to showcase in today’s article. If you’d like us to hunt for more unique architectural buildings, let us know in the comments below! Without further ado, let’s talk about some unique architectural projects worldwide!
National Fisheries Development Board - Hyderabad, India
The “Fish Building” was designed by India’s Central Public Works Department, which is surprising for a government body to sponsor this quite literal mimetic architecture. This four-story building was officially opened in April 2012 and was inspired by Frank Gehry’s monumental ‘Fish’ sculpture in Barcelona, which was completed for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Piano and Violin Building - Huainan, China
This project was designed by architectural students from the Hefei University of Technology and serves as a showroom for exhibiting development plans. I canât imagine being a student designing full-scale architecture like this, but they proved me wrong! The building was completed in 2007. The violin portion of the piece contains the vertical circulation of the project, while the piano houses the primary function. This building has become a popular tourist attraction and is assumed to be âthe most romantic building in Chinaâ for newlyweds. I see this as a fun photo op for the music lovers.
The Kunsthaus Graz - Graz, Austria
The Kunsthaus Graz, designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, is definitely interesting! From this image above, it feels like a slug with many eyes, but Colin Fournier coined the amorphous building as âthe friendly alien.â The Kunsthaus was built as part of the program for the European Capital of Culture 2003, which now pulls in international visitors and cements itself within the cityâs fabric.
The Little Crooked House - Sopot, Poland
Kryzwy Domek, also known as the Little Crooked House, was built in 2004 that became a âshowpiece of Sopotâ in Poland. The building was designed by architects Szotynscy & Zaleski, who took inspiration from the childrenâs book illustrations of Jan Szancer. We imagine the structure of the building to be just as warped and wavy as the facade! It’s a very mind-bending project that feels like a haunted building in a horror movie.
Kansas City Library - Missouri, USA
The image above features the Community Bookshelf at the Public Libary in Kansas City, Missouri. The facade features book spines measuring 25 feet by 9 feet and highlights 22 books that reflect various genres for any ready to enjoy. The library was built in 2004, and the Community Bookshelf is hiding the library district parking garage. The design was a collaborative effort on behalf of the community to add character to the parking structure. Fun fact, the public submitted their favorite book titles and then were selected by the Kansas City Public Library Board of Trustees.
âBig Basketâ - Ohio, USA
This 7-story tall building was completed in 1997. Initially, the headquarters for the Longaberger Company, but in 2016, the business had falling profits forcing them to relocate business leaving behind a giant basket building. Now, there seems to be a lot of popular support for this building to become a local landmark, possibly re-using it for another program. Jim Klein, former Longaberger president, hopes to get this basket building included on the National Register of Historic Places! What do you think about it?
Hang Nga - Dalat, Vietnam
Now, this building definitely should be a horror movie set! It was designed by Dang Viet Nga, taking inspiration from Antoni Gaudi, who built this from her personal and private funds and had the local government fighting against her every step of the way. If this isnât a power move for her imagination to run wild, Iâm unsure what is. Dang Viet Nga used hand drawings instead of blueprints and had non-skill artisans build the house! This is crazy to believe as designers, but itâs an open-ended, fantastic exploration from one mind, the architect, to another without full instructions to construct! There are five levels to this project, each room with a different them resembling a banyan tree, which is deemed the worldâs only expressionist hotel.
Nautilus House - Mexico City, Mexico
Although this is one of the less âweirdâ expressions of architecture, this unique bio-mimetic architecture has a fun interplay of space and opening. You can already imagine the beautiful light plays of the mosaic. Designed by Mexican architect Javier Senosiain, Nautilus is a shell-shaped house resembling a cephalopod. Inspired by Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright, Javier brought bio-mimetic architecture to Mexico City and completed construction from 2006 to 2007.
House Attack - Vienna, Austria
Inside this museum, you can view the extensive collection of almost 7000 modern and contemporary artworks. Known as the largest art museum in Austria, MUMOK was a wide variety of artworks. The house was completed in 2006 and carefully placed there with a crane as a contemporary piece by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm.
Lucy the Elephant - New Jersey, USA
This 6-story fun piece of architecture was funded by James V. Lafferty back and designed by William Free and J. Mason Kirby in 1881. Initially, Lucy was built to promote real estate sales and attract tourists. We aren’t sure if it did the job, but Lucy is America’s oldest surviving roadside tourist attraction! Lucy had many programs outfitted for the interior space, but it’s currently operating as a possible Airbnb location and is under construction for repairs. The target date for reopening is Memorial Day 2022, which is right around the corner.Â
The Dog Bark Park Inn - Idaho, USA
This two-bedroom bed and breakfast was built in the shape of a beagle and is locally known as âSweet Willy.â It was designed and built by Dennis Sullivan & Frances Conklin as the Worldâs Biggest Beagle bed and breakfast inn opened in 2003. Iâm not sure thereâs a running competition for bed and breakfasts in the shape of other dogs, but it piques my curiosity about going down a rabbit hole. The beagle hotel was an homage to the wild roadside attractions that blew up in the early days of freeway automobile travel, and Dennis and Frances still own it.
Contrary to design principles, thereâs always a time and place for this unique novelty architecture that pops up here or there. It adds to a placeâs story! Well, thatâs all we have for you today, and if youâve made it this far, you deserve a cookie. I hope you found this article interesting and took something from it! Sharing is caring! We hope to provide you with valuable insights and share them with someone who might find this helpful. Make sure to follow our Youtube and Instagram account for more content!
Great piece of writing with immensely informative contents! I really liked the writing style and the whole process of the story building. Waiting for more posts! Cheers!!