Waldspirale strange house
A showcase of windows
WHEREDarmstadt, Germany
Try to find two identical windows in this figure. Give up? He did it right: the Waldspirale (“spiral forest”) has more than a thousand windows, all with a unique design and misaligned on the facade. And that is not the only peculiarity of this residential building: it is structured in a spiral and its roof has grass, bushes, flowers and even small trees.
strange house_NeverwasHaul
the little castle jalopy
WHEREvallejo, usa
During the 2006 edition of the alternative festival Burning Man, 13 friends had the idea of creating “an exploration club that really explores”. From there came Neverwas Haul, a three-story diesel-powered mobile home made with 75% recyclable material, controlled by a ship’s wheel and a Victorian-inspired look.
strange house_music
The ceiling is on the floor
WHERE Porto, Portugal
A little house is one of the first drawings that every child learns: a square with a triangle on top. The Casa da Música concert hall has literally turned this design on its head. It took some work: the project by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas was delayed by four years and cost 111 million euros, triple the initial estimate
strange house_Stata Center
A touch of the future
WHERECambridge, USA
Frank Gehry is one of the most influential names in architecture today. This “Niemeyer from Canada” loves curves and exotic shapes. His are, for example, the Guggenheim museum, in Spain, the Dancing House (on page 33) and the Stata Center, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The modern façade houses equally futuristic projects and organizations such as the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the World Wide Web Consortium.
strange house_Ideal Palace
In the middle of the path there was a boulder
WHERE Hauterives, France
“With the stones that are thrown at me, I will build my castle” is not just a motto on Face. French postman Ferdinand Cheval started his work with a boulder he tripped over. Over time, he gathered more rocks collected on walks and built the Ideal Palace. It took 26 years just to build the outer walls, seven more to solve the interior and another eight to create a mausoleum. Even Pablo Picasso praised the end result
weird house_hang nga
Treehouse
WHERE Da Lat, Vietnam
Inspired by nature in his city and by the works of the Catalan artist Antoni Gaudí, architect Dang Viet Nga created a “guest house” with organic and non-linear features. In the end, it looked like a tree trunk – and even gained sculptures and details that refer to animals and fungi. Hang Nga has been open to the public since 1990
strange house_Rodrigues family
Stone Age
WHEREFafe, Portugal
There is probably no home firmer and sturdier than the Rodrigues family vacation home. They used one of the four massive boulders on their property to “sculpt” a residence. Started in 1972, the process took two years! Everything is robust: the door is steel, the windows are bulletproof and the sofa weighs 350 kg
strange house_Habitat 67
From theory to practice
WHEREmontreal, canada
Architect Moshe Sadfie designed the residential complex Habitat 67 as his master’s thesis. His advisor invited him to realize the project as one of the attractions of the 1967 World’s Fair. This “pile of boxes” is actually 354 identical concrete structures, arranged in various ways, composing 146 different residences
strange house_Dancing House
Will you grant me this dance?
WHEREprague, czech republic
In the middle of the baroque, gothic and art nouveau houses in the Czech capital, there are two buildings that seem to dance in the landscape. Called the Dancing House, they bring a little joy to a tragic place: an American bomb fell there at the end of World War II, which left the land without buildings for more than four decades.
strange house_Krzywy Domek
polish pie
WHERESopot, Poland
Imagine that an architect came up with a house, but the rain wet the project and the lines were distorted. The result would be something similar to the Krzywy Domek, better known as the “crooked little house”. But its design was not a mistake: the inspiration came from an illustration by Jan Szancer, a great Polish cultural personality and owner of a stroke full of poetry. The tourist spot serves as the entrance to a huge shopping center with shops, bars and offices.
SOURCES Strange Buildings, Bored Panda, Popular Mechanics, Wikipedia and Listverse sites
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