15 MOST Unusual Buildings and Architecture

there are some buildings out there that defy conventions with abnormal architectural designs some of these buildings look ridiculous but others look pretty intriguing here are the top 15 most weird and unusual architectural designs number 15 the selfridges building if you're located in the uk chances are you've heard of selfridges that's because this massive british department store chain has locations throughout the country yet despite this chances are that none of them are like the one that's in the part of the bullring shopping center in birmingham england that's because this structure which was designed by the architectural firm future systems and built between 1999 and 2003 stands apart thanks to its very strange appearance that's because not only is it in the shape of a massive blob but it's completely covered in a series of fifteen thousand anodized aluminum discs attached to the building's blue concrete facade this has made it a standout location for the brand and help put both itself and the city of birmingham on the map as such while it may have cost the 2020 equivalent of 84 million pounds to build the various awards and brand recognition it has garnered made it more than worth it number 14 the nativity of the giraffe if you happen to be strolling through the community of boulogne billion court near paris france you may just come across one of the strangest child care centers in the world that's because rather than just build a regular brick and mortar building in 2012 honda la teleport architects built a 60 bed child care center and 20 bed day nursery that has a massive yellow giraffe going through the roof now the reason behind this wacky building was that the giraffe was to inspire imagination and creativity in the children attending the center and due to it being bright yellow and very noticeable we're sure it has as such the giraffe is definitely a must-see if you ever find yourself in the french capital number 13 the kansas city library typically speaking the parking garage is the least interesting feature of a building however for the kansas city library in kansas city missouri this is anything but true that's because their parking garage was made to look like a giant bookshelf as it's composed of 22 seven and a half by two and three-quarter meter books that cover famous titles such as the lord of the rings by j.r.r tolkien and silent spring by rachel carson as such if you ever happen to be in town we recommend driving down to 10th street between wyandotte street and baltimore avenue in order to see this incredible structure number 12 the dynamic tower while this building may still be under construction it's just too cool not to put on this list that's because the dynamic tower which is still in its concept stages is essentially a design that will result in a 420 meter tall 80-story skyscraper that can rotate 360 degrees in both directions while being held firmly to a concrete core it will also be completely self-powered there will be solar panels mounted to the terraces and wind turbines placed between every two floors in order to generate the required energy to operate the building yet while the city of dubai has taken interest in having the building constructed there deliberations as to where to place the building site are still underway number 11. the inland den let's face it eastern europe isn't exactly known for its architecture after all during the soviet era creative designs weren't often encouraged and as such many cities built in the era tend to be a little on the dreary side however in 1974 local officials in crusado north macedonia made the most of the boring concrete they had on hand to make a not so boring structure officially made in honor of both the 30th anniversary of the second session of the anti-fascist assembly for the national liberation of macedonia and the 71st anniversary of the illindin uprising building is a rounded shape with protruding oval windows that make it look similar to a spiked ball to add some extra flare the upper windows are in fact made of stained glass and once inside there's even a crypt with the carved names and important events related to the period before during and after the illidan uprising as such if you ever happen to be in the north macedonian countryside you may want to give it a look number 10 the sharp center for design typically speaking universities have a lot of buildings within them be it old brick lecture halls that universities founded centuries ago or newer concrete buildings at schools founded more recently these structures tend not to stand out all that much however the ontario college of art and design located in toronto canada flips this narrative designed by british architect will aslop in conjunction with several firms it was opened in 2004 as a part of a 42.5 million dollar campus development it was largely financed by benefactors rosalie and isidor sharp now the sharp center is an extension of oakheads university main campus building and it's essentially a black and white tabletop structure that's supported with the help of 12 26 meter tall multi-colored steel legs its radical design is in sharp contrast to the victorian style houses that surround it yet despite looking so outlandish it is in fact a very practical space that's because the building can be accessed via an attached set of stairs and an elevator and in fact is very economically designed so that it can fit a large number of classrooms studios offices and workspaces as such it's easily one of the university's most useful and beautiful structures number nine the cube houses while most people are used to living in houses with four walls and a triangular roof the cube houses found in rotterdam netherlands definitely differs from the ordinary that's because these buildings which were designed by architect piet blom through the 1970s have cube shaped spaces tilted 45 degrees on their side and optimized to make the most of the available space they're spaced out asymmetrically to resemble an abstract forest and are constructed on concrete pillars with wooden framing now each cube has three floors with the first being a ground entrance kitchen and living room the second floor consists of a bathroom and two bedrooms and typically the top floor is used as small rooftop gardens yet while these 100 square meter houses may look interesting they don't exactly fulfill their purpose as their odd shape and sharp angles mean that about 25 of their space remains unusable regardless they certainly are a point of interest for both locals and visitors alike and this has gotten to the point that one homeowner has actually made their house a show cube to display to the many passers-by and believe it or not due to the high amount of foot traffic that homeowner in fact makes a living off of it we are constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight 20 friend church street put simply the skyscraper located at 20 fence church street in london is a little odd after all the 160 meter tall building has a distinctive curved shape that resembles that of a walkie-talkie and its modern look makes it stand apart from nearly every other building in the area however what really has given this structure its claim to fame is the fact that it's known as the walkie scorchy that's because the building is concave in the middle as a result of this design error the skyscraper reflects burning hot light rays on the street below in fact they are so hot that on some days they hit down on the street below at a temperature of about 72 degrees celsius because of these rays the building has gained the notoriety for doing everything from frying eggs and baguettes placed on the sidewalk to burning the top of a park jaguar convertible when you then further consider that the walkie scorchie has even caused wind funnels on the street below that have knocked both people and street signs over on multiple occasions it's clear that this building was pretty badly designed number seven the fish building if you hold an office job chances are that no matter what industry your company is in you're working out of a rectangular shaped office building of some sort however if you happen to work in a regional office for the national fisheries development board located near hyderabad india then this norm doesn't apply to you that's because this building is shaped like a massive fish and is made according to the style of memetic architecture which mandates that buildings should look like their function in this respect the fish building passes with flying colors as it has rectangular scale like windows to imitate a silver scaled body blue glass for eyes and a left pectoral fin that doubles as an awning above the staircase to the building's entrance interestingly this 1920 square meter structure was actually modeled off of fame architect frank gehry's golden fish sculpture in barcelona and as a result the two share many similar design elements as such it shouldn't come as a surprise that has become a local landmark in the hyderabad area [Music] number six the teapot building out of all the economic sectors out there few are as lucrative as the tourism industry after all tourists have the potential to bring in millions if not billions to a local economy and as such many cities around the world have created facilities in order to attract and accommodate them however out of all the tourist destinations out there few are as outlandish as the teapot building that's because this structure which is located in the city of wuxi on china's east coast is essentially a 10-story 5 000 square meter teapot that's home to several cultural exhibitions the building itself is modeled after red clay teapots that originated from the eastern province of jiangsu during the 15th century and as such it's the cultural piece of a much larger 6.4 billion dollar investment project to turn wuxi into a tourist city now this tourist city is set to have a mall stage show outdoor theme park hotel cinema water park and more and his financier wong jiang lin of the dailan wanda's group hope that it will quote one day rival disneyland and while this building's ability to rotate 360 degrees and relatively tall height of 38.8 meters may help in advancing this tourist development we think that you'd agree that reaching the heights of disneyland may be a little bit of a stretch number five the atomium while people of the past sure did think that futuristic buildings would be wacky few are quite as unique as the atomium that's because this building which hails from brussels belgium was originally built as a part of the 1958 brussels world fair and was designed by architects andre and gene pollock in order to embody the rapid scientific advancements of the era in this regard they most certainly succeeded as the end result is a rather strange yet spectacular looking atom-like structure that's supposed to look like a unit cell of an alpha iron crystal magnified 165 billion times now the structure is composed of a total of nine spheres that are connected via a series of three meter tubes that enclose a set of stairs elevators and lifts of these nine spheres six are accessible to the public with one featuring permanent exhibitions from the 1950s one holding temporary exhibits two being used as multi-purpose facilities and one serving as a panoramic viewing area and restaurant while another being used as a workshop for children as a result to this day the structure continues to serve as a popular destination for both tourists and locals alike [Music] number four the dancing house by all accounts prague is a beautiful and historic city the capital of czechia it's home to countless buildings dating back hundreds of years and as such the architecture of the historic center remained untouched for two centuries however after prague was bombed by the allies in world war ii parts of its historic center were decimated and one such place was an old apartment block on the rasan embankment now this apartment block remained untouched for decades but in 1986 an owner of a neighboring hotel by the name of vlado melunik brought up the possibility of putting up a new building to his neighbor vlaclav havel and while nothing happened immediately havel in fact ended up becoming the president of chechia in 1993 and due to his influence both before and after his election construction of the dancing house began in 1992. now the project was headed by both malunick and the highly acclaimed canadian american architect frank gehry and completed in 1996 what they ultimately created was a building that despite using classic materials looked like it was moving considered to be part of the deconstructivist style the two managed to pull off this design by splitting the building into two parts the curved dancing part of the structure is essentially a glass tower that narrows at half its height and is being supported by curved pillars this tower was then covered by 99 concrete panels of varying shapes and dimensions in order to give the building its unique shape the second part of the building however is more static in shape and only really stands apart thanks to its curve molding and unaligned windows in tandem these features led to the building not only appearing on a series of gold 2000 czech karuna coins but also were fundamental in giving its symbolic meaning that's because according to malunik the design's transition from static to dynamic is meant to represent chechia's transition from a communist regime to a parliamentary democracy as a result it goes without saying that the dancing house has become one of prague's most iconic buildings number three the dubai frame it is practically common knowledge that dubai is a city of excesses and no building sets this straight as much as the dubai frame that's because the structure is essentially just a massive picture frame and it took a lot of resources in order to build it in order to make the 150 meter tall and 93 meter wide frame builders made use of over 9 900 cubic meters of reinforced concrete 2 000 tons of steel and 2 900 square meters of laminated glass in order to cover all of this and give the frame its distinctive exterior look more than 15 000 square meters of gold colored stainless steel were used with this being done so that it bore resemblance to the expo 2020 dubai logo however the inside of the building is nearly as incredible as the outside as the building features an elevator that carries visitors up 48 floors in just 75 seconds in order to reach the sky deck which is where the tourists and locals alike can get fantastic views of the city and all of its sites yet we would be remiss if we didn't tell you some of the negatives as well it's because while the dubai frame may be beautiful it was also stolen you see the actual design for the building came from a contest known as the thyssen krupp elevator architecture award which has been held since 1988 in order to encourage innovation in the elevator architecture industry the dubai frame in particular was the winner of the 2009 rendition of the competition and as such designer fernando donis should have received one hundred thousand dollars while also retaining the copyright to the design thus allowing him to negotiate an even larger contract with dubai's municipal government however donis alleges that he received neither of these things and that instead the city simply slightly changed the design and built it without giving him any credit as a result donis is currently fighting the city of dubai in court in a case that as of 2018 was still pending on our end we just hope that donnas will be able to convince the judge that his side of the story is correct and get fairly compensated for his work number two the cctv headquarters while cctv may not be well known to the people in the west it stands apart in china due to it being one of the country's largest telecommunication providers as it serves more than one billion viewers in a total of six different languages as such it's fitting that its headquarters stand apart as well now the structure is essentially a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections and was built in three different phases these phases were then joined together by a series of bridges and at 473 000 square meters takes up so much office space that it's second only to the pentagon in terms of size upon its completion by architect rem kulas in 2012 this 51-story 234 meter tall skyscraper certainly stood out however this skyscraper also stood out for a number of negative reasons as well this is because the building has a rather weird shape and as a result if you look at it from certain angles it certainly may come across a little bit lewd after all local taxi drivers refer to it as das kucha which roughly translates to big boxer shorts and to some observers it even looks like the pornographic image of a woman on her hands and knees as you might expect kulhas denied this with the new york times instead suggesting that it was built in order to express the conflicting energies at work in society yet while these types of criticisms are already bad enough it turns out that the cctv tower also got in hot water while still under construction in 2009 that's because during this time period an adjacent building in the complex known as the television cultural center caught on fire after being ignited by fireworks and the inferno that unfolded ultimately led to the near destruction of our neighboring hotel and the death of one fireman as a result 20 people were charged and sentenced for negligence and thus ever since this incident the building has had a bit of a bad reputation [Music] number one al-janub stadium modern soccer stadiums are easily some of the most beautiful sports related structures in the world a few are quite as opulent as the al-janub stadium in al-wakrak qatar that's because this stadium which is set to be one of the eight venues that will host the 2022 world cup is absolutely stunning after all not only does it have an impressive seating capacity of 40 000 but it also was designed by iraqi british architect zaha hadid in order to look like the sales of the traditional dao boats used by pearl divers in the region these nautical influences are further realized via the bowed beams holding up the roof which due to their shape resemble a ship's hull and ultimately give the stadium a very graceful exterior to top this off the stadium is also chock full of high-tech features as it not only has a retractable roof but a cooling system that's capable of keeping the seating areas at a constant temperature of 18 degrees celsius while the pitch remains at just a balmy 20 degrees celsius as such it has become a source of pride for qatari football fans across the country yet what isn't a source of pride is the type of labor that was involved in constructing this massive stadium that's because it was primarily built by migrant workers hailing from india and bangladesh due to their state of indentured servitude at the hands of their employers often faced exploitation terrible working conditions and at times even death during the construction and while the numbers aren't exactly all that transparent it's estimated that over 1 000 workers died in the making of the al-janub stadium making the human toll exponentially higher than nearly every other soccer stadium on the planet as such despite soccer often being called the beautiful game the terrible events that led to the stadium's creation will make matches played on it anything but watch our binge watching playlist if you'd like to watch all of our most popular top 15 videos grab a drink grab a snack and get ready to binge you

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 393,592

Rating: 4.759171 out of 5

Keywords: Architectural Designs, weird buildings

Id: -pKIVNOw1xs

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 28 2020