Stone House (Portugal)

 The Stone House is located in the north of Portugal, whose architecture inspired by the Flintstones family home of the famous American cartoon. The whole point is that the house was built between two giant stones on the hillside of Fafe mountains, that create a unique prehistoric effect. The house has some traditional components such as front door, roof, bullet proof windows. It was built in 1973 and now Stone House attracts a large number of tourists.

Sources : www.flickr.com/photos/jsome1/sets/72157615078780504/detail/
                www.home-reviews.com/unusual-stone-house-in-portugal
                www.designmind.co.za/profiles/blogs/unusual-architecture-stone

Mind House (Barcelona, Spain)

 The most popular work of the famous architect Gaudi in Barcelona is Park Güell, located just a few steps from Gracia, on a hill in the suburb of Vallcarca. In 1900 Euzebi Guell bought this hill in order to arrange there a private garden city in English style. The areas in the park were designed to be sold for building the mansions and all the infrastructure and public places Guell commissioned to Gaudi. However, the project failed: for those who wanted to live in Barcelona, the park was too far from the center, but for those who wished to live outside the city it was too close. As a result, Güell’s heirs sold the hill to city authorities, who opened the park to the public.

The gate of the park is framed with two gingerbread houses; one is topped with the toadstool, the other has a toadstool and a cross-shaped window on the front wall. This house is called the Mind House, which is considered to be in the list of top 10 creative buildings of the world. The house has three floors and an attic, its roof is studded and painted in a checked white and gray pattern. Mind House looks like a fairy tale dwelling, although its primary purpose today is hosting a gallery. Outside the gates there are wide staircase with the fountains, Catalonian coat of arms and a huge mosaic lizard, which has become the symbol of Barcelona. Staircase leads to the top of the hill where the huge terrace is positioned, surrounded by the long winding bench. The park terrace serves as a roof for the hall, embed in the hill, which vaults support 86 Doric columns.

The last thing that Gaudi managed to do in the park is to pave the ingenious system of roads, on which future tenants would have to drive up their mansions and to build several whimsical stone arches, which pillars are inclined to the hill under the most improbable corners.

Of the seven dozen homes that were planned to be built in a park only two (including the Mind House) were built for the Güell’s money, as promotional samples. In one of these houses, Gaudi has been living with his father and niece for 20 years, performing an everyday walk from the house to the construction place, until he moved out a few months before his death. The Mind House-museum of Gaudi was open in the building, exhibiting personal property and other private items of the architect, sketches of projects he didn’t have time to implement, and furniture, designed by him for the Guell Palace, Calvet and Batlló House.

 Source: http://www.glamvalley.com/creative-real-estate/mind-house-in-barcelona/
               http://vi.sualize.us/view/7bddab0fa57db60fafcacf5cd32d6062/
               http://www.flickr.com/photos/31229212@N07/sets/72157624856877546/detail/

Kansas City Public Library (Missouri, United States)

    The Kansas City Public Library is a public system headquartered in the Central Library in Kansas City, Missouri.

    The system operates its Central Branch and neighborhood branches located in Kansas City, Independence, and Sugar Creek. Founded in 1873, it is the oldest and third largest public library system in the metropolitan Kansas City area.

    Its special collections, housed in the Central Library's Missouri Valley Room, has a collection of Kansas City local history, including original and published materials, news articles, post cards, photographs, maps, and city directories dating from the community's earliest history. The Library's Ramos Collection includes books, pamphlets, journal articles and other materials relating to African-American history and culture.

    "The Community Bookshelf [Central Library Parking Garage] is a striking feature of Kansas City's downtown. It runs along the south wall of the Central Library's parking garage on 10th Street between Wyandotte Street and Baltimore Avenue. The book spines, which measure approximately 25 feet by 9 feet, are made of signboard mylar. The shelf showcases 22 titles reflecting a wide variety of reading interests as suggested by Kansas City readers and then selected by The Kansas City Public Library Board of Trustees." (Wikipedia)

The Torre Galatea (Figueras, Spain)

The Dalí Theatre and Museum , is a museum of the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres, in Catalonia.The special of this building are the giant egg sculptures along the roof-line. The museum’s tower, Torre Galatea, was named for the surrealist artist’s deceased wife, and Dali himself lived there until his death in 1989. Interestingly, the museum sits next to the parish church where Dali was baptized in 1904; he is buried in an unmarked crypt in the museum’s main exhibition hall.

Source : electronicvillage.blogspot.com/2009/04/unique-building-torre-galatea-figueres.html
              unusual-architecture.com/torre-galatea-figueres-spain/

Forest Spiral - Hundertwasser Building (Darmstadt, Germany)

The Waldspirale is a residential building complex in Darmstadt, Germany, built in the 1990s. The name translates into English as forest spiral, reflecting both the general plan of the building and the fact that it has a green roof. It was designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, planned and implemented by architect Heinz M. Springmann, and constructed by the Bauverein Darmstadt company. The building was completed in 2000.

The Waldspirale apartment building is located in Darmstadt's Bürgerparkviertel. It contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, a kiosk as well as a café and a bar (the last two being located at the top of the spiral). 

The inner courtyard contains a playground for the children of the residents and a small artificial lake. Peculiarities of the U-shaped building are the unique facade, which does not follow a regular grid organization, and the windows, which appear as if they were "aus der Reihe tanzen," (dancing out of line) everywhere different and appearing out of order, often with 'tree tenants' - trees growing out from the windows. The diagonal roof, planted with grass, shrubs, flowers and trees, rises like a ramp along the U-form. At its highest point, the building has 12 floors.

From the outside, the typical elements of Hundertwasser's personal style attract attention: the gilded onion domes, the absence of straight lines and sharp corners, the multicoloured painting of the building in earth tones and the colourful ceramic columns.

Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldspirale
              www.wayfaring.info/2009/06/03/10060/
              unusual-architecture.com/forest-spiral-darmstadt-germany

The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland)

 The Crooked House was designed by architect Szotnyscy Zaleski and it construction started in January 2003 and finished in December 2003. The idea of design was heavily inspired by the children's illustration created by Jan Marcin Szancer for fairytales and by the artwork of Per Dahlberg.

Source :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzywy_Domek
              :http://www.akademifantasia.org/europe/unusual-crooked-house-at-sopot-poland/#

Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum (Branson, MO, United States)

 What do you think when you saw the building? It is hit by a massive earthquake? The Branson museum is one of a chain of museums, housing the bizarre artifacts owned by the Ripley franchise. The building was designed to commerate the devastating earthquake, which registered over 8.0 on the Richter Scale, in 1812 in New Madrid, Missouri. The earthquake made the Mississippi River run backwards for three days and made Church bells ring in Philadelphia. So, the crack across the building gives the impression that it has just survived its own earthquake. The building has become one of the most photographed in world because of it.

Source : http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-eccentric-buildings.php
            : http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/amazing/build/

Basket Building (Ohio, United States)

The world's largest basket building, it is actually an office building and it houses the headquarters of Longaberger Basket Company. Longaberger Company is an American manufacturer of hand crafted maple wood baskets and offers other home and lifestyle products. It is located in the south eastern Ohio, United States. The Longaberger Company was founded by Dave Longaberger, and after his death is owned by daughters Tami Longaberger and Rachel Longaberger.

The basket building sizes is 160 times larger than the Longaberger's Medium Market Basket. It's 192 ft. long by 126 ft. wide at the bottom, spreading to 208 ft. long by 142 ft. wide at the roof line. It is a magnificent sight especially at night. 

The  building was designed by strange but true. It cost $30 million and took two years to complete. It covers 25 acres, weighting 8,000 - 9,000 tons with a square footage of 180,000. The two basket handles were settled to the top of the building with copper and wooden rivets weighting about 150 tons. 

Front view of the basket building

Night view of the basket buiding

Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longaberger_Company

               : http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10658

Dancing House ( Prague, Czech Republic )

The Dancing House or Ginger& Fred is the nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in downtown Prague, Czech Republic. It was designed by Yugoslavian-born Czech architect Vlado Milunic in co-operation with famous Canadian architect Frank Gehry on a vacant river-front plot, where the previous building had been destroyed during the  Bombing of Prague in 1945. The construction started in 1994 and the house was finished in 1996.

The building is an example of de constructivist architecture, with an unusual shape. It reflects a women and man (Ginger Rogers and Fred stair) dancing together. Construction is from 99 concrete panels each of different shape and dimension, each there fore requiring a unique wooden form.

The top floor of Dancing House is home to one of the city's leading restaurants, Celeste restaurant. Diners can enjoy delightful cuisine and magnificent views over the river and up to Prague Castle.

Unique Design

Windows of Dancing House

Night View of the Dancing House

Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_House

             : http://www.stopin-prague.com/blog/dancing-house