Legend Talks: 50 Strange Buildings of the World (Part II)

1. Office center “1000″ a.k.a. Banknote (Kaunas, Lithuania)

Architects: Rimas Adomaitis, Raimundas Babrauskas, Darius Siaurodinas, Virgilijus Jocys.
Dates: 2005-2008.

Despite what you might think this amazing building is not a temporal installation. The image of the LTL 1000 banknote is brought onto this building using special enamel paint. Money theme well represents various businesses located in this spectacular building. It’s an office center located in the second biggest city in Lithuania.By the way, banknote dates back to 1925. However it’s not used nowadays.

2. Kerala House Boats (Alappuzha, Alleppey, Kerala, India)

3. Olympic Stadium (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

4. Blur Building (Yverdon-les-Bainz, Switzerland)

Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Dates: 2002

Seven years passed from expo 2002 but this building is still one of my favorites. It’s probably the mist that makes it so unusual and amazing at the same time. So called ‘blur pavilion’ with self generated mist was meant to give an impression that the building is floating above the water without any structural support. And indeed it looks just like that.

5. Tenerife Concert Hall (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain)

6. The Never Was Haul (Berkeley, California, USA)

7. The Puerta de Europa towers a.k.a Gate of Europe a.k.a Torres KIO (Madrid, Spain)

Architects: Philip Johnson and John BurgeeDates: 1996

Torres KIO are two twin office buildings in Madrid. Each building is 115 m tall with an inclination of 15º. These twin towers are the world’s first leaning high-rise buildings.

8. UFO house (New Zealand)

9. Gas Natural headquarters (Barcelona, Spain)

10. Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, California, USA)

Architects:Frank GehryDates: 1987 – 2003

Walt Disney Concert Hall is designed to be one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world providing an unparalleled musical experience.
The project was launched in 1987 and completed in 2003.You can read more about this amazing building on wiki and Los Angeles Philharmonic homepage.

11. Cob House (Vancouver, Canada)

12. The Mushroom House aka Tree House (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA)

13. Ewok House (Location unknown)

14. Edificio Mirador (Madrid, Spain)

Architects: MVRDV
Dates: 2004

It’s a building developed by Dutch architects MVRDV. The building reaches 63.4 meters in height with 21 stories. The highlight of this building is the large central hole which is 36.8 meters above the ground. It’s the large lookout area that provides inhabitants with a community garden and a space from where they can contemplate the skyline.Different colors represent different blocks with its own planning, which offer at least 9 different types of apartments.

15. Free Spirit Spheres (Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada)

16. Tempe Municipal Building (Tempe, Arizona, USA)

17. Korowai Treehouse (Papua New Guinea, Indonesia)

18. Turning Torso (Malmö, Sweden)

Architects: Santiago Calatrava
Dates: 2005

The tower reaches a height of 190 metres (623 feet) with 54 stories.The design is based on a sculpture by Santiago Calatrava called Twisting Torso. It uses nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises; the topmost segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor