Most buildings are pretty similar when you analyse them, with straight walls, pitched roofs, and 90-degree angles as far as the eye can see. While these standards exist for a very good reason, some architects have made the brave choice to go down the path less travelled. From curved walls and geometric shapes through to modular marvels and upside down houses, weird and wacky buildings can be found all over the world.
Barcelona, Spain, is home to some of the craziest buildings in the world, and they're all down to one man. Antoni Gaudi is one of the greats of modernist architecture, with his distinct organic style heavily influenced by nature. While the giant Sagrada Familia basilica is his crowning achievement, the streets and parks of Barcelona are full of his wondrous creations. The famous "skull and bones" balconies of Casa Batllo are awe-inspiring, as is Casa Mila and the wonders of Park Guell.
Spain is full of amazing modern architecture, and Frank Gehry is responsible for some of the best examples. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is a marvel of steel and flowing lines, as is the much smaller but equally impressive Hotel Marques de Riscal in Elciego. The Pabellon de Aragon in Zaragoza offers a different take on modernism by a different architect, with the facade of this building meant to evoke a wicker basket with interwoven panels of glass and concrete. Also in Spain is the City of Arts and Sciences entertainment complex in Valencia, home to seven amazing projects designed by Santiago Calatrava and Felix Candela.
The Bubble House in Cannes, France, is also inspired by organic forms, with this home built in 1989 by architect Antti Lovag and purchased by fashion designer Pierre Cardin. Looking very much like it was carved out of molten lava, this building is about as far from straight 90-degree angles as you can get. In a similar vein on the other side of the world in Vietnam, the Hang Nga Guesthouse or "Crazy House", is a hotel built by architect Dang Viet Nga that almost looks like it melts into its surroundings.
While a lot of modern architecture is commissioned for museums and art galleries, there have been some attempts to bring crazy architecture to the people. The Waldspirale in Darmstadt, Germany, is a rainbow spiral apartment complex with 1,000 unique windows. The Cube Houses in the Netherlands are a high density housing project in the form of a 45-degree tilted cube on a hexagon-shaped pylon. Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada, is another high-density housing project that attempts to shake-up conventional apartment living.
Some architects have gone one step further and actually turned the traditional house in its head - literally. The Wonderworks buildings in the United States turn traditional design upside down, as does the famous Upside Down House in Szymbark, Poland. Perhaps the craziest building of them all, however, would be one that actually changes every time you look at it. Dr David Fisher from the Rotating Tower Technology Company wants to put dynamic towers all over the world, with the first two planned for Dubai and Moscow.
