This list of bizarre buildings contains buildings which are described in their reference sources using one or more of the following words, or their synonyms, in relation to their architectural design or construction materials: bizarre, eccentric, odd, strange, weird, unconventional, unusual. These structures may be follies, novelties, tourist traps, white elephants, or an atypically designed office building, museum, or commercial, religious or residential structure that differs markedly in appearance from most ordinary examples of its type. Some are thematic, such as the Big Duck, which is now an archetype of novelty architecture.[1]

All included buildings match the definition: "a usually roofed and walled structure built for permanent use (as for a dwelling)".[2] Large statues or monuments may be included if they are at least partially hollow and allow human entry as well as the potential for habitation in some form, whether permanently or temporarily.

List

ImageNameConstructionLocationArchitectNotesRefs
Bishop Castle1969–San Isabel National Forest
near Pueblo, Colorado		Jim Bishopsolo building project begun in 1969; still under construction as of 2024[3]: 8 [4]
Coral Castle1920–1951near Homestead, FloridaEdward Leedskalninhouse, walls and sculpture garden created from locally quarried oolitic limestone[5]
Dalí Theatre and Museum1974Figueres, Catalonia, SpainJoaquim de Ros i Ramis and Alexandre Bonaterraa museum of the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town[6]
Gardens by the Bay2012SingaporeGrant Associates"Supertree Grove" including a restaurant inside a tree-shaped building, within a park on reclaimed land[7]
Gardens by the Bay2012SingaporeWilkinsonEyre and Grant Associates"Cloud Forest and Flower Dome" conservatory buildings; largest glass greenhouse in the world[8][9]
Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village1950s–1970sSimi Valley, CaliforniaTressa Prisbreya folk art piece[10]
Tom Kelly's bottle house1906Rhyolite, NevadaTom Kellybuilt with about 50,000 bottles; restored in 1925 and 2005[11][12]
Hằng Nga Guesthouse1990Đà Lạt, VietnamĐặng Việt Nga"crazy house" with a fairy tale appearance[13]
Horace Burgess's Treehouse1993–2005Crossville, TennesseeHorace Burgesswas claimed to be the world's largest tree house; completely burned down in 2019[14][15][16]
House on the Rock1945–1959Iowa County, WisconsinAlex Jordan Jr.complex of unusual rooms, streets, gardens, and shops as well as the world's largest indoor carousel[17]
Hundertwasserhaus1983–1985Vienna, AustriaFriedensreich Hundertwasser and Josef Krawinaan apartment house[18]: 44 
KunstHausWien1989–1991Vienna, AustriaFriedensreich Hundertwassera museum of Hundertwasser's artworks; a renovation of an 1892 building[19]
Waldspirale1990s–2000Darmstadt, GermanyFriedensreich HundertwasserWaldspirale (German: forest spiral) – a residential building complex[20]
Matrimandir1971–2008Auroville, IndiaMirra Alfassa and Roger AngerMatrimandir is Sanskrit for Temple of The Mother - an edifice of spiritual significance for practitioners of integral yoga; initiated by Mirra Alfassa, aka "The Mother", of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram[21]
Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval1879–1912Hauterives, FranceFerdinand Chevalthe ideal palace as created by a French postman[18]: 21 
Park Güell1900–1914Barcelona, SpainAntoni Gaudía garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of El Carmel in the Gràcia district[22]
Sagrada Família1882–Barcelona, SpainAntoni Gaudí (1883–1926; main), Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano (1882; crypt only), et al.Sagrada Família (English: Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) – a Roman Catholic church; still under construction as of 2024[23]
Porcelain House~Tianjin, China~Porcelain House (Chinese: 瓷房子) – a contemporary museum of pottery and antiques[24]
Rubel Castle1959–1986Glendora, CaliforniaMichael Clarke Rubelconstructed partly out of concrete but also out of scrap steel, rocks, bedsprings, coat hangers, bottles, and other pieces of junk[25]
Temple of All Religions1992–Kazan, RussiaIldar KhanovTemple of All Religions (Russian: Храм всех религий) – an architectural complex; still under construction as of 2024[26]
Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew1984–1986Khun Han, Sisaket, ThailandBuddhist monksWat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew (Thai: วัดป่ามหาเจดีย์แก้ว, The Million Bottle Temple) – a Buddhist temple made of over one million discarded beer bottles
Capela dos Ossoslate 16th centuryÉvora, PortugalFranciscan friarsCapela dos Ossos (English: Chapel of Bones) – a chapel whose interior walls are decorated with human skulls and bones; located next to the entrance of the Church of St. Francis
Habitat 67 ?–1967Montreal, Quebec, CanadaMoshe Safdiemodel community and housing complex
Tarot Garden1978–2002Pescia Fiorentina, località Garavicchio, province of Grosseto, Tuscany, ItalyNiki de Saint PhalleGiardino dei Tarocchi (Italian: Garden of Tarot) – a sculpture garden based on the esoteric tarot
Dai Heiwa Kinen Tō1970Tondabayashi, Osaka, JapanPL KyodanDai Heiwa Kinen Tō (大平和祈念塔?, lit. The Great Peace Prayer Tower) – a cenotaph tower
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao1993–1997Bilbao, Basque Country, SpainFrank Gehrymodern and contemporary art museum; the walls of this acclaimed building undulate in random curves[18]: 199 [27]
8 Spruce Street2006–2010ManhattanFrank Gehryresidential apartments; a public grammar school and hospital services in the six-story base; 10,500 steel panels; Gehry's first skyscraper[28]
Dancing House1992–1996Prague, Czech RepublicVlado Milunić and Frank Gehry

See also

References

  1. ↑ Katherine McLaughlin (20 June 2022), "12 of the Strangest Buildings in the World", Architectural Digest
  2. ↑ Building Definition & Meaning (archive). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  3. ↑ Madison Alcedo (14 January 2019), "The Most Unusual Buildings in Every State Across America", Country Living
  4. ↑ Sceurman, Mark; Moran, Mark; Lake, Matthew (2008). Weird U.S.: The Oddyssey Continues : Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4027-4544-7.
  5. ↑ "Coral Castle: Mysterious Monument to Lost Love", ABC News, retrieved 2024-01-15
  6. ↑ Mellin, Joshua (2019-08-14). "Is this the most unusual museum in Europe?". CNN. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  7. ↑ "The world's most unusual gardens". The Telegraph. 2016-02-04. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  8. ↑ "In pictures: Singapore's surreal Supertree Grove and Cloud Forest". New Atlas. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  9. ↑ "Largest glass greenhouse - Flower Dome". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 26 October 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "Bottle Village and the impact of transportation on midcentury folk art". The Current. 2023-03-27. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  11. ↑ Coffin, Laura A. (9 March 2012). The Bottle Houses of the Old West (archive). New Bedford Museum of Glass. Retrieved 16 January 2024. "Tom Kelly. In 1906, at the age of 76...he laid all the bottles on their sides, with the bottoms facing out, and mortared them together with adobe mud. It took Kelly five and a half months to finish construction of the house." (note: a postcard states 51,000 bottles)
  12. ↑ Lingenfelter, Richard E. (1986), Death Valley & the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, p. 219, ISBN 978-0-520-06356-3, built in February 1906 by a resourceful miner, Tom T. Kelley, from 50,000 beer and liquor bottles...Restored by Paramount Pictures in January 1925.
  13. ↑ Michael Sandler (2011), Freaky-Strange Buildings, Bearport, p. 4, ISBN 9781617723056
  14. ↑ Kristin Luna (2010), Tennessee Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff, Rowman & Littlefield, p. 223, ISBN 9780762767410
  15. ↑ Rueb, Emily S. (October 26, 2019). "World's Largest Treehouse Burns to the Ground". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  16. ↑ Roderique-Jones, Anne (October 28, 2019). "The World's Largest Treehouse Burned to the Ground in Less Than 15 Minutes". Architectural Digest. Archived from the original on January 15, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  17. ↑ "House on the Rock - The Resort l The Attraction l The Inn". www.thehouseontherock.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-29.
  18. 1 2 3 Paul Cattermole, Ian Westwell (2007), Bizarre Buildings, Firefly Books, ISBN 9781554073085
  19. ↑ Lawson, Kristan; Rufus, Anneli (2014-04-08). Weird Europe: A Guide to Bizarre, Macabre, and Just Plain Weird Sights. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4668-6762-8.
  20. ↑ "Gallery of These are 18 of the World's Strangest Buildings - 1". ArchDaily. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  21. ↑ "Matrimandir: Construction Features of a Unique Temple". The Constructor. 2020-09-08. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  22. ↑ "Park Güell #4 in Best Things To Do in Barcelona". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2024. Park Güell is as whimsical as parks can get...the welcome centers...look like buildings you'd see in a Dr. Seuss book.
  23. ↑ Hornblower, Margo (28 January 1991). "Heresy Or Homage in Barcelona?". Time. Archived from the original on 17 November 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2024. Sensual, spiritual, whimsical, exuberant -- few buildings so symbolize a city as Barcelona's unfinished Sagrada Familia...its warped geometry brilliantly mock the banality of much modern architecture.
  24. ↑ Mo Hong'e, ed. (31 July 2017). "'Porcelain House' in Tianjin will go under the hammer". China News Service. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024. Retrieved 16 January 2024. French style villa...decorated with more than 400 million pieces of ancient Chinese ceramic chips and over 13,000 ancient Chinese porcelain vases, plates and bowls
  25. ↑ "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form - Rubel Castle Historic District". National Park Service. 21 August 2013. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2024. The Castle Complex, which is a combination of stone masonry and wood buildings and structures that incorporate recycled objects, architectural follies, and a wide variety of other artifacts...includes a series of two- to four-story buildings and six towers
  26. ↑ Grundhauser, Eric (6 July 2016). Temple of All Religions (archive). AtlasObscura. Retrieved 16 January 2024. "...like something out of a Disneyland Small World display, with a Greek Orthodox dome here and a Russian minaret there...Jewish synagogues and Islamic mosques...architectural influences from 16 separate religions..."
  27. ↑ Michael Sandler (2011), Freaky-Strange Buildings, Bearport, p. 20, ISBN 9781617723056
  28. ↑ Ouroussoff, Nicolai (February 10, 2011) [9 February 2011]. "Downtown Skyscraper for the Digital Age". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2024. 76 stories high and clad in a rumpled stainless-steel skin...The building's endlessly shifting surfaces are an attack against the kind of corporate standardization so evident in the buildings to the south and the conformity that it embodied.
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