Strange, Stylish and Amazing Houses and Other Architectural Oddities

The Interlace Project by Oma

The Interlace house design in Singapore is a mind-blowing project by Oma (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), and they just unveiled the latest plans about a month ago. This giant six-story complex will consist of 31 stacked apartment blocks with 170,000sqm of gross floor area for 1,040 apartments.

LoftCube Project

LoftCube is a small, nice, and very comfortable mobile house with a customized design of the four window spaces and the gross living area of 39 sqm / 420 ft. You can build it right on the roof of a house quite quickly and enjoy the scenery (of course if you can get permission to build it there). You can find a pretty interesting video on how the LoftCube prototype was built

Makao Homes For Slums Of Nairobi By Jennifer Margell

Makao by Jennifer Margell is a prototype of modular homes for the slums of Nairobi. Made of recycled materials, the houses are quite affordable and the modular system allows for custom configurations. The roof collects and filters water and can also be opened to release heat. The hollow plastic walls are filled with mud for insulation and some parts of the homes are made from recycled frosted panels.

House On The Water by Formodesign

The House on the Water by Formodesign is a real piece of art. Designed as a rental house for people who don’t want to be disturbed, it has all the comfort of an on-shore building. It is located by Navagio Beach, NW coast of the Greek island Zante.

Upside-Down House in Germany

This unique and quirky upside-down house in Germany was created by two talented Polish designers as a part of the “The World Upside Down” project. Every piece of furniture is upside-down and, though the house is big enough to be lived in (it even has a bathroom), you can’t obviously live there. The house is situated in the town of Trassenheide on Germany’s Baltic Sea island of Usedom and is open as a tourist attraction.

Haines Shoe House

The Shoe House was built in 1948 by a Mahlon N. Haines for advertising purposes. Haines walked up to an architect, handed him an old work boot, and said “build me a house like this.” Thank God he didn’t own an adult toys company!

Cocoon by Bellemo & Cat

Not very attractive from the outside, the Cocoon by Bellemo & Cat is actually pretty cozy. It’s situated in a bushy coastal hamlet on the Great Ocean Road and opens on one side to a magnificent landscape. Though the project is interesting and unique, any other construction could probably easily replace it.

Nunnmps by Cheungvogl

Nunnmps, by Hong Kong architects Cheungvogl, is one of those tremendous projects meant to save nature. What you see in the picture is the design of a research studio on stilts for Chicago, Illinois. The studio construction will be elevated both to preserve the surrounding natural habitat and protect the secrecy of the research while a reception area and administration office will be below on ground level overlooking the lake.

The Shard in London

The Shard is a super tall glass skyscraper in London. Not much to say — the building looks terrific and at the same time very sophisticated. When completed in 2012 it will be the tallest building in the United Kingdom and one of the tallest buildings in Europe!

Solar Shanghai Pavilion Made From Used CD Cases

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 will feature a building made from recycled CD cases, built by Atelier Feichang Jianzhu. That’s a great example of how otherwise useless things can be reused! The CD cases have been transformed into transparent polycarbonate tubes arranged in a grid-like matrix, and they will be used in the construction. The Shanghai Corporate Pavilion also features a solar energy system and multi-colored LED lights so, when complete, the building will resemble a big shining cube.

Lego House by James May

The Lego House was built as part of the BBC series called James May’s Toy Stories in which the TV presenter took Britain’s best-loved toys and used them in new adventures. The idea for this house came spontaneously when having beer with friends — James and others were discussing what they dreamed of building from Legos when they were kids. And from there, the Lego House was built from millions of small pieces… to be demolished just weeks after completion for James May’s Toy Stories show. Legoland didn’t want it and the used LEGO blocks will be donated to charity.
Photos from www.dailymail.co.uk

Image and Audio Museum in Rio de Janeiro

The Museum of Image and Sound, designed by Diller Scofidio+Renfro looks like a big steel and glass example of origami. Construction will be finished some time in 2011. Speaking of origami, on the website they show you how to make it from paper.

New Orleans Arcology Habitat- NOAH

New Orleans Arcology Habitat or NOAH was designed in an effort to rebuild the city. This structure will be a safe place for its residents no matter what happens and it can resist any natural disasters. NOAH proposes to be a habitat for 40,000 residents and will include residential units, a school system, commercial and retail outlets, hotels, casinos, parking, and public works facilities.

OMA’s Design For MahaNakhon Unveiled

Website: http://www.oma.nl
The 77 story MahaNakhon (also known as the pixel tower) will be the tallest building in Thailand’s capital. That’s an interesting concept and will definitely be loved by thousands of graphic designers.

Mercury House One by Architecture and Vision

Mercury House One is a big computer mouse living room by multinational firm Architecture and Vision. It’s designed to be easily transportable — kind of useless but still an exciting approach to the design.

Life in Plastic by Moomoo Achitects

Here’s an amazing example of Polish modern architecture by Moomoo Architects. Scheduled for completion in 2010 in Lodz, Poland, this unconventional house design takes a modern approach to traditional Polish homes.

Cottbus University Library by Herzog & DeMeuron

The castle from the distance — this is the Cottbus University Library by Herzog & DeMeuron. The seven upper and two basement levels of the library are all different in design and the brightly-colored spiral staircase makes study seem like fun.

University Duisburg-Essen Bibliosphere

Can you imagine that’s really a library that you see in the pictures below? I guess that was the only way to make students read — make them think they are going to some cool night club!