12 of the most unusual buildings around the world built today

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you think that the greatest wonders of the world were created only in the distant past, then you are greatly mistaken.

1. Concert hall "Harpa"

• Location: Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Year built: 2011.

The Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Center was designed by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. The construction cost 164 million euros. The total area of the building is 28,000 square meters. It has four concert halls, as well as souvenir shops, a flower salon, a bookstore, boutiques, a café and a panoramic restaurant. The name of the building is translated from Icelandic as "harp".

2. Burj Khalifa

• Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
• Year built: 2010.

This impressive super tower is the tallest structure in the world. It has 162 floors and 828 m, with 180 m falling on the longest spire on the planet. The Burj Khalifa is shaped like a glass and steel stalagmite. The tower houses the hotel, apartments, offices and shopping centers.

3. Gardens by the Bay

• Location: Singapore.
• Year built: 2012.

These are artificial supertrees on which many species of ferns, grapes, orchids and bromeliads grow. The structures are equipped with photovoltaic cells and generate energy from sunlight.

In addition to supertrees, Singapore's Gardens by the Bay is home to greenhouse complexes and flower domes full of exotic plants from around the world, including the Cloud Mountain, an elevator-accessible greenhouse for mountain plants.

4. Metropol Parasol

• Location: Seville, Spain.
• Year built: 2011.

The building, designed by the German architect Jürgen Mayer, claims to be the largest wooden structure in the world. It consists of six umbrellas in the shape of giant mushrooms. The market is located on the first outdoor floor, while the terraces above are the restaurant, observation platforms and the archaeological museum.

5. Absolute peace

• Location: Mississauga, Canada.
• Year built: 2012.

The Absolute World complex consists of two residential high-rise buildings, built in such a way that there is not a single exactly the same floor or balcony in the whole building. The height of the first tower is Absolute Towers, Mississauga 170 m (56 floors), the second - 150 m (50 floors). Due to the peculiarity of the construction, the buildings look like they rotate around their axis.

6. Opera House in Guangzhou

• Location: Guangzhou, China.
• Year built: 2010.

A very spectacular building in the southern industrial city of Guangzhou, China, faced with huge glass panels over a steel frame. The theater consists of two halls: a large one with 1,800 seats and a more chamber one with 400 seats. the building looks, perhaps, even more spectacular than the outside.

7. Lotus Temple

• Location: New Delhi, India.
• Year built: 1986.

The Bahá'í Temple is the main attraction of the capital of India. It is open to people of all faiths. The building consists of 27 "petals", faced with marble, which was brought from Mount Penteli in Greece. The architect Fariborz Sahba was inspired by the famous Sydney Opera House during the construction. The temple is surrounded by a 10 hectare garden, and next to it a greenhouse with local plant species was placed.

8. Atomium

• Location: Brussels, Belgium.
• Year built: 1958.

From a distance, this stainless steel and aluminum atom model may appear to be just a decorative sculpture. But in fact, this is a huge building, in the spheres of which are located a restaurant, observation decks, a museum and exhibitions. You can climb there on escalators located in the connecting pipes between the balls.

9. Temple of the Sagrada Familia

• Location: Barcelona, Spain.
• Year built: 2010.

This building is one of the most famous long-term construction projects in the world. The construction began already in 1882, and only in 2010 the temple was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI and officially opened. The church is built in the shape of a Latin cross, and its portals, facades and towers are decorated with sculptures illustrating the earthly life of Christ.

10. Related hybrid

• Location: Beijing, China.
• Year built: 2009.

The residential complex Linked Hybrid consists of several multi-storey buildings connected by bridges. His 750 apartments are home to 2,500 people. There is also a retail space, a cinema, a hotel, a parking lot, a kindergarten and a school. The building is designed so that its residents do not have to use public transport a lot: you can live here almost without going outside.

11. Marina Bay Sands

• Location: Singapore.
• Year built: 2010.

Have you ever been upset about wasting space on the rooftops of modern buildings? The architect Moshe Safdie was upset, so he installed a flat terrace with a pool and a garden on top of three Singapore skyscrapers. The Marina Bay Sands complex serves as a hotel and casino, as well as an exhibition center, two theaters, seven restaurants, two ice rinks and a museum.

12. Vertical forest

• Location: Milan, Italy.
• Year built: 2014.

In Italian, this architectural complex is called Bosco Verticale. It consists of two skyscrapers with a height of 111 m and 76 m. About 900 trees, 5,000 shrubs and 11,000 flower beds with perennial plants have been planted on terraces around the buildings. Skyscrapers not only decorate the urban landscape, but also help filter the air from carbon dioxide. The complex receives electricity from solar panels.