Summary

The most unusual and wonderful structures from around the world.This intriguing book selects the world's most extreme and sometimes weird buildings and structures. Some illustrate the personal expression of an individual builder or patron who has a vision well beyond the norm, while others were built by architects pushing the conventional boundaries of design. Some of the buildings are masterpieces on a larger scale. Examples include Frank Gehry's iconic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, with its glistening, undulating walls.Some are indeed "follies" -- buildings that have no purpose -- including the surreal shark sticking out of the roof of a house in Oxford, England.Many of these strange buildings have a more obvious provenance, not as architectural follies, but as deliberate marketing ventures of the owner's product. In Flanders, New York, the Big Duck building is actually shaped like a duck in honor of the poultry once sold there.

Author Biography

Paul Cattermole is the former creative director of a specialist architectural picture library and an architectural writer based in London. His most recent work is Buildings for Tomorrow: Architecture That Changed Our World.

Gwyn Headley is the founder of the Folly Fellowship, a society dedicated to extreme buildings of architectural interest, and the author of Architectural Follies in America.

Foreword
Introduction
Pavilions and Follies Geodesic Dome
Montreal
Canada Le Palais Ideal
Chateauneuf-de-Galaure
France The Scared Grove
Bomarzo
Italy Owl House
Nieu Bethesda
South Africa Pineapple
Dunmore
Scotland The Royal Pavilion
Brighton
Sussex
England The Needle's Eye
Wethworth Woodhouse
England Upturned Boat Sheds
Lindisfarne
England Big Duck
Flanders
New York
NY Triangular Lodge
Rushton
Northamptonshire
England Schloss Neuschwanstein
Bararia
Germany Residential Buildings Hundertwasser-haus
Vienna
Austria Habitat '67
Montreal
Canada Spaceship House
Sydney
New South Wales
Australia Building with a Hole
Repulse Bay
Hong Kong Hernandez House
Bosques de Las Lomas
Mexico Casa Amalia
Mexico Cubic Houses
Rotterdam
The Netherlands Cyclops Sound Wall Houses
Diependaal
The Netherlands Casa Batllo
Barcelona
Spain Twisting Torso High-Rise Apartment Tower
Malmo
Sweden Shark in a House
Headington
Oxford
England Five Sphinxes Apartment Buildings
Huizen
The Netherlands House in the Clouds
Thorpeness
Suffolk
England The Jungle
Lincolnshire
England Tsui House
Berkeley
CA Xandu House for the Future
Kissimmee
FL High Desert House
Palm Springs
CA Sun Valley House
ID Egyptian House
Penzance
England Prince House
Albuquerque
NM Chemosphere House
above Los Angeles
CA Commercial Buildings Oriental Pearl TV Tower
Shanghai
China Burj Al Arab Hotel
Dubai Lloyds Building
London
England Tods Omotesando Building
Tokyo
Japan Fuji Sankei Building
Tokyo
Japan Nakagin Capsule Tower
Tokyo
Japan Goetheanum Boiler House
Doern
Switzerland Medium Market Basket
Dresden
Ohio Torre Agbar
Barcelona
Spain Swiss RE Building
London
England Selfridges
Birmingham
England Trinity Buoy Wharf
London
England Chiat/Day Building
Venice
CA United Equipment Company
Turlock
CA Best Store
Sacramento
CA The Rasin Building
Prague
Czech Republic Jongno Tower
Seoul
South Korea New York
New York
Las Vegas
NV Municipal Buildings Federation Square
Melbourne
Australia Ontario College of Art and Design
Toronto
Canada Tokyo City Hall
Japan Scottish Parliament Building
Edinburgh
Scotland Bicentennial Conservatory
Adelaide Botanical Gardens
Australia Orion Building
London Metro University
England Ray and Maria Stata Center
Cambridge
MA Commonwealth Courts
Adelaide
Australia Waterpump Gemall
Amsterdam
The Netherlands TGV Station
Lyon
France Bus Station Hoofddorp
The Netherlands TWA Terminal
New York
NY Cultural Buildings Sydney Opera House
Australia Casa da Musica
Porto
Portugal Auditorio de Tenerife
Santa Cruz
Spain Kunsthaus Graz
Austria Media Stand
Lords Cricket Ground
London
England Singapore Performing Arts Centre
Singapore Allianz Arean
Munich
Germany Museu de Arte Contemporanea (MAC)
Niteroi
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil Museum of Civilization
Gatineau
Canada Centre Pompidou
Paris
France Jewish Museum
Berlin
Germany Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Germany Phaeno Science Center
Wolfsburg
Germany Tjibaou Cultural Centre
Noumea
New Caledonia Eden Project
Bodelva
St. Austell
Cornwall
England Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Spain Experience Music Project
Seattle
WA The Sage
Gateshead
England The Imperial War Museum North
Salford Quays
England The Louvre
Paris
France Chapel of the Holy Cross
Sedona
AZ Beth Sholom Synagogue
Elkins Park
PA Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
Milwaukee
WI Church of the Holy Trinity
Geneva
Switzerland Sagrada Familia
Barcelona
Catalonia
Spain Hallgrimskirkja
Reykjavik
Iceland Gandhi Matapan
Kanyakumari
Tamil Nadu
India The Grand Mosque
Djenne
Mali
Bibliography and Websites
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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Excerpts

Excerpted from the Introduction The Odd, The Eccentric and The ExtravagantThis is a book of outrageous oddities and extravagant exceptions, of buildings that brazenly invite the prefix of "bizarre." But for these sensational structures to be considered "exceptions to the rule" there must be rules to begin with. Few creative disciplines are fonder of formulating rules than architecture, that aristocrat of the applied arts, whose practitioners have spent centuries literally drawing up the fabric of our urban world. These rules come in many forms, permeating every level of the profession, from the mundane building regulations to the highbrow minefield that is the "ism." Constructivism, brutalism, expressionism, postmodernism -- the proliferation of schools of architectural thought throughout the 20th century has left a rich legacy of buildings, but without always leaving the layman with any easy explanation as to their underlying rationale. This is modern architecture's Achilles' heel, the veil of elitism that can so easily prevent those outside of the profession from being able to relate to the buildings that surround them. Great architecture has the power to excite and engage all who come into contact with it, inviting the viewer to offer his or her own interpretation and judgment. The stories behind a building, the hidden narratives of architecture, need to be shared.This is not intended as a scholarly survey into every intricacy of architectural thought but as a visual primer, an accessible introduction to the wild side of a discipline that has the power to change the way we live but can all too often be content to follow a path well-trod. This is a collection of projects that dared to be different, instead of follow the herd. They are not drawn together by a unified movement, a convenient "ism" with which to be pigeonholed. They are themselves. Put simply, they are "bizarre buildings."