The most famous buildings Its interior is truly impressive. Bamboo house, Vietnam

Judging by these photographs, give the architect free rein and he will be able to design a building of any shape and size. We have collected 33 extraordinary houses to show you and for each you can see the position on the world map so that you can visit them live😉. Join now!

1 Surreal house/Mind House (Barcelona, ​​Spain) map

Mind House is a building located at the entrance to Park Güell, designed by architect Antoni Gaudí, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

2 Crooked House/Krzywy Domek (Sopot, Poland) map

Located in the Polish city of Sopot, this building is a popular landmark for tourists and photographers. The inspiration for the unusual shape of the building came from Polish fairy tale illustrations by Jan Marcin Szanser and Per Dahlberg.

3 Stone house/Casa do Penedo (Portugal) map

The house got its name because it was built on the basis of four large boulders, which serve as its foundation, walls and ceiling. Construction began in 1972 and lasted about two years until 1974.

4 Lotus Temple (New Delhi, India) map

main temple Bahai religion in India and neighboring countries, built in 1986. A huge building made of snow-white marble in the shape of a blooming lotus flower.

5 Cathedral/Catedral Metropolitana de Brasília (Brazilia, Brazil) map

Catholic Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Brasilia. Built in the style of modernism according to the project famous architect Oscar Niemeyer. When designing, Oscar Niemeyer was inspired by Liverpool Cathedral. The building itself consists of 16 hyperboloid columns, symbolizing hands raised to the sky.

6 Casa Mila/La Pedrera (Barcelona, ​​Spain) map

A residential building built in 1906-1910 in Barcelona by architect Antoni Gaudi for the Mila family, one of the attractions of the Catalan capital. The design of this Gaudi building was innovative for its time: a well-thought-out natural ventilation system allows you to abandon air conditioners, interior partitions in each of the apartments in the house can be moved at your discretion, there is an underground garage.

7 Atomium/Atomium (Brussels, Belgium) map

One of the main attractions and symbol of Brussels. The Atomium was designed for the opening of the 1958 World's Fair by architect Andre Waterkeyn as a symbol of the atomic age and the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

8 Museum of Contemporary Art (Niteroi, Brazil) map

The famous architectural creation of Oscar Niemeyer in the style of modernism. The building took five years to build and was completed in 1996. A sixteen-meter concrete smooth cylindrical structure on a thin leg with a glass belt at the same time looks like a UFO and an exotic plant that has grown on the edge of a cliff.

9 Kansas City Central Library/Kansas City Library (Missouri, USA) map

For a time, the facade of the Kansas City Central Library was designed as a bookshelf made up of various books. Looked amazing)

10 The Hobbit House (Wales, UK) map

The house was built with the utmost regard for the environment and gave a unique opportunity to live close to nature.

11 Solomon Guggenheim Museum/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA) map

The choice of the site for the construction of the Guggenheim Museum fell on a site adjacent to a huge green area. Central Park between 88th and 89th streets on Fifth Avenue. When designing the building, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright departed from existing models and invited the audience to take the elevator to the top floor and descend along the internal continuous spiral, examining the exposition along the way, both on the ramp itself and in the halls adjacent to it.

12 Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Spain) map

The museum building was designed by American-Canadian architect Frank Gehry and opened to the public in 1997. The building was immediately recognized as one of the most spectacular deconstructivist buildings in the world. Architect Philip Johnson called it "the greatest building of our time"

Located on the waterfront, the building embodies the abstract idea of ​​a futuristic ship, perhaps for interplanetary travel. He is also compared to a bird, an airplane, Superman, an artichoke, and a blossoming rose.

13 Habitat 67/Habitat 67 (Montreal, Canada) map

Residential complex in Montreal, which was designed by architect Moshe Safdie in 1966-1967. The complex was built for the start of the Expo 67 exhibition, one of the largest world exhibitions of that time, the theme of which was houses and residential construction.

The cube is the basis of this structure. 354 cubes stacked on top of each other made it possible to create this gray building with 146 apartments. Most of the apartments have a private garden on the roof of the neighbor downstairs. The building style is brutalism.

14 House of Music/Casa da musica (Porto, Portugal) map

Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the concert hall in the historic center of Porto is home to three of the city's orchestras. The construction of a building of an unusual shape required the implementation of new engineering solutions. It was carried out in 2001-2005. in connection with the performance of Porto as the European Capital of Culture. The project proposed by Koolhaas received wide recognition in the architectural community. So, the architecture critic The New York Times Nikolai Urusov called the House of Music Koolhaas' "most attractive" project, comparing it with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

15 Olympic Stadium/Olympic Stadium (Montreal, Canada) map

It was built as the main sports arena of the summer Olympic Games 1976. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. Largest stadium in Canada.

16 Nautilus House / Nautilus House (Mexico City, Mexico) map

The design of the house is very innovative, unusual and daring. Architect Javier Senosiain decided to bring nautical forms into architecture and created a house in the shape of a shell.

17 National Library of Belarus/National Library of Belarus (Minsk, Belarus) map

The building is a 73.6 m high rhombicuboctahedron (23 floors) and weighs 115,000 tons (excluding books). Unusual is the illumination of the building, which is a giant multi-color screen based on LED clusters, which turns on daily at sunset and works until midnight. The design and patterns on it are constantly changing.

18 National Performing Arts Center/国家大剧院 (Beijing, China) map

It is an ellipsoidal dome made of glass and titanium, rising in the middle of an artificial reservoir, across the road from Zhongnanhai Lake. The three main halls of the theater can accommodate at least 6,500 spectators.

The architect was the Frenchman Paul Andre; construction lasted from December 2001 to December 2007. The construction of such a huge futuristic building in the historical center of the Chinese capital caused great controversy, both in terms of its inconsistency with the urban environment, and because of the exorbitant and constantly increasing costs during construction.

19 Conch Shell House (Isla Mujeres, Mexico) map

The house was designed by Octavio Ocampo, one of Mexico's most famous artists, and his brother. The house is a perfect display of his surreal blend of summerhouse and unique underwater aesthetic.

20 House Attack (Vienna, Austria) map

Erwin Wurm is known for his unusual, sometimes humorous and sometimes cryptic work. He created just such an intriguing installation, to the surprise of passers-by.

21 Library of Alexandrina/ مكتبة الإسكندرية الجديدة ‎ (Alexandria, Egypt) map

The idea of ​​building a library on the site of the ancient Library of Alexandria arose in the early 1970s and belonged to a group of professors from the University of Alexandria. The complex is characterized by a very expressive architecture. The concept of the library building is based on the symbolism of the south. The building is like a solar disk, raised to the south and tilted to the north. The glass surfaces of the north-sloping roof let northern light down into the library.

22 Cube houses/Kubuswoning (Rotterdam, Netherlands) map

A series of houses built in Rotterdam and Helmond to an innovative design by architect Piet Blom in 1984. Blom's radical decision was that he installed the house's box not on the edge, as usual, but on the top, and with this top he rests (visually) on the hexagonal pylon. In Rotterdam, there are 38 such houses and 2 more super-cubes, and all the houses are articulated into a single structure. From a bird's eye view, the complex has an intricate appearance resembling an impossible triangle.

23 Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace/Le Palais idéal (France) map

The creator of this most impressive monument of naive architecture is Joseph Ferdinand Cheval. From the age of 13 he worked as an assistant baker, in 1867 he received the position of a rural postman. Delivering mail, he made a daily journey of 25 km, putting stones of an unusual natural shape into a wheelbarrow. Of these, for 33 years alone in his spare time, day and night, in any weather, with the help of the most unpretentious tools, he realized his dream - a palace beyond imagination.

24 Hallgrímskirkja Church (Reykjavik, Iceland) map

The project of the church was developed in 1937 by the architect Gudjoun Samuelson. It took 38 years to build the church. The church is located in the center of Reykjavik, and is visible from any part of the city. It has become one of the main attractions of the city.

25 Eden project (Cornwall, UK) map

Botanical garden in Cornwall, UK. Includes a greenhouse, consisting of several geodesic domes, under which plants from all over the world are collected. The greenhouse area is 22,000 sq. m. The domes are made of hundreds of hexagons and several pentagons connecting the entire structure. Each of the six- and pentagons is made of durable translucent plastic. Tropical vegetation is represented in the first greenhouse, Mediterranean vegetation is presented in the second one.

26 The Museum of Play (Rochester, USA) map

Interesting architectural solution National Museum games in Rochester. The museum provides a huge interactive collection of exhibits dedicated to the history and exploration of games. A resort complex on the artificial island of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The complex consists of two buildings and a bridge connecting them, which housed 1539 rooms. Initially, the dome cells were with acrylic inserts, but after the fire in 1976, only a metal frame remained. Now the Biosphere has become a recognizable symbol of the city. The house is in the neoclassical style, standing upside down. In WonderWorks, you can eat well, have a lot of laughs, lie on a yoga bed, ride a virtual roller coaster, control a ball with your mind, find yourself in the middle of a desert or inside a soap bubble, and much more. In total, WonderWorks has about one hundred and fifty interactive entertainment. Longaberger's headquarters was built in the form of one of the company's products - a wicker basket. The building has seven floors, huge handles weigh almost 150 tons. Museum, gallery of contemporary art, opened as part of the program " cultural capital Europe" in 2003. The concept of the building was developed by London-based architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier. The informal name is a friendly alien. The building was built in the blob style, which contrasts sharply with the surrounding buildings. The base of the building is made of reinforced concrete, the outer shell is made of bluish plastic panels. The Kunsthaus looks decent despite the very low budget for such cultural buildings in major cities. The interior, according to Colin Fournier, should resemble a magician's black box. The facade is implemented as a programmable media installation. A residential complex in Darmstadt in the form of a spiral, designed by the Austrian architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and characterized by the complete absence of rectangular shapes. Other names are “Wooden Skyscraper”, “Solombala Skyscraper”. Wooden 13-storey house built in Solombala (northern Arkhangelsk) by businessman Nikolai Sutyagin. The house was partially dismantled in December 2008 by a court decision as an unauthorized building. On May 5, 2012, the remaining part of the wooden skyscraper was destroyed by fire. It was one of the tallest private wooden buildings in Russia, yielding in height to some tiered wooden churches.

When you plan a trip to any of the largest cities on Earth, be sure to visit their most famous buildings. These cities stand out with many outstanding buildings, squares and cityscapes, while their history and cultural heritage make them the best cities in the world. These gigantic capitals, with countless places of interest, have plenty to offer. However, these 10 most famous buildings on Earth stand out the most. The first tower, called the Shard, rises above the modern and vibrant skyline of London.

The Shard in London

The gigantic Shard skyscraper reshapes the London skyline and makes it the tallest skyscraper in Europe. With a height of just over 300 meters above the ground, the Shard is the tallest building in this part of the world, and definitely one of the most famous. It was completed in 2012 in the heart of London, within walking distance of the Thames, London Bridge and the Tower of London. In addition, the Shard skyscraper is visible from anywhere in the city, especially at night, when the majestic silhouette of this iconic famous building turns into a bright mixture of light and shadows, and the vibrant waters of the river reflect its majesty in a huge mirror of nature. Especially popular is the observation deck at an altitude of 250 meters, which offers the best view of the capital of England.

Big Ben

Big Ben, the House of Commons and the House of Lords is another famous London landmark with its roots going back to the Victorian Gothic period with its many edgy details, high pillars, intricate embellishments, dark mystical angles and contrasting pale silhouettes. This delightful building is one of the city's most iconic landmarks. The gigantic Big Ben tower with its four chiming clock is recognized all over the world, making it one of the most famous buildings in the world.

Burj Khalifa

Of course, the tallest building in the world will not be an exception in the list of the most famous buildings. The Burj Khalifa towers majestically over Dubai at 829.84 meters high, creating a particularly colorful lively atmosphere at night. The many lights of the Burj Khalifa are combined with other buildings to create a true contemporary atmosphere in Dubai. The tower rises above the Dubai skyline with its distinctive Arabian silhouette and Y-shaped design, multiple levels and cross sections. This building can only be called a masterpiece of architecture. At the top of the skyscraper is a restaurant with the most the best view to the city - .

Burj Al Arab

This building is also located in Dubai, along beautiful coast cities. Dubai Sail is the most famous and most luxurious hotel in Dubai and on Earth. It is also quite high - almost 320 meters, which makes it the second tallest hotel on Earth. A symbol of Dubai's heritage, the Burj Al Arab impresses with its bright white silhouette and gigantic scale and size. A small narrow bridge leads to the Parus, and at the top there is a landing area for helicopters.

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal is another famous building located in eastern Agra in India. This masterpiece of art is famous for its white facades and history, which makes the Taj Mahal one of the most attractive architectural gems in the world. The building dates back to the 17th century. This is a mausoleum and a symbol of love that permeates every corner here. The Taj Mahal has a gigantic 170m high central dome, four smaller domes, a gigantic spacious courtyard, four huge slightly tilted minarets, great Islamic design with marble details, calligraphic embellishments, and more. Standing at the main entrance of the complex, you immediately feel all its grandeur and size.

Colosseum in Rome

The Colosseum in Rome is laced with historical heritage on every wall, façade or stone. The true scale of this arena is quite impressive even in our time, and during the time of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, it was a real engineering marvel at all. The Colosseum was the largest amphitheater in the world, the center of numerous gladiator battles, where all the Roman nobility gathered. A long network of caves and tunnels stretches under the building, and the outer wall of the Colosseum with its numerous arches, floors and columns is considered one of the symbols of Rome and Italy.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa - only a small part of the whole complex Cathedral Pisa, but the most famous. The rounded tower, with a series of spiraling balconies all along its façade, is pale in color with many shades. It is surrounded by many lawns and has a courtyard. The tower has a great Romanesque architectural design, but that's not what it's known for. This tilts almost 4 degrees, giving the visual illusion of falling. This is used by numerous tourists, taking pictures against the backdrop of the famous building.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera theatre- one of the most famous buildings in Australia and around the world, because it is a real work of art and a masterpiece of art. It is a cultural symbol of the country and one of Sydney's most visited attractions. The Sydney Opera House hosts numerous art, opera and music events. The remarkable architectural vista, positioned right next to the water on one side and modern skyscrapers on the other, makes this outstanding opera house one of the most famous buildings in the world.

Empire State Building

The symbol of the state of New York and the United States, the Empire State Building is one of compulsory places to visit in the city that never sleeps. The skyscraper will impress you with its multitude of colors, pure Art Deco shapes, historical structures and of course its impressive height. It rises almost 450 meters above the Manhattan skyline, dotted with numerous windows. At the top is an observation deck that opens up the magnificent skyline of Manhattan. At sunset, you can admire them for hours.

Eiffel Tower

Topping the list of the most popular buildings in the world is not a building at all, but a tower. The Eiffel Tower is undoubtedly the most popular building in the world. It is located in the center of Paris and is a symbol of the city and France, as well as one of the tallest structures throughout the continent and one of the most popular and visited attractions in the world. The tower is distinguished by its history, many spans, connections, arches, intricate details and other interesting elements that only emphasize its charm.


From modern and surreal skyscrapers, to historic structures that carry a huge cultural legacy, there are plenty of interesting buildings to visit on one of your next trips. These iconic buildings are located in the largest cities of the world, being part of their history. Such structures are always surrounded by large shopping streets, cultural centers, modern entertainment complexes, so you will always find ways to spend your time here, apart from seeing the most famous buildings in the world. I also advise you to read about the most expensive construction projects of our time in a separate tape.

Attractions

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Most of the buildings in Moscow were built with a good sense of taste and understanding of the needs of the times. The improvisational freedom of the sculptor, who wants to express as fully as possible his own ideas about modern architecture, fills the structures with originality and genuine artistry, elevating them to the rank of works of art. Our guide includes fifteen unusual houses created in different historical eras and striking in their non-triviality. These exclusive architectural buildings attract the attention of not only tourists, but also the residents of Moscow themselves, who do not have time to observe the change in the appearance of the capital.

On the bank of the Prechistenskaya embankment stands a fabulous Art Nouveau house. Created according to the drawings of engineer Pyotr Pertsov and artist Sergey Malyutin in 1905-1907, the house initially served as a profitable building - as usual, apartments were rented out to residents, and attics - to artists. The voluminous, asymmetric building with conical roofs is lined with red brick, and characters from fairy tales flaunt on its facade - for example, a chimney is made in the form of a wise owl, and mysterious dragons support balconies. The windows are decorated with ancient Russian decor: celestial spheres and animals laid out in majolica mosaics - the sun, stars, the Sirin bird, a bear, a peacock, a rooster - add folklore color to the exterior of the building. The animal ornament is intertwined with the vegetable one, awakening the imagination and instantly moving it to the pages of Russian epics. Malyutin is the author of the Russian matryoshka and, while working on the project for Pertsova's house, he felt and expressed the primordially Russian spirit, weaving it into the Western European tradition. The interior decoration was also created according to the artist's drawings and thought out to the smallest detail: from carved decorations on stair railings to apartment doors. For four years, the Bat Theater was located here, where Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vasily Kachalov, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Olga Knipper-Chekhova performed. Later, a creative salon was opened in this building, where such famous people as Vera Kholodnaya and Alexander Vertinsky came to perform. Now in the house of Pertsova are government agencies, but the spirit of bureaucracy cannot overcome the sense of creative freedom inherent in this building.

The white-stone palace with massive carved balconies belonged to the merchant Arseny Morozov, obsessed with the passionate idea of ​​writing his name into history. Having visited Italy and Portugal, he wanted to build a Moorish-style mansion, and in 1894 he realized his idea with the help of architect Viktor Mazyrin. Morozov personally drew decorative elements - shells and intricate swirling patterns. The asymmetric horseshoe-shaped building combines influences from various architectural styles: Neo-Mauritanian, Chinese, Italian styles, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Romanticism, Empire, Portuguese Manueline style. Above the mansion was broken hanging garden. The interior is extremely colorful: some rooms are decorated in the Empire style, others - Baroque, Gothic and Oriental trends are also noted in the interior of the building. In the post-revolutionary period, there was a mobile theater and various embassies in the Morozov House: Japan. UK, India. Since 2006, after a thorough restoration, the mansion has been the official reception house of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The theater Et Cetera refutes its own name with its appearance: there is simply no “like it” in Moscow. Built by architect Andrei Bokov in 2005, the building, in terms of geometry, is a large oval on which stands a rectangle with protruding edges. All this, coupled with a tower-column and windows of various heights and shapes, make the theater look like a circus tent. The building surprises with its asymmetry and diversity - from different points of view it looks completely different - as if an actor puts on a mask, instantly reincarnating from one character to another. The theater under the direction of Alexander Kalyagin lives an active life, attracting attention not only with its unusual appearance, but also with excellent performances.

In the twenty-five-story "House on Chicken Legs" at 184 Prospekt Mira, it is not Baba Yaga and the brownie Kuzey who live, but ordinary people. As if hovering above the ground, the house was built in the late 1960s by architects Viktor Andreev and Timofey Zaikin. Balconies arranged in a checkerboard pattern evoke the feeling that you can climb onto the roof through the house, like along a rock with ledges. During the construction of the building, for the first time, the technique of fastening large panels with special bolts was used. The House on Chicken Legs became one of the first high-rise buildings in Moscow. Upside-down V-shaped piles support this huge building, and balconies shoot like an arrow into the sky. Previously, this place was a student campus, a living memory of which is a beautiful poplar square, located nearby. The appearance of the house aroused the creative interest of the director of the film "Mustached Nanny", who filmed one of the episodes in this building. Also, the description of the "House on Chicken Legs" is found on the pages of the popular science fiction novel by Sergei Lukyanenko "Night Watch".

Elite housing is increasingly taking unusual forms: the eight-story building, built in 2007 by Alexei Bavykin, is a vivid example of this. The highlight of the building lies in the special decor of the facade: stone columns resemble trees, especially at the top of each there is a tub with a plant. The slender structure of trees adorns the walls of the building and symbolically alludes to the eternity of life. Expensive natural stone was used to finish the facade, and granite was used for the atrium. The average area of ​​apartments is about 200 square meters. meters, the ceilings are more than 3 meters high. The infrastructure of the building is well thought out and includes: a swimming pool, bath complex, phyto-bar. The bright atrium, penthouse, large balconies, terrace and green spaces give a feeling of a serene country life, far from the bustle of the city.

Bryusov lane, 19, Moscow

In the late 90s, the workshop of Sergei Tkachenko was entrusted with the design of a maternity hospital in Bethlehem. It was then that architecture came up with the idea to create a building in the shape of an egg, acting as a symbol of the birth of life. This non-trivial idea found its real embodiment only in 2002, and it happened not in Palestine, but in Moscow, on 1/11 Mashkov Street. The four-story round building with a huge number of recesses, in which there are windows-balconies, amaze with its modernist sophistication. The volutes decorating the ground floor resemble a Faberge egg stand. The ceiling of the attic crowning the building is painted from the inside with golden-blue colors in the spirit of the Renaissance.

Winner of the 2008 House of the Year competition, this twenty-four-story stone sailboat pleases Muscovites with its non-trivial architecture. The house is part of the Grand Park complex designed by Andrey Bokov. On the first and second floors there are shops and offices, in the same house there are about 250 apartments with an average area of ​​​​about 100 square meters. meters. Designed in the shape of a drop, the house found its home on the site of a former runway, so the base of the building is disproportionately narrow in relation to gigantic size the buildings. The “house-sail” is finished with porcelain stoneware, which has the property of maintaining a neat appearance and internal fortress for a long time.

Grizodubova, 2, Moscow

The exquisite “Openwork House” on Leningradsky Prospekt makes a deceptive impression: the appearance speaks of refinement of taste and an undoubted focus on art “for the elite”, but the internal structure and the idea itself were completely different. Architect Andrei Burov, having traveled to the United States, brought the idea of ​​social housing for ordinary citizens. The combination of beauty and convenience became the starting points for the construction of the building. The house was built in 1936-1940s, and the war made its own adjustments to the original layout of the building. It was assumed that in a house with small four-meter kitchens there would be: a restaurant (from where it would be possible to bring food), a nursery, a kindergarten, a hairdresser, a grocery store. In 1941, bomb shelters appeared in the basements, and 2-3 families were moved into the house in each apartment. In the "Openwork House", built in the form of the letter P, there is only one entrance, three stairs and two elevators. Huge long corridors and 18 apartments on each floor, starting from the second. Openwork lattices, created according to the drawings of Vladimir Favorsky, shelter the loggia from prying eyes. The color of the house resembles marble, but in fact it is moire - concrete mixed with paint. This house was one of the first to be made from large blocks of factory production, which was a new industrial method. But he did not enter the series, because. soon the method of panel assembly of houses was invented. For all these architectural innovations, the building was given a conservation status. Many famous people once lived in the six-story Openwork House, built next to the hippodrome, for example, writer Konstantin Simonov and actress Valentina Serova, figure skater Irina Moiseeva.

Leningradsky pr., 27, Moscow

At Kievsky railway station there is an extraordinary building, glowing with blue lights in the evenings and looking like a beehive, in which there are a hundred offices and shops. The large-scale modern center surprises with its monumentalism and has an unusual appearance: the upper floors, like a sailboat, are distributed in breadth, hanging over the first ones. Built in 2008 from raw concrete, the eleven-story house won the House of the Year 2009 award. The project manager is Andrey Bokov, who strives to embody in his work ideas about the needs of modern society, which wants not only comfort, but also the opportunity to renounce the world and, catching a gust of wind, fly away into a dream.

Kyiv, 3, Moscow

This six-story building was erected in the early 70s, in anticipation of the Olympics, and therefore acquired the shape of the Olympic ring. Yevgeny Stamo and Alexander Markelov decided to build an Olympic village consisting of five ring houses. The idea was too unprofitable from an economic point of view, therefore, only in 1979, the same round house was built in Ramenki. A feature of the architectural structure is that at the junction of the panels, the maximum allowable error of 6 degrees was used, which helped to make the house of the desired shape. Famous people of art - Galina Belyaeva, Savely Kramarov and Emil Lotyanu - once were residents of this house.

Nezhinskoy, 13, Moscow

The nine-story hi-tech business center was built in 2007 with a modern understanding of the needs of employers, employees and customers. A large glazed cube standing on a pedestal creates an optical illusion: the building seems voluminous due to the stepped facade. There is a heliport on the roof of the building, and inside there is a huge conference room, equipped in accordance with all the rules for holding official events. This is the only class "A" building in the South-Eastern District.

Volgogradsky pr., 43/3, Moscow

Modern cities are made up of buildings of all styles, sizes, designs and shapes - from wooden one-story shacks to high-tech buildings that look like they stepped out of the pages of science fiction novels. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol once said: "Architecture is also a chronicle of the world: it speaks when both songs and legends are already silent." We invite you to take a brief tour of the buildings that have become real architectural milestones in the history of mankind.

1. Hal Saflieni, Paola City, Malta

This underground sanctuary (hypogeum) is one of the most ancient buildings on Earth: according to some estimates, its construction began about six thousand years ago. Initially, Khal-Saflieni was used as a temple, and then began to serve as a burial place - during excavations, archaeologists discovered the remains of more than seven thousand ancient inhabitants of these places.

2. Pyramids of Giza, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt

The pyramids on the Giza Plateau are the only creation of the ancient architects of the legendary Seven Wonders of the World that has survived to this day (strictly speaking, only the highest of them, the Pyramid of Khufu, better known as the Pyramid of Cheops, is classified as a Miracle).

No wonder the Arabs say: "The world is afraid of time, and time is afraid of the pyramids" - for about four thousand years, the pyramid of Khufu was the tallest building on the planet and still amazes the imagination with its majesty and grandeur. Its height is 146.5 meters, the pyramids of Khafre (Chephren) and Menkaure (Mykerin) are slightly lower - 136.4 meters and 62 meters, respectively.

3. Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek, Lebanon

The debate about how the Egyptians managed to build "hills" of huge boulders weighing 2.5 tons will probably never subside. However, the builders of the temple of Jupiter in the ancient city of Baalbek could have given them a head start in terms of the size of the “bricks”: when building the temple, they used three blocks weighing 800 tons each, although there are smaller ones, “only” 350 tons each.

Two kilometers from the temple, archaeologists found a block called the "South Stone" - its weight reaches over 1000 tons, but for some reason the largest "brick" remained in the quarry.

4. Assyrian aqueduct near the village of Jervan, Iraq

It's hard to believe, but this masterpiece of Assyrian architects, built in 703-688 BC by order of King Sennacherib, is an ordinary water supply that provided water to the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Nineveh. The length of the most famous part of the aqueduct, made of limestone, is about 300 meters, and the height is about 10 meters, while the total length of the ancient water supply system is more than 80 km.

5. Machu Picchu, Peru

The amazing quality of the buildings in Machu Picchu is explained either by the skill of the masons, or, more likely, by the extreme cruelty of the foremen, who forced them to work the blocks with copper and bronze tools so that they fit very tightly to each other and stand without any bonding solution for hundreds of years.

6. Aqueducts of the Roman Empire

Rounded arches were invented in Mesopotamia about four thousand years ago, but they are known all over the world thanks to the Romans, who willingly used this architectural detail in the construction of their aqueducts.

The highest of the ancient Roman aqueducts that have survived to this day is the Pont du Gard, located on the territory modern France. The aqueduct, built in 40-66 AD, was part of the water supply system of the city of Nîmes, the height of the Pont du Gard is 47 meters and its length is 275 meters.

7 Alexandria Window Glass

The first transparent panes in human history appeared in Alexandria around 100 AD (some historians say they are at least 200 years older). One of the Roman glassblowers living in the city guessed to add manganese oxide to the glass mass, as a result of which such an innovative, as they would say now, architectural solution appeared.

8. Concrete domes of Roman temples

The huge stone domes used in many Christian churches were first created by the Romans after the invention of concrete.

The oldest example of the use of a concrete dome is the temple of Mercury, built between the 27th year BC and the 14th year after, during the reign of Emperor Augustus. The largest unreinforced concrete dome belongs to the Pantheon in Rome, completed in 127 AD.

9. Linen processing plant in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK

At first glance, this old building is unremarkable, but meanwhile it is respectfully called the “grandfather of skyscrapers”: when building a factory commissioned by British entrepreneur Charles Badge, architect and engineer William Strutt was one of the first in the world to use cast-iron beams and metal structures, which gave the structure an unprecedented strength.

The construction of the factory was completed in 1797, and for many years its design became a model for the construction of many other industrial and residential buildings.

10. Suspension bridge over the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

One of the world's first suspension bridges, designed by engineers Erskine Hazard and Josiah White, was the largest of them at the time of opening in 1816, although it stood for only about a year.

11. Great Orangery Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, UK

The structure, designed by Joseph Paxton, the author of the famous Crystal Palace in London, was for some time the largest in the world. glass building: its length was 96.2 meters, the width was 37.5 meters, and the greenhouse reached a height of 20.4 meters.

Paxton, who served as a gardener at the residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, amazed the guests of the estate with his unprecedented fantastic designs, but many of them were too impractical: for example, to maintain the temperature in the greenhouse, eight boilers had to be built and 11 km of pipes laid. The Great Orangery cost Chatsworth House so much that it was demolished in 1923.

12. Four-story house, suburb of Paris, France

A nondescript, graffiti-covered building on one of the northern outskirts of Paris - real monument architecture, although it is hard to believe. Its creators, engineer Francois Coignet and architect Theodore Lachaise, were the first to use reinforced concrete as a building material, after which this practice became widespread.

13. Oriel Chambers, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK

Although the factory in Shrewsbury is called the “grandfather of skyscrapers”, this honorary epithet should rightfully belong to a building erected in 1864 by architect Peter Ellis: load-bearing steel structures with window panes fixed to them were first used in Oriel Chambers - this is the technology used to build a large some of the most tall buildings planets.

14. Insurance Company Building, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The 42-meter building, built according to the project of William Le Baron Jenney, one of the most respected representatives of the Chicago school of architecture, belongs to the building, for the first time, so to speak, "scraped the sky."

The construction of the world's first skyscraper was completed in 1885, and in 1891 two more were added to its ten floors, and the height increased from 42 meters to 54.9 meters.

The architect, apparently, did not trust the strength of the steel frame too much, so he placed the concern for the stability of the building also on the back load-bearing wall and granite columns. Unfortunately, the first skyscraper has not survived to our time - in 1931 the building was demolished.

15. Ingalls Building, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Chicago is considered the birthplace of skyscrapers, but the world's first such structure made of reinforced concrete appeared in the city of Cincinnati in 1903. An unprecedented 15-story building 64 meters high was designed by the architectural bureau Elzner & Anderson for Melville Ingalls, one of the American financial tycoons of the early 20th century. The skyscraper has survived to this day and is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

16. Villa Savoy, Poissy, France

A small country villa, built in 1931 by the famous Le Corbusier, the founder of modernism in building design, is considered the embodiment of his “Five Points of Modern Architecture”, which formulate the basic principles of Art Nouveau. These include a flat roof, pillars, horizontal windows, free planning and a free facade - the supports are not located outside the house, but in any way, external walls can also be any.

17. Solar House No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Employees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Hoyt Hottel, in 1939 built a building on the territory of the Institute, completely heated by solar energy. Later, several more similar houses were created for scientific purposes, and the first commercial building, heated exclusively by the sun, appeared in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1956, it was designed by Frank Bridgers and Donald Paxton.

18. Echoviren, California, USA

In August this year, a team of Californian architects completed the construction of the world's first building, all building materials for which are made using 3D printing. Of course, it is difficult to call it a building, rather it is something like a small hut: its dimensions are 3 × 3 × 2.4 meters.

The project was named Echoviren - in honor of one of the rare species of redwoods, because the structure of the walls of the 3D hut resembles the cellular structure of the fibers of this tree. It took about 10,800 hours to manufacture its 585 components in total: for two months, seven 3D printers worked almost around the clock, and assembled the “building” in just four days.

Modern architecture, over time, undergoes significant transformations. Of great importance here are professionals in their field, not deprived of talent - architects and decorators who are not afraid to present something new and extraordinary in their work, despite criticism from the outside. Any architectural building that is a landmark has been condemned by society, but after a while everything changed.

Now these buildings delight not only visitors, but also the inhabitants of this area. We present a selection of 10 original buildings that will make you look at the creations of architecture differently.

1. House-Basket

The Basket House is the headquarters of a painting firm in Ohio, USA. The structure resembles an ordinary basket, the construction of which took more than two years. The shopping cart is a true example of imitation architecture, where buildings are constructed in the specific shape of the goods being promoted. The internal component of the building is decorated with a glass ceiling, and the walls are filled with paintings of the founders of the company. Thanks to the glass design, employees and guests of the company can admire the daylight that penetrates into all rooms.

2. Hallgrímur Church

Hallgrimur Church is the tallest and most unusual church in Iceland, located in the capital Reykjavik. Scandinavian design was taken as the basis for the construction of the church, which has become the most exciting work of the architect Gudjoun Samuelsson. It took more than 38 years to complete this sacred building, begun in 1945. The building was named after the famous Icelandic poet Hallgrímur Petersson, who wrote many Lutheran prayer songs. The 80-meter concrete church has become in Iceland, as well as one of the most recognizable landmarks.

The main decoration of the interior of the church is a 20-meter organ, and the bell tower offers views of the whole of Reykjavik. In front of the building there is a statue of Leif Erickson (Happy) - the first European to visit North America. Definitely one of the most unusual churches in the world.

3. Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum is located in the Spanish city of Bilbao. Its building was designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry and opened to the public in 1997. In fact, the Guggenheim Museum is a complex of several interconnected buildings. The entire building is covered in titanium, limestone and glass. This museum is located along the banks of the Nervion River, which highlights the beauty of the building. Here are some of the greatest works many contemporary artists.

The collection of European and American paintings makes this museum one of the most beautiful places to visit among the sights of Spain.

4 Kansas City Library

The Kansas City Library is one of the largest libraries in the world, located in Kansas City and founded in 1873. A stunning array of large bookshelves is the main attraction of one of the most beautiful libraries in the United States. The facade of the building is decorated with marble and mahogany used in 20th century architecture.

The interior of the unusual building is decorated with concrete, with a massive 35-ton steel door. Each section of the library caters to a specific type of reader, with a particular collection of books from every possible field.

5. Atomium, Brussels

Extremely unusual building The Atomium is located in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The 102-metre-high Atomium was designed by architect Andre Waterkein and is a massively enlarged model of a simple iron atom. The entire building was constructed from stainless steel, including 7 prefabricated columns with round spheres. The diameter of each of the spheres is 28 meters, and the total length of the pipes is 2298 meters. For tourists there are special escalators in hollow pipes. At the top of the Atomium there is a restaurant and an observation deck with beautiful views.

6. La Pedrera

The La Pedrera building is located in the city of Barcelona, ​​which is famous for its unusual architecture. It took 6 years to complete this strange project, which started in 1906. The Catalan architect was the main designer of La Pedrera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The strange limestone façade and unusual balconies immediately grab attention, while the roof of La Pedrera is adorned with photographs and postcards of Barcelona. The interior of the building is designed to maximize daylight penetration, and the roof offers a magnificent view of Barcelona.

7. Lotus Temple

The flower-shaped Lotus Temple is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. This attraction is open to visits by peoples of all religions. Inspired by the lotus flower, architect Fariborz Sahba designed this beautiful building, opened to visitors in 1986. The entire temple was made of marble, dolomite and cement, and its main pride is the petals. The central hall of the Lotus Temple with 9 huge entrances can accommodate 2,500 people, and the surrounding ponds give the impression that the building is floating in the water like a lotus flower.

8. Stone House

The stone house is located in the mountains of Portugal. It was built in 1974 and was inspired by the Flintstones cartoon. An unusual house was built from two huge rocks connected by a concrete mixture. This gives it a sense of prehistoric structure and makes it one of the finest sights in Portugal.

9. Crooked House

The Crooked House is actually a strange looking part of a mall in Polish city Sopot. The project was developed by Szotynscy and Zalesky in 2004 and is inspired by children's fairy tales. Over time, the curved house has become one of the most photographed places in Poland. Visitors get the impression that the house is about to collapse, but in fact it is firmly fixed with special beams. The crooked house has glass doors and blue-green surrounding lighting that makes the building especially attractive at night.

10 Surreal House

The surreal house is located on the El Carmel hill in Barcelona. It took 14 years to complete this strange building, started in 1900. The building is listed as a UNESCO heritage site. The complex actually contains 60 different buildings, a chapel, a park and a beautiful fountain in the center. Numerous statues also make this place more attractive. The house has become one of the main attractions of Spain, which are most popular among travelers.

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