These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them

Some say that the golden age of architecture as an art form have come to a close; with the rush of suburbia, houses are generally built to look the same from neighborhood to neighborhood. Mansions and modest two-bedrooms alike have conformed to their own standards of how a house is “supposed” to look. The same goes for office buildings and municipal buildings.

Whether or not architecture will return as a major art form is debatable; what’s not so debatable is that it was, at one time, definitely an art. Let these 8 fantastically designed and constructed buildings prove it to you.

1.) Le Palais Ideal

1420034048218355 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — Facteur Cheval

Found in Hauterives, France, this “ideal palace” seems like it was made by a master craftsman. But each of these intricate details were actually produced by an ordinary postman. Starting in 1879, it took Ferdinand Cheval the next 34 years to complete his impressive project.

2.) The Living Bridges of Cherrapunji

1420034046499585 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — Living Root Bridges

Found in the eastern village of Cherrapunji, India, the living bridges come in handy with the region’s over 400 inches of rain on an annual basis. The War-Khasis tribe discovered this arboreal solution when they created root-guiding systems for the multi-root Ficus elastica found around the country.

3.) Nakagin Capsule Tower

1420034048759614 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — Toque Girls

Built in 1972 during the post-World War II “Metabolism” movement in architecture, each capsule is an apartment. Intended to be used by bachelors living in Tokyo, the design turned out to be mostly impractical and have since fallen into disrepair.

4.) Nitt Witt Ridge

1420034046860702 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — The Academic Vagrant

Located in Cambria, California, this home proves the adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” to be undeniably true. After buying the land for $100, Arthur (“Art”) Beal spent 50 years using only hand tools to create his mishmashed home. He worked as a garbage collector for 30 years before getting laid off for being more focused on finding items to add to his home than the standard procedure for refuse collection.

5.) The Smallest House in Great Britain

1420034048487736 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — NobleBuzz

At not-quite-6-feet wide and just-a-tad-over-10-feed tall, this tiny abode was occupied from the 16th century until 1900 when its last resident, a fisherman, vacated. Found in Conwy Quay, North Wales, it is now kept up as a tourist attraction. Its design dates back to the middle ages when they regularly used the small gaps between rows of houses to create low cost dwelling just big enough for one person.

6.) Waldspirale

1420034046540560 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — Listverse

Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser really hated symmetry. He referred to straight lines as “the tool of the devil.” During the 1970s, he took an interest in architecture after criticizing the study’s inability to allow amateurs much opportunity for practice in the field. He used his fortune to create what are basically giant versions of his art, including this whimsical residential building found in Darmstadt, Germany. No two apartments are exactly alike.

7.) Gate Tower Building

1420034048204860 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — Bits on Beats

When landowners attempting to erect an office building on an area previously designated by the government for highway development, they were all able to come to a compromise with this ingenious design. The building installed noise-proof walls and its elevators skip the four floors that make up the tunnel.

8.) World’s Littlest Skyscraper

1420034048149091 These 8 Amazingly Strange Buildings Have Even More Incredible Stories Behind Them — Futility Closet

Legend has it, this humble four story building was the result of some overeager oil barrons. When the boom came to Wichita Falls, TX, investors were anxious to open up shop and were sold on the idea of a skyscraper… But soon realized they had been looking at the blueprint and assuming the scale was in feet, when was in actuality inches. By the time it was completed, the man who sold them the design, J.D. McMahon, was nowhere to be found.