In this hilarious series we catalogue structural designs that should've never seen the light of day. Or, even if they were designed properly and within reasonable skill, then apparently something BAD happened on the way to their completion.
Perhaps a drunk worker, or an overly motivated one with a twisted imagination? Either way, these building ended up to be a visual abomination... the only hope remains that they would not stand long, as they are probably structurally compromised and unsafe to boot.
We'll start with buildings, then progress to sculptures, pipework and, worst of all, precarious stairs and elevators.
(Beautiful! Complete with the appeal to some mysterious Lucy)
On the left is weird building in Lagos, Nigeria. On the right is "cat" house in Japan:
"Last summer on our road trip in Balkan area we came across this weird concrete ship in the middle of Albanian countryside..." - says Joonas Antikainen, who sent us this picture:
Looking like dominoes ready to fall: this is Santos, Brasil - more than 97 crooked buildings line up the coast, some of them leaning as far as two meters to the side!
... or you can keep buildings together like this (seen in China):
"Best Western" has one window clearly out of line -
(top right image: it actually adds some visual interest!)
Strange, but perhaps... beautiful to some people?
Outrageous splash of blue in the sea of grey (left); on the right is a house made from a wrecked ship in Kazakhstan:
Awesome surreal sculpture seen inside Keisei Ueno station in Tokyo:
This. is. Weird:
Faulty Towers
This is Torre de la Escollera tower construction in Cartagena, Colombia. The tall structure was predictably buffeted by winds, which caused torsion and out-of-shape twist of one meter - leading to construction suspension, and eventual demolition in 2007:
The foundation under this 13-story building was compromised, more info. I bet people who are going to move into the same sort of buildings that still stand around, will feel sort of... uneasy.
Update: it turns out that workers were digging illegally near the building, and so it collapsed - seems like other buildings are safe. Good!
Yet another apartment building in China splits in two... and collapses:
It happened in the city of Liuzhou, China, during the controlled demolition that went wrong. No lives were lost, fortunately. But one half of the building remained standing, leaning precariously. Pedestrians do not seem to mind too much.
Here is another faulty construction which resulted in demolition of skyscraper, reportedly worth 100 million dollars. This high-rise condominium in South Padre Island, Texas, "was to be opened in 2008. The building began to have settling problems. It sunk as much as 14 inches." See the video of its demolition:
Another classic example: John Hancock tower in Boston, renamed the "Plywood Palace" because of the design flaw - a lot of windows had to be replaced with plywood:
The picture above is taken from a fascinating trip to the abandonded sugar-producing factory, a visual treat in itself - see here (in Russian).
More dubious supports:
This crane is going to stand! We promise! -
Bridge made out of old rusty train cars? Sure, why not -
Here are some creative construction workers... from Russia, of course. Can you tell the difference between the tiles in the image below? If you look closely you will notice that some are tiles... and some are just lines drawn in the concrete with a stick!
This happened at "Mayakovskaya" metro station right downtown in Moscow. Look closely under your feet, maybe quite a bit of tile work is also drawn out by hand, who knows:
Still, it's better than plain masquerade, spotted in Moscow:
Same fake building idea is popular in China: check out the fake facades in Henan Province, Luanchuan County, Jiahe Town:
A lot of what you've seen has been thankfully unfinished and left for good. For some FINISHED mad architectural masterpieces, head over to this page.
Seeing all these adventures in hazardous architecture and structural design, I can't help but wonder what weird shape will be used for a building next? Perhaps a question mark? (surely, gravity will cooperate!) -
(left image by Erik Johansson, right image: original unknown)
The chair made out of old steam radiators gave me a chuckle. Very creative way to recycle them, even though the chair would be uncomfortable as well as nearly impossible to move.
The "cat house" is quite cute. I wouldn't mind having that as a guest house.
Etching fake bricks into concrete is pretty clever, I think. If you want to match the existing bricks, but can't afford to put real ones down, then scratching a brick pattern into the concrete is the next best thing.
The funky blue building in the sea of grey ones may look weird, but at least it brightens the neighborhood.
Love the pics of stairways going nowhere, and toilets in strange places!
I like the stairs to nowhere (the ones in the woods).
As for the leaning towers. Humans really must learn that not everyplace is New York. That island is built on rock! Most places simply cannot handle such tall towers for too long. ^--^
The fake tiling is not that uncommon a practice; I remember back when I was in college, a landscaping project in the quad did this -- the contractor laid down a white concrete base, then a thin layer of a brick red concrete on top, and went over it with a machine that carefully scored away the red layer in a pattern to make it look like brickwork and grout while retaining the durability of a single sheet of concrete.
"Sensational staircase. We simply love it:" is Observatory by Bruce Allen, in Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Great Britain. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1029766
How strange, I could swear that the picture with the Cramo lift and those fancy supports is taken on the street where I used to live when studying in the university of Oulu, Finland.
The blue and green figures on the "This. is. Weird:" photo are "balloons". The platforms under their feet blow air into the figures and makes them move. They actually look like stick-men dancing.
As for the crack listed under "this will do", I'm afraid that tape simply won't do. You see it's not a crack in the wall; it's a crack in time and space. Remove the wall and the crack would remain...
Sputnik music box and "Rocket Ride" are obviously placed the opposite way: the former left, and the latter right. And... Good old what 1938 with scrawny legs? It looks like a washing machine, but I'm not quite sure.
dear Anonymous i disagree a bit. whilst she's not programming a kitchen menu, she's not making breakfast, she's not making breakfast, either - the kids are outside, in the rain, tending (presumably) homewards. i reckon she's making an after school snack & buying that shirt for boy child. her stove's electric, too. yours sincerely alfred venison
The "Mighty Tiny" records reminded me of cutting the records off of the back of cereal boxes when I was younger. Instead of a "prize inside" it was on the box.
The first pair of items are sundials. The one on the left is a universal with gears and siting hardware for reading accurately to a minute or even a bit less. The one of the right is compound; the top is a spherical dial; the base has a west facing vertical dial.
The two last pictures: definitely not the same car!
The bottom one has a black(ish) plastic front bumper whereas the top one doesn't seem to have one at all. There really IS no way the car in the top photo is ever moving under its own power again.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-KnsAEkQFn1o/TnkkC77_IbI/AAAAAAABiB0/sCwy-Jlom60/s720/z32.jpg is not a ghost car. It is a piece of art, dating back to the early/mid 90's called "Ghetto Blaster". You can see contemporary American cars in the background.
About that half-built truck in India: in India one can buy an unfinished "chasis", as shown in the picture, and then build it into a truck or bus as one likes. So, essentially that is how your new truck or bus will look like. And you have to take it to the builders yourself. There are special drivers available for these vehicles.
Blue van in Serbia belong to fan of Partizan. Every second sport club in serbia have a name Partizan and have nothig with rebel force headquarters. :) Nice fotos, thank you.
more on that half built truck,never mind seeing it in india, i saw them all the time as a kid in england in the midlands around nottingham when they were goung between factorys, they had a kind of tiny cab on them to protect the driver, must of banned them now,thats heath and safty.
The first vehicle in the "Boratmobile" section is a sort of smallholders tractor (called a motocultivador in Portugal). The rear half can be removed and a variety of implements, such as rotovator or crop-cutting attachments can be fitted to the pto in its place. In this configuration it's pedestrian controlled. I too remember seeing truck and bus chassis being driven to the coachbuilders in the UK. The drivers had no protection from the elements at all, except for gauntlets, goggles and thick coats.
A word of warning: one day you'll start horribly regretting that choice of tungsten ring instead of a gold one - the day you'll realize there's no way on earth you can get the ring off your finger anymore other than cutting it open... ;)
The giant stone head with the shephard is from Il sacro Bosco di Bomarzo north of Rome, Italy. You could make a whole post just with pictures from here.
Urban legend. Tungsten rings are actually quite easy to remove in an emergency. Although strong, they are also brittle so they can be easily cracked with vice grips. No amputation needed.
Nice article, and I hate to do this to someone who appreciates architecture, but this building is not Art-Deco. Not even close. It is gothic. Art-Deco began in Paris in the 1920s, the Trinity Building was built in NYC in 1904-05. Just sayin.
You are absolutely right. We did have to fit it under "Art Deco" series, but only reluctantly. I am pretty sure, though, that gothic style has had significant influence on development of Art Deco - including this skyscraper as something to measure up to.
Let's have more! I once dedicated a whole day to doing nothing but walking about Manhattan seeking out all the lovely old art deco/gothic/whatever-you-want-to-call-'em buildings that still exist, tucked away beneath the modern layer of mammoth skyscrapers. I found the easiest way to locate them was to go up about 30 floors in a building and find a large glass window to look down out of... made 'em easy to spot and mark on a map for closer inspection. New York City actually has a gorgeous architectural heritage still in existence, it's just hard to see those grand old trees for the forest of the newer buildings.
I found the easiest way to locate them was to go up about 30 floors in a building and find a large glass window to look down out of... made 'em easy to spot and mark on a map for closer inspection.
That hotel is actually currently under construction and its supposed to open next year as Disney's Art of Animation Resort. The ATT exit to Spaceship Earth was completely rebuilt and is now open, except it's now sponsored by Seimens.
I remember River Country. It was pretty cool. You could reach it by steam train from Fort Wilderness campground or by boat from the Contemporary and Polynesian Resort Hotels.
The mysterious metal racks in the freezers look a lot like the ones we use in the liquid nitrogen storage of our cell biology lab. And in the front you even see an open box with plastic 2 ml tubes for cell culture samples -yikes-
Makes me feel old when I can remember all those attractions when they were still open. Many fond memories of them. I was a resident of Florida some 20 years ago and I would often go to the park as a day trip.
That "yellow submarine" reminds me of the 20,000 leagues under the sea attraction. However, I am not sure if it is the same one.
I've definitely been/ experienced most of those attractions and I'm only in my mid-20's. Shame to see them closed. I understand the walking/ exploration sections, which never got much traction, but the Epcot exhibits were interesting and taught kids about physics and health.
Fascinating pictures. A few notes (and some have been mentioned):
Pop Century - The views of the Pop Century Resort are from what was to be the Legendary Years (1910s-1940s) part of the resort (on the west side of the lake). Construction was abandoned on the west side after the decline in tourism post 9/11. (The Classic Years [1950s-1990s on the east side] has been open since late 2003.) And as Chris & Andrew pointed out they are now completing the Art Of Animation Resort on the west side.
River Country - This was the original waterpark for the Disney resorts, well before Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon. It also closed in 2001.
AT&T Spaceship Earth Post Show - These pics were probably taken during the refurb in late 2004/early 2005 when sponsorship switched from AT&T to Seimens (again, as Chris & Andrew pointed out).
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14 Comments:
The cat building is in Japan rather than Finland.
Source: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.290212,141.42171&spn=0.001659,0.002384&t=h&z=19&vpsrc=6&iwloc=lyrftr:com.panoramio.all,14581544128592428345,38.29017,141.421546&lci=com.panoramio.all
That is the John Hancock Building in Boston, not the one in Chicago.
The chair made out of old steam radiators gave me a chuckle. Very creative way to recycle them, even though the chair would be uncomfortable as well as nearly impossible to move.
The "cat house" is quite cute. I wouldn't mind having that as a guest house.
Etching fake bricks into concrete is pretty clever, I think. If you want to match the existing bricks, but can't afford to put real ones down, then scratching a brick pattern into the concrete is the next best thing.
The funky blue building in the sea of grey ones may look weird, but at least it brightens the neighborhood.
Love the pics of stairways going nowhere, and toilets in strange places!
I like the stairs to nowhere (the ones in the woods).
As for the leaning towers. Humans really must learn that not everyplace is New York. That island is built on rock! Most places simply cannot handle such tall towers for too long.
^--^
http://phoebedancingcat.blogspot.com/
The weird baby mosaic is actually in Keisei Ueno station in Tokyo. I walk past it daily.
The fake tiling is not that uncommon a practice; I remember back when I was in college, a landscaping project in the quad did this -- the contractor laid down a white concrete base, then a thin layer of a brick red concrete on top, and went over it with a machine that carefully scored away the red layer in a pattern to make it look like brickwork and grout while retaining the durability of a single sheet of concrete.
"Sensational staircase. We simply love it:" is Observatory by Bruce Allen, in Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Great Britain.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1029766
Thank you Lambert, page updated.
How strange, I could swear that the picture with the Cramo lift and those fancy supports is taken on the street where I used to live when studying in the university of Oulu, Finland.
The blue and green figures on the
"This. is. Weird:" photo are "balloons". The platforms under their feet blow air into the figures and makes them move. They actually look like stick-men dancing.
As for the crack listed under "this will do", I'm afraid that tape simply won't do.
You see it's not a crack in the wall; it's a crack in time and space. Remove the wall and the crack would remain...
CJ: a fine example of existential humour, sir. The crack abides.
That was a lot of pictures, really liked the first ones, the albanian would be like an inverse pyramid or something, obv without the peak.
Hi there, the concrete ship is in Croatia (Cista Provo) not Kazahstan! :) Been driving there alot...
Best regards
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