This Week’s Crazy Building: Salina Turda

Salina Turda, Mina Terezia by Gabriel Tocu is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
The Salina Turda, located in Transylvania is not a building but a highly unique location! This 2,000-year-old site was formerly a salt mine and was used as such from antiquity until 1932. In recent years it has become home to a museum, Ferris wheel, spa, bowling alley, miniature golf course, and even contains a lake
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This Week’s Crazy Building: Parthenon of Books

Marta Minujín- The Parthenon of Books by Heinz Bunse is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Parthenon of Books is on display in Kassel, Germany from June to September this year. It is the same size as the actual Parthenon and contains about 100,000 books! The books selected all have one thing in common: they were banned at one point or another, somewhere in the world. Titles include many books
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This Week’s Crazy Building: Icelandic Turf Houses

DSCN3813 by Sara Yeomans is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Part of a tradition in Iceland, the Turf House construction method dates back to the Neolithic period. With grass covered rooves, these homes literally blend into the landscape. The Turf House tradition came from the Norse and British settlers during the 9th through the 11th centuries. It is thought to have begun due to limited
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This Week’s Crazy Building: Bahrain World Trade Center

Bahrain world trade center by Fred Hsu is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Believe it or not, the Bahrain World Trade Center, located in Manama, Bahrain has actually received some awards such as the 2006 LEAF Award for Best Use of Technology within a Large Scheme and the Arab Construction World for Sustainable Design Award. Despite looking like the tips of a giant pair of scissors the design
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This Week’s Crazy Building: The Inkwell

Voorzijde met kunstwerk 'De UFO' - Utrecht by Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
De Inktpot or the Inkwell, is constructed of over 22 million bricks, making it the largest of its kind in the Netherlands! But that’s not what is truly unique about this structure. Perched at the top of this seemingly everyday building is… a UFO! Built between 1918 and 1921 by the Netherlands Railways, currently, it
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This Week’s Crazy Building: Refuge du Goûter

The new Goûter Hut by Coronium is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
The Refuge du Goûter, located in the French Alps is perched at about 12,582 feet above sea level. It is a four-story lodging for mountaineers and is one of the highest in Western Europe. It serves as a rest stop on the trek to ascend Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and in
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This Week’s Crazy Building: Union of Romanian Architects

Union of Romanian Architects 1 by Joe Mabel is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Union of Romanian Architects, located in Bucharest, Romania was originally built by Grigore Paucescu at the end of the 1800s. Its unusual appearance can possibly be attributed to a current trend of adding modern components to historic buildings, in this case, taken to the extreme! Between World War I and World War II, thanks
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This Week’s Crazy Building: De Rotterdam

Erasmusbrug & De Rotterdam by Jeroen Looyé is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
De Rotterdam, at about 525,000 square feet is the largest building in the Netherlands. Designed with offices, apartments, a hotel, fitness facilities, shops, and restaurants this “vertical city” has it all! This makes sense as the port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe. The unusual design, which reminds me a bit of a game
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This Week’s Crazy Building: The Windowless Wonder

Buffalo City Court Building, 1971-74, Pfohl, Roberts and Biggie by sah1365 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The Windowless Wonder or known by its real name the Buffalo City Court Building, designed by Pfohl, Roberts, and Biggie has been called by some the “epitome of Brutalist architecture.” With its modular design and exposed concrete exterior, it closely follows the Brutalist style, characterized by fortress-like structures, and exposed concrete construction. Brick construction has
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This Week’s Crazy Building: Metropol Parasol

Metropol Parasol by Sevilla Congress & Convention Bureau is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Metropol Parasol located in La Encarnación square in Seville, Spain, merges modern with ancient. A market has existed on this site since the 19th century. The square was renovated several times since then and in 1990 an underground parking lot was set to be constructed. The project came to a halt, however, when ancient
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