Cantilevers, stilts and other construction techniques ensure that these buildings with atypical facades stand out on the skyline. Check it out!
Submitted at Jul 30, 2022, 9:00 AM
(Jacob Due/CASACOR)
Advances in engineering mean that architects are able to explore increasingly unusual shapes in their residential designs.
So, below, we’ve selected 10 buildings with unusual shapes and facades that use cantilevers, stilts and other construction techniques to ensure they stand out on the skyline. Check them out!
(Ossip van Duivenbode/CASACOR)
The angular Sluishuis block, by Danish studio BIG and Dutch studio Barcode Architects , extends over Amsterdam’s IJ lake in a double cantilever. Completed this year, the project features 442 apartments.
(Ossip van Duivenbode/CASACOR)
"Towards the city, the building kneels down to invite visitors to climb onto the roof and enjoy the panoramic view of the new IJ districts," said Bjarke Ingels , founding partner of BIG.
(Xia Zhi/CASACOR)
As its name suggests, Fake Hills in the port city of Beihai, China, resembles a skyline of undulating topography with its undulating roofline.
Designed by German studio MAD , the building aims to stand out from the standardized housing blocks that often dominate Chinese skylines.
(Xia Zhi/CASACOR)
The studio included installations that respond to the building's unique form , from climbing walls in the vast cavities cut into its facade to tennis courts, gardens and swimming pools on the flatter parts of the roof.
(Ossip van Duivenbode/CASACOR)
The roof pitches of the Ilot Queyries development in Bordeaux, France, vary between 14 degrees and 45 degrees, depending on their relationship to the sun.
(Ossip van Duivenbode/CASACOR)
They are part of an irregular layout that has been carefully arranged by Dutch studio MVRDV to maximise natural ventilation and light throughout the site, with low-rise buildings at one end to blend in with neighbouring buildings. At the other end, nine-storey blocks have view of the Garonne River.
(Jacob Due/CASACOR)
Five ridges that run like a rollercoaster along the edge of Vejle Fjord define The Wave in Denmark, and contain 100 apartments in nine-story volumes.
(Jacob Due/CASACOR)
The building was the vision of prolific Danish architect Henning Larsen , who passed away in 2013 before it was completed. His studio saw the project to completion after an 11-year construction process held up by the 2008 financial crisis.
(Iwan Baan/CASACOR)
The Building Descending the Stairs is a sloppy arc of 47 apartments hoisted above a plaza on angled metal stilts.
(Cyrille Weiner/CASACOR)
Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto collaborated with Nicolas Laisné, Dimitri Roussel and OXO Architectes on this 17-storey building housing 113 apartments, which seeks to reinvent the tower block.
(Cyrille Weiner/CASACOR)
Intended to encourage residents to embrace the outdoors , the Montpellier block is modeled in the shape of a tree and is characterized by its many cantilevered balconies that spread out like leaves - some measuring more than seven meters long.
(Sebastian Weiss/CASACOR)
Completed in 1973, the late Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill 's colorful La Muralla Roja is by far the oldest example of an unusually shaped housing block on this list.
(Sebastian Weiss/CASACOR)
The housing complex, perched on a cliff on the Spanish coast of Calpe, is fortress-like in shape, with intricate geometric internal staircases and circulation routes reminiscent of the paintings of MC Escher.
(Shin Kyungsub/CASACOR)
One of the most unusually shaped buildings in this roundup, the Busan Times is a four-story concrete housing block designed by South Korean architect Moon Hoon to resemble an owl.
(Shin Kyungsub/CASACOR)
A concrete frame extending from a large window in the highest apartment is meant to represent the bird’s face, with the two openings on either side glowing like eyes at night. The wing is represented by a vertical volume with a sliced corner that projects on the east side of the building.
(Sam Oberter/CASACOR)
Designed by ISA Studio, the XS House in Philadelphia 's Chinatown is exceptionally slender, accommodating seven apartments on a lot no wider than a parking space.
(Sam Oberter/CASACOR)
“The site’s extremely narrow footprint was expanded with the strategic use of bays, mezzanines and split-level upper units, whilst maintaining a minimal central single-stair layout ,” the studio explained.
(John Sturrock/CASACOR)
Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry 's first housing project in the UK is marked by its undulating white facades punctured by large windows.
(John Sturrock/CASACOR)
The development is part of the regeneration of Battersea Power Station and comprises two buildings with over 300 homes combined, with no two apartments being the same.
Source: Deezen
