Unique Building * The Torre Galatea (Figueres, Spain)

The first thing you notice are the giant egg sculptures along the roofline. Then it hits you that the Salvador Dali Theater Museum in Figueras, Spain, is no ordinary building. The museum’s tower, Torre Galatea, was named for the surrealist artist’s deceased wife, and Dali himself lived there until his death in 1989. Interestingly, the museum sits next to the parish church where Dali was baptized in 1904; he is buried in an unmarked crypt in the museum’s main exhibition hall.

I've never been to Spain, however, if I were to go ... this is a building I would want to visit. What sights would you see if you went to Spain?

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• Salvador Dali Museum

Unique Building * The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland)

This is a very unique building! The Crooked House was built in 2003. What inspired the architects were Per Dahlberg's drawings. You'll found numerous beauty shops and stores inside along with the branch office for RMF radio broadcasting company. It lies in the Bohaterów Monte Cassino street, the town's most prominent promenade.

I wonder if the building would appear straight and normal if you were drunk?

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• crooked house
• The 15 strangest buildings in the world

Unique Building * Hang Nga Guesthouse or Crazy House (Vietnam)

I've never traveled to another continent. I'm not proud of it ... it just turned out that way. If I were to travel to Vietnam ... it is likely I would find my way to the city of Da Lat. Folks say that Da Lat is a very romantic city with mountains and pleasant weather.

One of the sights to see in Da Lat is the Hang Nga Guesthouse and Gallery ... or 'Crazy House' as it is known by the Vietnamese.


The base of the house is an actual tree. Apparently, the architect is a woman (Hang Nga) whose father (Truong Chinh) used to be president of Viet Nam. The house is unique with its 'Jungle Book' theme. For example, many of the steps are designed to look like tree stumps. There are also several rooms (like the one in the photo below) with animal themes.

I wonder if either of the Obama daughters will grow up to be architects?

Unique Building * Cubic Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

The original idea of these cubic houses came about in the 1970s. Piet Blom developed a couple of these cubic houses that were built in Helmond.




The city of Rotterdam asked him to design housing on top of a pedestrian bridge and he decided to use the cubic houses idea. The concept behind these houses is that he tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest.

I continue to be amazed at the creativity of architects from around the world!

Unique Building * Habitat 67 (Montreal, Canada)

Expo 67, one of the world’s largest universal expositions held in Montreal to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Canada. Housing was one of the main themes of Expo 67.

Habitat 67 became a pavilion invaded by thousands of admiring visitors that came from all around the world, on top of being the temporary residence of many dignitaries passing by Montreal. Habitat 67 was an event in itself at the time. It still is today.

This housing complex is home for 148 singles, couples and families. It is a community with a style and quality of life envied throughout Canada.

Habitat 67 still shines with brightness, more than 40 years after its creation. Its intrinsic genius is indeed praised by both the architectural and the urban planning circles, by the public in general and particularly by its residents.

The creator of the building is Moshe Safdie. Here is a video in which he shares his thoughts on making a building unique. He talks about four of his projects ... including Habitat 67.

Unique Building * Kansas City Public Library

Established in 1873 as the Public School Library of Kansas City, the institution became a cultural center for the city. Basically, the side of the building features bunch of famous books by bunch of famous writers. Have you read all the books *ON* the building?

Unique Building * Ideal Palace (France)

Fact is often stranger than fiction. Have you heard of the 43-year old French postal worker who started the foundation of a structure in 1879 ... worked alone for 33 years ... and the result was a fairy-tale place known as the Ideal Palace. It goes to show what can happen when you look inside your soul for your dreams ... and act on them even when others doubt you.

The entire Electronic Village salutes Ferdinand Cheval (1836 - 1924). Is there a dream within your soul waiting to be released?

Unique Building * Wonderworks (Orlando FL)

Oddly enough, I had never heard of this building until seeing this photo. There are alot of amusement sites in Orlando, however it is unlikely that any of them are UPSIDE DOWN! Inside the unique building you will find over 100 interactive exhibits.

Have any villagers been to this building?

Unique Building: Wooden Gangster House (Archangelsk, Russia)

Nikolai Sutyagin is a former gangster who built a home that is truly unique. The house that Sutyagin built is crumbling, incomplete and under threat of demolition from city authorities determined to end the former convict's eccentric 18-year project.

There is a great article written by Adrian Blomfield in 2007 about this building and its history:

When Sutyagin began work on his dacha in 1992, he claims he was only intending to build a two-story house - larger than those of his neighbors to reflect his position as the city's richest man, but certainly not a contender for the Guinness Book of Records.

However, convinced by a trip to see wooden houses in Japan and Norway, he concluded that he had not used roof space efficiently enough and decided to keep building.

"First I added three floors but then the house looked ungainly, like a mushroom," he said. "So I added another and it still didn't look right so I kept going. What you see today is a happy accident."

There were other motives too. Having grown up in a Soviet communal flat, Sutyagin said he felt lonely living by himself.

Not only would his house make a perfect love nest for his molls, it could also accommodate the 18 executives at his construction company.

He even built a five-story bath house in the garden, complete with rooms where he and his colleagues could have a little bit of privacy with their girlfriends. But Sutyagin was never to complete his dream. In 1998 he was handed a four-year prison sentence, his third jail term, on racketeering charges. He says he was set up.

While in prison, he claims his rivals destroyed his equipment, stole his money and threw his five cars into the Dvina river - a similar fate to that which befell many of Russia's rich in the chaotic years of the 1990s.

"When I went to prison I was a millionaire," he said. "Now I'm penniless." Sutyagin, 60, lives in four poorly heated rooms at the bottom of his wooden skyscraper with his 32-year-old wife Lena.

What is left of his fantasy is slowly decaying around him. Even so, it remains a remarkable architectural feat - especially given the fact that Sutyagin built much of it himself - that defies easy description.

A whimsical jumble of planking, from a distance it bears a resemblance to a Japanese pagoda, but draw closer and it seems more like a mix between a Brobdignagian tree house and the lair of a wicked fairytale character.

Not everyone sees it like that, though. Neighbours consider it a monstrosity and the city authorities, pointing to bylaws that say no wooden structure should be higher than two floors, warn that fire could cause the whole suburb to go up in flames. They have begun action to pull it down.

Sutyagin vows to win and has erected a roof around the second floor that he says allows him to claim that everything above is purely decorative.

Meanwhile, he spends his time taking visitors on death-defying tours that involve criss-crossing rotting planking and climbing icy ladders.

A man who thinks he has six children but cannot be sure, Sutyaging kept up a commentary on the adventures he anticipated if his skyscraper had been completed.

"This would have been a great room for making love," he said, balancing on a plank he has just thrown over a chasm in the floor.

"This one would have been even better," he said, two floors higher. "Look at that view."

I hope that the villagers that visit our blog have enjoyed the dozen or so 'unique buildings' that we've blogged about over the past year or so. We had fun with it. Do you know of any other unique buildings that we should share photos and info about on this blog?

Unique Building * Forest Spiral (Darmstadt, Germany)

The economic crisis in America makes many of us sad as we think about our current or future housing. I thought it would be good to visualize again about what housing could be in America if we just allow our creative flow to take hold.


The Forest Spiral building was designed by a famous Austrian painter and sculptor named Friedensreich Hundertwasser (December 15, 1928 – February 19, 2000). It is located in Darmstadt, Germany. The building contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, a supermarket, a café, a bar, a playground for the children of the residents and a small artificial lake.

Unique Building * MUMOK House Attack (Vienna, Austria)

Erin Wurm is an Austrian artist with a unique perspective on life. Highly regarded and very influential within the art scene for some time, Erwin Wurm’s work may not be all that familiar to most Villagers.

Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK) is the largest art museum in Austria. They pride themselves on the collection of modern art from the 20th and 21st century.

Erin Wurm and MOMAK combined to create some architectural buzz in 2006. That is when the so-called 'Attack House' was born. Wurm installed the house on the outside facade of the MUMOK building. Wurm indicates that 'House Attack is a symbol for an everyday occurrence as well as small-mindedness.'



I found a video that showed how 'House Attack' was created.






Every day I'm amazed at the things that people are paid cash-money to do...

Bridge to Nowhere...

Sarah Palin had her 'Bridge to Nowhere' up in the wilderness of Alaska ... here is the urban version!