from ducks to spaceships: 'weird buildings' explores unconventional architecture worldwide

Weird Buildings: A Global Survey of Unconventional Architecture

Weird Buildings, with text by Imogen Fortes and published by Hoxton Mini Press, explores some of the most unusual and imaginative architectural creations around the world. The book collects photographs of structures that challenge conventional design, showcasing buildings that are playful, provocative, and visually surprising. From homes and hotels to museums and roadside landmarks, the collection presents architecture that stretches beyond function to explore creativity, eccentricity, and experimentation.

The Big Duck | image © Randy Duchaine / Alamy

From Lebanon’s Airplane House to New York’s Big Duck

Among the featured examples — just a few of the many included in the Weird Buildings book — is Casa do Penedo in Fafe, Portugal (1974). Squished between four enormous boulders, from which it takes its name (do penedo means ‘of stone’), the house was built by a local family as a rural retreat. Designed to blend seamlessly with its surroundings, it immerses its occupants in nature while maintaining a distinctive, sculptural appearance. Though now used only by its owners for holidays, Casa do Penedo continues to attract streams of curious visitors who come for guided tours throughout the year.

The Inntel Hotel in Zaandam, Netherlands (2010) by WAM Architecten, is a 12-story structure composed of stacked interpretations of traditional wooden houses from the region, including workers’ cottages and a notary’s dwelling; the hotel’s blue house references a painting by Claude Monet during his visit to Zaandam. In Lebanon, the Airplane House in Miziara (1975) by architect Michael Suleiman, is a two-story home built in the form of an Airbus A380, complete with 30 portholes on each side, balconies on both wings, and a short nose cone. In the United States, New York’s Big Duck (1931) by architects Martin Maurer, George Reeve, William and Samuel Collins, is a duck-shaped roadside store originally commissioned to sell poultry, now recognized as a Long Island landmark and an early example of ‘duck architecture.’ Texas is home to the Steel House at Lake Ransom Canyon by Robert Bruno, an unfinished Corten steel structure resembling a rusted spaceship, which Bruno worked on for three decades before his death.

Casa do Penedo | image © Marc-Philipp Keller / Alamy

architecture that challenges norms and sparks curiosity

The book emphasizes that these buildings are united not by style but by a willingness to push architectural boundaries. Many defy conventional shapes, scales, and expectations, encouraging viewers to reconsider how humans inhabit and interact with space. Some structures were conceived to attract attention, others as personal expressions, and some as experiments in form and material. Weird Buildings situates these examples within a broader architectural context, noting the legacy of designers such as Antoni Gaudí, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid, as well as contemporary practices like BIG, all of whom have explored unconventional forms and inventive approaches to building design.

Ultimately, Weird Buildings is a visual celebration of architecture that defies standardization. Whether monumental or modest, famous or obscure, the buildings included highlight the creativity, eccentricity, and imagination that drive designers to rethink the possibilities of the built environment. In a world often shaped by uniformity and efficiency, these structures stand out as reminders of the value of curiosity, playfulness, and experimentation in architecture.

Inntel Hotel | image © Pixelbiss / Alamy