Absurd Architecture

                         Erwin Wurm -  House Attack (2006)

He is a sculptor known for his humorous approach to formalism and this image has a well-deserved place in the fascinating website   50 of the world's most unusual buildings.  What does an image like this do for us?  Firstly, the earth is the most dependable of entities - until we have a quake.  Buildings themselves are wrought for dependability - here Wurm does the opposite, literally turning our expectations upsidedown!  This was part of an exhibition in 2006, in Vienna, Austria.

Piet Blom - Cubic Houses (1970s)

This Dutch architect wanted to create a sense of the randomness of trees in the design of these houses - a pleasingly bizarre confluence of nature and culture. Strangely there is an element of celebration here, an odd kind of love.  I think I'd find them difficult to live in.

The Ripley's Building (2005)

I haven't been able to trace the architect of this unbelievable (sic) Ripley's Believe it or Not edifice at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.  Again, it challenges our ingrained sense of dependability when it comes to structures.  This is post-modern architecture at its extreme.  Amazing - it doesn't leave me alone. 

Norman Foster - The Gherkin Building (2004)

Who would have said, ten years ago, that a building like The Gherkin Building would become iconic in the London cityscape?  It is entirely Other!  As with the Eiffel Tower, there was probably some opposition - because the Absurd is challenging.  But slowly people come to love it and accept the challenge it offers us. 

The Broken Temple along Durbanville Road in upper Bellville, Cape Town, must one of the most adventurous architectural statements in South Africa.  It flies in the face of the lack of imagination that characterizes so much of what we build.  It is a profound philosophical moment in our architecture.  It is magnificently crazy!  

Sources

Images from fiftyunusualbuildings.com

Broken Temple - photo by will