Quirky Architecture

Cosanti House

Arcology is a philosophy created by Soleri that is defined as the place where ecology and architecture meet. Arcosanti, an urban laboratory, constructed in the Arizona high desert was created to test and demonstrate an alternate human habitat. Although the Cosanti complex is not part of the Arcosanti, it still embodies the spirit of arcology.

Many of the structures at Cosanti have been placed underground and surrounded by earth mounds, to insulate the interior spaces year around. Soleri also designed south-facingapses (partial domes) situated as passive energy collectors, accepting the light and heat of the lower winter sun and creating shade from the higher summer sun.

Jockey Club Innovation Tower (JCIT)

Occupied by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design and the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation, the building houses a lecture hall, ten classrooms, design studios and workshops, as well as exhibition spaces and a communal viewing lounge. This building set against the backdrop of the boxy elevations of its' neighbors corresponds with the university's willingness to create a fresh urban structure in order to provide the environment with new energy. The tower's design also promotes a multidisciplinary environment by connecting the variety of programs housed within, thereby establishing a collective research culture where many contributions and innovations can feed off one another.

La Pedrera ( Casa Mila )

The exterior of Casa Mila ( commonly referred to as La Pedrera ) presents undulating balconies that look like a series of waves. The iron-wrought balconies were designed by Josep Maria Jujol, who improvised them on the spot. Some people see the facade as a cliff-like rock with caves. During its' construction, people dubbed it a quarry, or "Pedrera" and to date, people still call the building "La Pedrera" rather than "Casa Mila". Talk about freestyle, not one single line exists in this building and it uses no load-bearing walls at all. The roof is probably the most intriguing part of La Pedrera as it features a number of surrealistic colorful chimneys.

Fondation Louis Vuitton

Fashioned like a set of iceberg with sails protruding outward and upward, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is a creation of breath and light. The building rests on a reflecting pool into which pours a waterfall. Its sculptural volumes ( icebergs ) are wrapped in glass veils floating above terraced gardens and rise majestically through the dense foliage of the Bois de Boulogne. The museum itself is a complex structure overpowered by glass sails and constructed mainly of Ductal, an ultra-high-performance concrete. Gehry says the glass structure echoes 19th-century glass garden buildings but it also reveals his obsession with maritime imagery.

Nido de Quetzalcoatl

This ambitious project's intent was to build ten apartments on an irregular piece of land, lined with oak trees and full of caves. As if that weren't enough of a program killer, Senosiain wasn't allowed to touch any of the plant life on the premises (which covered 98% of the terrain), and that the small flat surface had to be used as parking space. Under these conditions, he found an ingenious way of actually making great use of the ravine and came up with a snake-like design for the house. This building is a great study of using the tenets of organic architecture throughout the design process.

Doolittle House

Somewhere between Dune and Mad Max, this house would fit perfectly on-screen. Located in Southern California's HighDesert, the Doolittle home sits quiet against its barren desert environment. The structure is dominated by a roof of soaring concrete ribs that from a distance, no doubt looks like an enormous carcass. The interior spaces are warm intimate chambers of fluidity that surround the inhabitants. The use of masculine and feminine forms, which are hallmarks of organic architecture, are presented here in a very bombastic way. It is a great example of architecture as art.