| Architectural Blunders and Atrocities Posted: 28 Sep 2011 10:35 PM PDT  "QUANTUM SHOT" #729
Link - article by Avi Abrams
Drunk Builders and Mad Architects, Part 5
In this hilarious series we catalogue structural designs that should've never seen the light of day. Or, even if they were designed properly and within reasonable skill, then apparently something BAD happened on the way to their completion.
Perhaps a drunk worker, or an overly motivated one with a twisted imagination? Either way, these building ended up to be a visual abomination... the only hope remains that they would not stand long, as they are probably structurally compromised and unsafe to boot.
We'll start with buildings, then progress to sculptures, pipework and, worst of all, precarious stairs and elevators.
(Beautiful! Complete with the appeal to some mysterious Lucy)
On the left is weird building in Lagos, Nigeria. On the right is "cat" house in Japan:
"Last summer on our road trip in Balkan area we came across this weird concrete ship in the middle of Albanian countryside..." - says Joonas Antikainen, who sent us this picture:
(image credit: Joonas Antikainen)
Russian "penthouse":
"New" on top of "old":
Rainbow Land:
A Crooked Skyline
Looking like dominoes ready to fall: this is Santos, Brasil - more than 97 crooked buildings line up the coast, some of them leaning as far as two meters to the side!
(image via)
Check out the before and after photographs for one of these buildings (apparently they have to blame poor soil and shoddy construction in the 1960s):
They fixed this one, but a lot more still stand crooked, stacked together like a City of Cards:
(image via)
... or you can keep buildings together like this (seen in China):
"Best Western" has one window clearly out of line -
(top right image: it actually adds some visual interest!)
Strange, but perhaps... beautiful to some people?
Outrageous splash of blue in the sea of grey (left); on the right is a house made from a wrecked ship in Kazakhstan:
Awesome surreal sculpture seen in Russian subway:
This. is. Weird:
Faulty Towers
This is Torre de la Escollera tower construction in Cartagena, Colombia. The tall structure was predictably buffeted by winds, which caused torsion and out-of-shape twist of one meter - leading to construction suspension, and eventual demolition in 2007:
(images via)
At least this tower did not suffer the fate of some collapsed buildings, like this one in China - see video. or this one in Surat, India - more info:
(image via)
This building keeled over in Shanghai, while still under construction:
(images via)
The foundation under this 13-story building was compromised, more info. I bet people who are going to move into the same sort of buildings that still stand around, will feel sort of... uneasy.
Update: it turns out that workers were digging illegally near the building, and so it collapsed - seems like other buildings are safe. Good!
Yet another apartment building in China splits in two... and collapses:
(image via)
It happened in the city of Liuzhou, China, during the controlled demolition that went wrong. No lives were lost, fortunately. But one half of the building remained standing, leaning precariously. Pedestrians do not seem to mind too much.
(image via)
Here is another faulty construction which resulted in demolition of skyscraper, reportedly worth 100 million dollars. This high-rise condominium in South Padre Island, Texas, "was to be opened in 2008. The building began to have settling problems. It sunk as much as 14 inches." See the video of its demolition:
(image via)
Another classic example: John Hancock Center in Chicago, renamed the "Plywood Palace" because of the design flaw - a lot of windows had to be replaced with plywood:
(images via)
"On top of the window problems, it was also found that the tower could be blown over on the narrow side, so extra bracing had to be added."
Structural Perils and Unfinished Supports
Great brick work:
This part of the building is balancing on a... single brick! Built sometime in 1985 in Russia, it did not age well:
(image via)
The picture above is taken from a fascinating trip to the abandonded sugar-producing factory, a visual treat in itself - see here (in Russian).
More dubious supports:
This crane is going to stand! We promise! -
Bridge made out of old rusty train cars? Sure, why not -
Here are some creative construction workers... from Russia, of course. Can you tell the difference between the tiles in the image below? If you look closely you will notice that some are tiles... and some are just lines drawn in the concrete with a stick!
(images via)
This happened at "Mayakovskaya" metro station right downtown in Moscow. Look closely under your feet, maybe quite a bit of tile work is also drawn out by hand, who knows:
Still, it's better than plain masquerade, spotted in Moscow:
Same fake building idea is popular in China: check out the fake facades in Henan Province, Luanchuan County, Jiahe Town:
(image via)
Now... what could THAT possibly be? -
(also spotted in China)
Placing stairs and pillars still proves to be a challenge:
(right image via)
Handicapped are out of luck in this parking lot:
...fences, too:
Sensational staircase. We simply love it:
(original unknown)
Stairway to Nowhere (photo sent in by Ferdinand Buitenhuis):
(photo by Ferdinand Buitenhuis)
Image on the left is the obvious FAIL; image on the right is... not so much, this is an art installation Arco Iris:
Doors are all-important. You gotta build the building around them:
(this is actually a 3-D mural painting. I am sure you figured this out)
This will do:
Is this the work of some frustrated builder? -
Bathroom Danger Zones
Simplicity rules:
This fairy tale WC house cheerfully proclaims that it's open! -
Literally a "Throne Room":
House cleaning?? -
This is actually ingenious: WC doors made out of car doors -
Pipes crowding each other:
Roads to Nowhere
Image on the right is a photo-manipulation made by Erik Johansson:
(right image via)
A lot of what you've seen has been thankfully unfinished and left for good. For some FINISHED mad architectural masterpieces, head over to this page.
Seeing all these adventures in hazardous architecture and structural design, I can't help but wonder what weird shape will be used for a building next? Perhaps a question mark? (surely, gravity will cooperate!) -
(left image by Erik Johansson, right image: original unknown)
READ THE PREVIOUS PART HERE! ->
CONTINUE TO "ARCHITECTURAL HORRORS" DRB SERIES ->
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