The grid: weird and whimsical buildings

Tara Joshi

From houses built into cliffs to a fish-shaped office – the world’s strangest structures

Surprises, or things that confound our expectations, are often joyful. And there’s certainly an element of delight when it comes to Weird Buildings, a new book from Hoxton Mini Press that upends notions of the possibilities of architecture.

Rather than the quotidian tower blocks, houses or municipal offices that may come to mind when we think of buildings, this collection covers everything from fairy tale-like homes built into rock faces and churches that could be from outer space to hotels that look like a turbocharged Wes Anderson setting. There is even a structure shaped like a fish: the whimsical headquarters of India’s National Fisheries Development Board.

Spanning outlandish exteriors and fanciful interiors, Weird Buildings is a welcome celebration of playfulness and boundless imagination.