Auditorio de Tenerife, Spain by Santiago Calatrava
Plunked in front o the waterfront in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, this auditorium by Santiago Calatrava looks like nothing so much as an alien spaceship from a movie set in the distant future. Its dramatic sweeping roof is meant to echo the shape of a crashing wave. Inside the auditorium are 1,800 seats as well as a chamber music hall with seating for 400.
Futuroscope, France
The Futuroscope multimedia amusement park in France features some of the world’s weirdest glass buildings, including a structure resembling a massive cluster of gemstones and the ‘L’Imax 3D’ theater, which looks a bit like the Death Star crashed into its facade. The buildings were designed by architect Denis Laming and built in the 1980s, and the park is now the second most popular theme park in France.
The National Library of Belarus
The 23-story diamond-shaped National Library of Belarus glitters in daylight and lights up in all kinds of different motifs at night thanks to LED panels hidden behind the glass of its facade. The building houses the largest collection of Belarusian-printed materials in the world, as well as the third-largest collection of books printed in Russian.
The Kunsthaus Graz Art Museum in Austria by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier
The bizarre multi-eyed blob sitting atop an 1847 house in Austria is referred to by its creators as the ‘friendly alien,’ its dark amorphous form sharply contrasting with the baroque terracotta-tiled architecture all around it. It was created as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2003 and hosts exhibitions of art, architecture, design, film and photography.
