In order to get around strict city zoning regulations that forbid new structures from putting neighbors in the shade for more than two hours a day, architecture firm MVRDV devised a tower that twists upon itself to the point of seeming as if it could snap and fall over at any time. The twist creates an ultra-narrow profile right at the section of the building that would cast a shadow on nearby buildings.

From certain angles, it seems like chunks of the Hochhaus Tower have been taken right out near the base in a Jenga-like effect. Not only does this mean the bottom ten floors won’t cut off sunlight, it also routes strong winds away from the building’s plaza.

The twisting floors have outdoor terraces, while the rest feature glazed walls and 12-foot ceilings for sweeping views of Vienna and lots of natural daylight. The steel and glass facade will also have operable windows and full-height French doors.

Designed to be multifunctional for residential units, offices or other businesses, the Hochhaus Tower won three-stage international competition. Construction will begin in 2016, with an expected completion date of 2018.

Architects hoping their creations will be described as ‘gems’ could take the literal route and design faceted structures that call to mind diamonds, geodes and other precious stones. Made of glass or mirrored stainless steel, the geometric panels shimmer in the sunlight and give off their own glow after dark.

Rock Gym by New Wave Architecture, Polur, Iran

A jagged stretch of glass slices up the boulder-like walls of this climbing gym in Iran, mimicking the look of crystals poking out of a geode. The design, by New Wave Architecture, was inspired by the geological process of large-scale movements of the earth’s crust and tectonic forces.

The Diamond Chapel, Bali

A massive blue diamond tipped on its side sits in a clear pool of water at Sanur’s Grand Bali Beach Hotel, serving as a dramatic and highly photogenic wedding chapel.

Park & Suites Arena, Montpelier, France

French architecture firm A+ Architecture gave the Park & Suites Arena in Montpelier a highly unusual look with an amethyst gemstone design on its steel cladding.

The Octopus, Make Architects, London

Make Architects call the Octopus, a proposal for London’s western gateway, “part building, part sculpture.” Sitting beside a derelict site next to a busy intersection, the building features a metallic, semi-transparent shroud that acts as a solar shade as well as a screen for high-resolution LED displays showing advertising.

Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

Designed by Yann Weymouth, who helped create the Louvre Museum’s famous glass pyramid, the $36 million Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida boats an undulating geodesic wave comprised of over 1,000 glass triangles that contrasts with extra-thick concrete walls.

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Architectural Gems 13 Blinged Out Buildings Cut Like Stones

Heavy structures seem to hover in mid-air, supported only by spindly poles or narrow beams of concrete. Towers lean toward the ground at alarming angles. Narrow houses jut out over cliffs. Whether cantilevered, tilted or strangely stacked, these 14 buildings sometimes seem physically impossible.

Perched Partition by Niizeki Studio

In response to a narrow 2.5-meter-wide space crammed between two neighboring buildings, Japanese architects Niizeki Studio created a metal volume perched on a slice of concrete. The result is a hovering home that feels separate from the structures around it, and maintains an open space at the ground level. The cantilevered portion of the home is connected to a more grounded volume in the rear of the property.

Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank Creates its Own Shade

Unlike a certain other infamous building in Italy, the Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank leans at a dramatic angle on purpose. The passive solar design tilts the entire building 14 degrees to the south so the upper portion provides shade to the lower portion.

Cubic Houses by Piet Blom

It’s more than a little disorienting to gaze up at Rotterdam’s Cubic Houses from ground level – not only does it seem as if these geometric volumes are going to come tumbling down off their perches, they’re also tilted at such unusual angles that it’s difficult to picture what the interiors look like. Architect Piet Blom took inspiration from Le Corbusier in designing a complex that elevates inhabitable volumes on narrow trunks to give residents great views while maintaining open space on ground level.

Balancing Barn by MVRDV

The gleaming metal Balancing Barn by MVRDV looks more like a sculpture than an actual house, but this seemingly teetering vacation rental in the English countryside is quite comfortable inside. The architects describe it as “boldly designed to provoke a gut response to architecture and nature over a short stay.”

CCTV Headquarters by OMA

At 75 meters (246 feet), the cantilevered portion of the jaw-dropping CCTV Headquarters building is as wide as many skyscrapers are tall, and it’s supported only by two leaning towers. It’s hard for anyone without a pretty good grasp o advanced engineering techniques to understand how the whole thing doesn’t just topple over.

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Balancing Buildings 14 Gravity Defying Structures

Even the world’s most famous architects, from Zaha Hadid to Frank Gehry, get rejected sometimes. When Norman Foster’s visionary proposal for a new London airport built right in the middle of the Thames estuary was rejected, the architect retorted that the decision lacked “courage,” and that does often seem to be the case, with cities balking at overly ambitious and futuristic designs. But sometimes, it just comes down to money – or the architect’s ego.

Floating London Airport by Norman Foster

Land-poor London needs a new solution for an airport that can grow along with the city in the decades to come, but adding new runways would just be a short-term fix. Architect Norman Foster’s solution is to build a four-runway airport on the Isle of Grain in the Thames estuary, linking to existing and new high speed train networks. The proposal would use land that’s not currently suited for anything else, and would also make it easy to transport good directly to Britain’s other container ports. But the proposal isn’t among the three that London city officials are moving forward with, leading Foster to comment that the decision is “sadly predictable.”

Eisenhower Memorial by Frank Gehry

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Frank Gehry’s design for the Eisenhower Memorial was deemed a bit too flashy by the former president’s family, leading to a series of re-designs before the architect’s proposal was finally scrapped. The Eisenhower family wanted a memorial that was “simple, sustainable, and affordable,” and while Gehry’s design seems uncharacteristically sedate compared to his usual work, it still included elements that the family and committee found to not be in keeping with Dwight Eisenhower’s humble character. Congressional budget cuts ultimately slashed the funds available to the project, and now it’s unlikely to break ground.

Kimball Art Center Extension by Bjarke Ingels

BIG is an appropriate acronym for the Bjarke Ingels Group, as the firm typically designs innovative, futuristic architectural solutions that are sometimes so far outside the box as to be a bit mind-boggling. Often described as a ‘wonder kid,’ young architect Bjarke Ingels seems to think on a large scale, dreaming up mountain-shaped residences with walkable green roofs and other unexpected designs. In the case of the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah, one design after another has been rejected. The first, a twisting timber structure, got the axe for being out of character with the historic setting. The second, a large concrete volume that proved more popular with locals, was thrown out for failing to meet strict Old Town planning guidelines in the former mining town.

Neues Stadt-Casino by Zaha Hadid

Even Zaha Hadid, among the most celebrated of contemporary architects, has designs rejected every now and then. Hadid’s proposed design for the Neues Stadt-Casino for Basel, Switzerland won a competition four years ago, but Swiss tradition allows the public to have the final say on projects of this size that make use of public money. 62.5% of voters rejected the proposal, leading it to be scrapped.

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Rejected Starchitects 8 Controversial Building Concepts

Early explorers in the realm of prefab shipping container-based architecture, design studio LOT-EK stacks these steel crates to create everything from compact homes to massive retail complexes. Making aesthetics and functionality equally important, LOT-EK gives the containers a visual dynamism while keeping its structures economical, portable and easy to assemble.

Sanlitun South

Bright red shipping containers burst out of the facade of the Sanitlun South retail complex in Beijing, “organized like a medieval village with a dense fabric of narrow alleys, low-rise buildings, elevated walkways and bridges connection all levels.” Eight-foot-wide shipping containers inserted randomly throughout the structure determine the rhythm of the whole, functioning as canopies over the retail store entrances on the exterior and functioning as small lobbies for stores on the inside.

Whitney Studio

Six stacked steel shipping containers form a dense, minimalist cube functioning as an ultra-modern art studio space for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The 700-square-foot, 2-story space features a vivid yellow diagonal slice running up to the roof to create a skylight.

PUMA City Shipping Container Store

Transported from Spain to Stockholm to Boston, PUMA’s pop-up store had to be highly portable and easy to assemble and disassemble. LOT-EK retrofitted 24 shipping containers to create a retail and event building that could go from one international port to the next, but still feel fresh and dynamic and highly functional. The four-story space features double-height ceilings, a downstairs retail space, upstairs offices and storage, and a bar and open terrace on the top. 40-foot-long shipping containers along the outside join and secure the whole structure both horizontally and vertically.

APAP OpenSchool

The APAP2010 OpenSchool building serves as a recreational space for a public art program at an art school in South Korea, and also as a testing ground for ‘radical container assemblies with high sculptural potential.’ 8 containers are cut along a 45-degree angle and assembled in what LOT-EK describes as “a fishbone pattern generating a large arrow-like volume lifted three meters over the landscape.” The bent container offers access from the pedestrian path outside to the upper levels of the building.

C-Home

C-Home is a series of pre-fabricated homes upcycling shipping containers to provide anywhere from 300 to 1300 square feet of living space. Since they’re made of recycled materials – and shipping containers are composed of strong Cor-ten steel – they’re both affordable and durable. Folding cut-outs in the facade let in light and provide a terrace when open.

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Containertecture Shipping Crate Based Buildings By Lot Ek