An incredible abandoned cement factory, covered with ivy and partially in ruins, has been transformed into a massive office complex that preserves both the original architectural integrity of the structures and honors the factory’s period of disuse. Architect Ricardo Bofill discovered the property in Spain in 1973 and claimed it for the head office of his firm, Taller de Arquitectura.

When the property was discovered, it was full of staircases to nowhere, exposed pipes and half-fallen structures. The industrial complex consisted of over 30 silos, subterranean galleries and machine rooms. The transformation of the space started with knocking down some of the unsalvageable structures, which left behind curious concrete forms that give the impression of a modern abstract sculpture park.

The eight silos that remained became the offices, archives, a library, a projection room, a lab for architectural models and sleeping spaces. A massive space known as ‘The Cathedral’ hosts exhibitions, concerts and other cultural functions.

While the interior spaces have been cleaned up, much of the machinery has been left behind, and the grounds have been restored to a balance between intentional landscape design and the chaos of greenery that proliferates when buildings are not maintained.

In what may be the world’s strangest residential renovation, an artist-in-residence took this long-deserted and severely-dilapidated house, and restored it into what may be the world’s largest handmade dollhouse.

Canadian artist Heather Benning found this home while staying in Redvers, Saskatchewan, with hints of color that only a creative mind could see as inspiration for a full-scale remodel into a brightly-colored playhouse.

But lest you think she got off easy, simply installing some old furniture and painting the place: the roof needed to be re-shingled, rooms needed to be re-plastered and sections of the structure required shoring up even though the purpose was display and not occupation.

One whole side, of course, also had to be removed to complete the effect, so that (like a scale dollhouse) people can see all aspects of the inside from the outside. The result somehow manages to be both charming and slightly creepy at the same time. Benning, meanwhile, continues to work with site-specific landscape-and-architecture pieces.