A giant two-story camera rises from the grass beside an ordinary suburban home in the hills of South Korea. The Dreamy Camera Cafe is housed in a re-creation of a vintage Rolleiflex, featuring two lens-like oversized windows offering panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

The cafe was built by a former army helicopter pilot with a passion for photography and vintage cameras, who lives in the house next door with his family. A range of miniature and toy cameras are displayed on the first floor, with a collection of photographs tacked on the walls upstairs. The cafe even has paper towel holders shaped like film canisters.

It may be unusual, but the Dreamy Camera Cafe is hardly the first building shaped like a giant object – there’s a 40-foot-tall milk bottle building among others modeled after food items, and even a house shaped like a toilet. 

They host some of the world’s most exciting events and are often among the most massive structures in any given city – so why are stadiums themselves usually bland and boring? These 13 stadium designs shake things up with unexpected architectural details, surprising shapes and breathtaking surroundings from cliffs overlooking the city to helipads hovering hundreds of feet above the ground.

Munich Olympic Park

(images via: wikimedia commons)

From above, it looks alien, a massive metallic shell-like structure gleaming in the sunlight. The stadium at Germany’s Munich Olympic Park is made from stainless steel and acrylic and is the only stadium in the world to have hosted the Olympics, the World Cup Final and the European soccer championships final.

Osaka Stadium, Japan

(image via: mellowmonk + fudoki)

Sure, there are some baseball fans that are so obsessed with the sport that living in a stadium would be a dream come true. But what about an entire neighborhood? Built in 1950 for Japan’s Nankai Hawks baseball team, Osaka Stadium was an entirely ordinary sports venue for nearly forty years – until the team moved to a new stadium. The abandoned Osaka Stadium was used to hold model housing for several years before it was demolished in 1998.

The Float at Marina Bay, Singapore

(images via: wikipedia)

The world’s largest floating stage can hold the weight of 9,000 people, 200 tons of stage props and three 300-ton military vehicles. And that’s just the platform itself; the adjacent stands hold 30,000 spectators. ‘The Float at Marina Bay’ is on the waters of the Marina Reservoir in Singapore and is used not just for sports but also concerts, exhibitions, art performances and the National Day Parade.

Cocodrilos Sports Park, Venezuela

(images via: soccerway.com)

At the Cocodrilos Sports Park in Caracas, Venezuela, you could be forgiven for getting distracted from the soccer match by the eye-catching architecture of the stadium itself. Situated next to a mountainside, the stadium is walled in with concrete plates that give it a highly unusual look.

Braga, Portugal

(image via: sport.co.uk)

Even more beautiful is Portugal’s Braga stadium, carved into a granite quarry overlooking the city of Braga. At one end of the stadium is the dramatic rocky wall of the quarry and at the other end is an open vista of the city below. Braga is one of Europe’s most expensive stadiums, its price tag of €83.1 million coming mostly from the costly rock-moving process required to build it.

Volcano-Like Stadum: Estadio Chivas, Mexico

(image via: inhabitat)

Like a ring of smoke from an erupting volcano, the white membrane of the Estadio Chivas stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico rises from a sloped opening in the ground. That’s no mistake – architects Jean Marie Massaud and Daniel Pouzet looked to the surrounding landscape for inspiration. Parking is hidden under the hill and when it’s not in use, the stadium itself is used as public recreation space.

Gospin Dolac, Croatia

(images via: wikimedia commons)

When it comes to sports stadiums, does it get any more picturesque than this? Gospic Dolac is home to the NK Imotski football club in Croatia and the 4,000 spectators that its bleachers hold get stunning views of nearby medieval ruins, the hillside and the Blue Lake.

Janguito Malucelli, Brazil

(images via: jmalucellifutebol.com.br)

At Brazil’s first eco-friendly stadium, you won’t be sitting on hard metal bleachers, but rather seats embedded in the grassy hillside. All of the wood used in the stadium was reclaimed to prevent deforestation, and not a drop of concrete was used in the stadium’s construction.

Beijing National Stadium, China

(images via: wikipedia)

It was the iconic image of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing – a stunning design that originated from the study of Chinese ceramics, and one that was unlike any other stadium in the world. The Beijing National Stadium, or Bird’s Nest as it’s commonly known, has a distinctive asymmetrical design made with crisscrossed steel beams.

Sapporo Dome, Japan

(images via: wikipedia)

Sapporo, Japan gets so much snow every year that engineers faced a dilemma in designing a stadium for the city: how could they ensure that the grass playing field would get enough sunlight without using a retractable roof, which may not hold up to 20 feet of frozen precipitation? Their solution was 8,300-ton field that slides in and out of the flying saucer-like stadium, allowing it access to fresh air and sunlight on nice days. This moving field also enables the stadium to switch between baseball and soccer.

Solar Stadium, Taiwan

(image via: inhabitat)

Like the scales of a reptile, 8,844 solar panels cover the new stadium in Taiwan. It’s a fitting facade for a dragon-shaped arena, which generates 100% of its own power and is located on a tract of undeveloped land that is also home to public green spaces and an ecological pond.

Sochi Olympic Stadium, Russia

(images via: dvice)

If all goes according to plan (and the economy doesn’t take yet another architectural victim), Russia will get an incredible new stadium for the 2014 Olympics. Sochi Olympic Stadium will feature a translucent, all-glass exterior inspired by both its coastal location and mountainous backdrop. Construction has not yet begun, but the stadium is due to be completed in 2012.

Burj Al Arab Hotel Helipad, Dubai

(image via: greenroofs.com)

When photos of a sky-high tennis match appeared online, many people assumed they were a hoax. It does look too bizarre to be true – not to mention unsafe – but the photos in question are in fact real. The Burj Al Arab skyscraper in Dubai converted its helipad to a tennis court and held a match between Roger Federer and Andre Agassi in preparation for the 2005 Dubai Championships.

Towers that seem alive, twisting and dancing with each other. An alien-like blob that looks like a UFO after dark. A building that’s literally a blur. All of these and more are homes, hotels, museums and cathedrals around the world created without any sense of restraint or desire to fit in. To say these bizarre buildings are unconventional would be putting it mildly – they’re almost too strange to be real.

The Tianzi Hotel, China

(image via: damn cool pics)

Could this be the weirdest-looking hotel in the world? Ten stories tall, the Tianzi Hotel in Hebei Province, China holds the world record for the world’s “biggest image building”. The three figures that make up its hulking shape are Fu Lu Shou – good fortune, prosperity and longevity.

Nautilus House, Mexico

(image via: dvice)

Fanciful and strange, the shell-shaped Nautilus House in Mexico City hardly looks like a home. But even though the inside is just as unconventional as the outside – with carpets of plants, stone walkways and entirely curvilinear surfaces – a couple and their young children actually live there.

Atomium, Belgium

(images via: o palsson)

The aptly named Atomium building consists of nine interconnected steel spheres that together form the atomic crystal structure of iron (magnified 165 million times, natch). Designed for the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, this 335-foot-tall wonder contains exhibition spaces, a restaurant and a dormitory for visiting schoolchildren with escalators connecting the spheres.

Cathedral of Brasilia, Brazil

(image via: wikimedia commons)

From the outside, this bizarre building hardly looks like a cathedral – but that’s exactly what it is, and once you step inside the beautiful and colorful stained glass affirms its identity. The Cathedral of Brasilia is made up of 16 curving concrete columns with glass in between them, and a glass ceiling.

Errante Guest House, Chile

(image via: beauty addict)

The word ‘unusual’ doesn’t quite cut it when describing this extremely odd building, which hardly looks habitable with its sloping surfaces. Details on this structure are fuzzy, but it’s certainly an eye-catcher.

Kunsthaus, Austria

(image via: annia 316)

Called the “Friendly Alien” by its creators, Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, the Kunsthaus Graz is an art museum in Graz, Austria built in 2003 for the European Capital of Culture celebrations. The blob-like structure definitely deviates from the typical minimalist style of modern art museums and at night, when it’s lit up, it looks unlike anything else in the world.

Blur Building, Switzerland

(image via: diller & scofidio)

From afar, it looks like little more than a strangely earthbound cloud. But get a little closer and you realize that it’s actually a building shrouded in man-made fog. The Blur Building in Switzerland is a suspended platform that sprays tiny drops of lake water into the air from 31,400 jets, creating the mist effect. The building was created for the sixth annual Swiss National Exhibition and can host up to 400 visitors at a time.

Tenerife Concert Hall, Spain

(image via: extra noise)

Who else but Santiago Calatrava could have created this sculptural work of art, the Tenerife Concert Hall in the Canary Islands of Spain? The dramatic curve of its sweeping roof gives it an entirely unique silhouette, especially when viewed from the side. Made from concrete, the auditorium connects the city of Tenerife with the ocean.

Kettle House, Texas

(image via: bizarre records)

Made of steel sometime in the 1950s, the ‘Kettle House’ in Texas has attracted many a curious tourist. The unusual choice in materials and shape was probably influenced by the owner’s previous occupation – building storage tanks for oil companies.

Casa Batllo, Spain

(images via: bert k, laurea)

One of Barcelona’s treasured buildings designed by the famed Antoni Gaudi, Casa Batllo is known locally as the ‘House of Bones’ for its flowing, skeletal stonework. With small balconies that resemble the faces of lizards and an exterior texture reminiscent of scales, perhaps it could more accurately be called reptilian.

Olympic Stadium, Quebec

(images via: nicholas nova, rene erhardt)

Built for the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Stadium in Montreal is now used as a stadium for the city’s professional baseball and football teams. Its centerpiece is the Pisa-like leaning tower, the tallest inclined tower in the world at nearly 575 feet.

Guggenheim Museum, Spain

(image via: dalbera)

Considered one of architect Frank Gehry’s greatest works, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain is a mass of random curves made from titanium, which resemble fish scales. Gehry says “the randomness of the curves are designed to catch the light”, and that they do, with a brilliant shimmer that reflects the sparkling water of the Nervion River.

Kansas City Library, Missouri

(image via: marnox1)

What could be more appropriate for a library design than making it look like books on a shelf? The Kansas City Library in Missouri features a façade of book spines, including Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, that fence in the parking areas which sandwich the historic building.

Federation Square, Australia

(image via: rob young)

Taking up an entire city block, Federation Square is an imposing collection of architecture, but there’s more than enough whimsy to balance out its sheer size. Reminiscent of Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao – albeit far more geometric – this building’s design was the winner of an international competition to create a new civic precinct in the center of Melbourne, Australia.

Dancing Building, Prague

(image via: ahisgett)

Hmm, what super-famous architect could have been involved in this building? That’s right, Frank Gehry had a hand in the design of the Nationale-Nederlanden building in downtown Prague, Czech Republic, which was co-designed by Vlado Miluni?. The building’s two main structures resemble a pair of dancers, hence its nickname – but it’s also known as ‘Drunk House’.

Cubic Houses, Netherlands

(image via: darksidex)

After many Rotterdam buildings were destroyed in WWII, architects had a bit of fun redesigning many areas in new, modern and sometimes surprising styles. The Cubic Houses are one example, designed in the 1980s by architect Blom. They’re basically standard houses turned on a 45 degree angle, each resting on a hexagonal pylon. The cubes are so fascinating that one owner decided to buy and manage a “show cube” to keep tourists from disturbing the rest of the residents.