Another blog has done their list of the “20 weirdest apartments” around the world. Thing is, I wouldn’t call them weird at all. Most of them are pretty wonderful. They’ve got apartments done by top notch architects on the list – Antoni Gaudi and Frank Gehry to name just two. How they can call great architecture “wierd” is beyond me. I mean these are types of buildings you study in Architectural History courses (I know, ’cause I remember at least one of them from the one Architectural History course I took many moons ago).

So what do you think? Weird or Wonderful?

To me the question is which one would I most want to live in? I think my favorite would be the Urban Cactus high rise apartments in Amsterdam (see pic to the left). It’s wonderful – huge terraces, great foliage… Who wouldn’t want to live there?

Too much of architecture is just dull and boring. I’m fine with preserving the character of some neighborhoods by doing “predictable” buildings, but too often those buildings aren’t all that well done and they just fail to make the neighborhood a better place. The apartment buildings on the 20 weirdest list are pretty much all ones that capture the imagination and give back to the community. That should be applauded, not laughed at…