This Week’s Crazy Building: Marqués de Riscal Hotel

“Hotel Marques De Riscal, Elciego, Álava, Spain” by CO-120812 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
The Marqués de Riscal Hotel in Elciego, Spain is a redesign of a 150-year-old winery. This highly unusual work by architect Frank Gehry seeks to embody the vineyard in an abstract way. The colors used are symbolic. Pink represents the wine itself, silver is found on the bottle’s neck, and gold is for the signature
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: Mercat Encants

Don’t be fooled by the Mercat Encants’ contemporary look, this site is home to a 100-year old market! b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos created the new structure. The ostentatious gold canopy acts as a sunscreen while also reflecting the city into the market, connecting the two. One of the challenges was the limited location size which
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: Park Güell

No, this isn’t a gingerbread house, the Park Güell is a popular tourist destination in Barcelona, Spain. It was built in 1914 when Barcelona was in an exciting period of reconstruction. A new plan, “the Eixample,” had been conceived for the city and was the largest reconstruction project in Europe at the time. In Spain,
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: Guggenheim Museum

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain looks like it defies gravity. This is the work of renowned architect, Frank Gehry who has employed this shocking style for about 20 years. Besides a surprising exterior, the Guggenheim also created another effect, economic prosperity. The building generated 500 million in profit within 3 years of its opening
Read more
2 Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: The Valencia Opera House

The unusual Valencia Opera House by architect Santiago Calatrava makes a fitting addition to Valencia, Spain’s City of the Arts and Sciences complex. It features an oceanarium, science museum, sculpture garden, and suspension bridge, many of which were designed by Calatrava who is known for his visionary works. Calatrava is the recipient of multiple honorary
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: Casa Vicens

BCNCVC032 by Jon Ander is used under public domain
The overwhelmingly elaborate Casa Vicens is something only an architect as skilled as Antoni Gaudí could hope to realize. This home in Barcelona, Spain was the world-famous architect’s first significant commission as a young man. In 1883 Manel Vicens i Montaner, a stock and currency broker commissioned Gaudí, 31 years old at the time, to
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: Metropol Parasol

Metropol Parasol by Sevilla Congress & Convention Bureau is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
The Metropol Parasol located in La Encarnación square in Seville, Spain, merges modern with ancient. A market has existed on this site since the 19th century. The square was renovated several times since then and in 1990 an underground parking lot was set to be constructed. The project came to a halt, however, when ancient
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: Sagrada Família

Passion façade by Wjh31 is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sagrada Família, located in Barcelona, Spain was designed by Antoni Gaudí. In it, he blends Gothic and Art Nouveau styles. This was his last work and when he died in 1926 it was still incomplete. It is still under construction and set to be completed by 2026 which is the centennial anniversary of Gaudí’s death.
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: El Capricho

El Capricho 2 by Jim Anzalone is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
El Capricho, located in Comillas, Spain is another creation by architect Antoni Gaudí. He is known for his modernist style and unusual designs. He preferred not to create plans for his designs but rather made three-dimensional scale models and added details as he designed the work. Design Inspiration Commissioned by Máximo Díaz de Quijano, El
Read more
No Comments

This Week’s Crazy Building: L’Oceanogràfic

L'oceanogràfic by TimOve is licensed under CC BY 2.0
L’Oceanogràfic or The Oceanographic was opened in 2003 and is located in Valencia, Spain. It is the largest Oceanarium in Europe and has an astounding water capacity of 11,000,000 gallons! It accommodates 45,000 animals including: fish, sharks, penguins, dolphins, sea lions, walruses and beluga whales to name a few. What we can’t see in this
Read more
No Comments