20 Outstanding Architectural Designs You Should See

As with all other kinds of design work, creating good house designs is no easy task. Fortunately, we won’t be running out of new, impressive architectural designs, thanks to the many talented architects all over the world. Besides, we have all the state-of-the-art technologies at our disposal nowadays. It’s really amazing how the boundaries of conventional building designs are constantly being stretched.

Today, we would like to share with you 20 outstanding architectural designs from all over the world. From buildings with unusual design themes to a house that stands upside down, each of them is truly a spectacle to behold.

Recommended Reading: 30 Unusual Houses With Human Face

Habitable Polyhedron by Manuel Villa

This unusual polyhedron-shaped house was designed by Colombian architect Manuel Villa with the suburban atmosphere in mind. It’s made mainly of wood, with one wall made of glass. There’s also a round roof window, ensuring a good view of the sky at night.

Kinetic Façade Brisbane Domestic Terminal Car Park

This amazing 8-story high, 5,000 sq miles of suspended aluminum panels provide shade and natural ventilation to the car park within.

Diamondhouse by XTEN Architecture

This unique house extension with a creative stencil-like design belongs to a house in Santa Monica, California, USA.

UFOGEL: A Spaceship Lodge Lands on the Austrian Alps

This UFO spaceship-like house looks even cooler inside. Made almost entirely of wood, it makes a simply perfect combination with the beautiful East Tyrol landscape.

Disk Office with a Hole by Joseph DiPasquale

Built in Guangzhou, China and just recently completed, this 138-meter-tall structure was designed in the likeness of the ancient Chinese double jade disk.

Apartment Building by Studio Daniel Libeskind

This futuristic-looking apartment building in Berlin, Germany, is scheduled for completion next year. Covering 10,000 sq meters, it will house 73 apartment units.

Bloom Aquatic Farm by Sitbon Architects

Okay this probably won’t be built anytime soon, but it sure is a very interesting concept. It’s basically a phytoplankton farm that tries to cope with global warming by absorbing excess carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen.

Transparent House by Philip K Smith

By making use of mirrors, LEDs, and other electronics, this house in California creates two optical illusions for onlookers: transparent by day, and disco by night.

Floating House by Dymitr Malcew

I bet this would be the ideal home for most nature lovers out there. A house that floats on water, with enough rooms for a small family – it almost seems too good to be true.

The Barbie Dream House

This is it, the ultimate dream house for every Barbie fan. It’s painted almost entirely in pink and has 13 rooms – all with Barbie-inspired designs.

A Modular Hexagonal Home by Barry Jackson

The design of this house was inspired by the structure of a honeycomb. It has 100 sq feet of living space and can be easily expanded depending on your requirements.

The $500 DIY Glass Home by Nick Olson & Lilah Horwitz

Believe it or not, this house in West Virginia was built with just $500. It’s made of wood and recycled glass.

Maruma House by Fernanda Canales

This spacious house is located in a residential area in Mexico City. The idea behind it was to create an open concept house full of overlapping box shapes while keeping it private at the same time.

Rotunda Residence for Series of Spanish Holiday Homes by Johnston Marklee

This is another UFO spaceship-inspired design, with a circular roof and floor. It’s one of the vacation houses for a national park in Spain.

Villa Vals by studio SeARCH & Christian Muller Architect

The most creative aspect of this design is that it’s an attempt to fully build a villa within a natural landscape. The result, as you can see, is truly astonishing.

Crofthouse by James Stockwell Architect

The design of this zinc-clad house in Victoria, Australia was inspired by the shape of a sand dune.

Upside Down Polish Cabin by Daniel Chapevski

Trust me, these photos have not been photoshopped. This upside-down house really does exist in Szymbark, Poland.

Piano House by Huainan Fangkai Decoration Project Co

This is truly amazing; a violin and piano combined to make up a fully functional and elegantly designed building. A must-see for any music lovers who happen to be in Huainan, China.

Blooming Bamboo Home by H&P Architects

H&P Architects from Vietnam have come up with this ingenious design in an effort to cope with floods of up to 3 meters high. The house is made entirely of bamboo.

Unique Bubble Palace by Antti Lovag

Using the shape of bubbles as its design motif, this villa in the Massif de l’Esterel simply looks gorgeous. It also spans almost 13,000 square feet.