30 Times Architects Made Buildings That Looked Unique But Were Uncomfortable To Live In (New Pics)

The Reddit group has 158k members who share unique, bizarre, and stunning buildings. Ever thought of living in a crooked house or taking your children to a kindergarten shaped like a cat? Though it might be fascinating until monotony sets in or the discomfort becomes overwhelming.

Architecture is about designing buildings of all sizes and shapes, from small sheds to tall skyscrapers. It's important to blend form and function, making sure buildings are both attractive and fit their purpose while being safe.

A building's appearance is shaped by its purpose, architectural style, and available materials and technology. Different types of buildings, like homes, offices, and religious structures, vary in size, shape, and design to fulfill their unique functions.

Recent times have seen the creation of a diverse range of buildings, spanning from the merely odd to the truly unique. This shift in architectural style is largely attributed to architects' creative visions, backed by technological advancements. The once-restricting factors of precise measurements have been transformed with innovations like Virtual Reality (VR), which not only visualize complex designs but also streamline construction processes.

Technology in architecture comes in different forms, and smartphones are a prime example of this evolution. Architects now rely on apps throughout the project, from start to finish, which helps them better serve their clients.

In the United Arab Emirates and China, companies are showing the potential of robotics, collaborative robotics, and large-scale 3D printing in architecture. Autodesk, a software company, is also working on making design-to-fabrication more accessible and enabling the creation of complex structures with less energy.

Urban design is more than just looks. Studies suggest that growing up in a city doubles the chances of developing schizophrenia and increases the risk of other mental disorders like depression and chronic anxiety. According to the BBC, "The main trigger appears to be what researchers call 'social stress' – the lack of social bonding and cohesion in neighborhoods. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg at the University of Heidelberg has shown that urban living can change brain biology in some people, resulting in reduced gray matter in the right dosolateral prefrontal cortex and the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, two areas where changes have previously been linked to early-life stressful experiences."

Nowadays, psychology studies help us understand the urban places that people enjoy and find exciting. Studies found that the way buildings look and having access to green areas can affect how we feel emotionally. As Winston Churchill once said, "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us."

Talking and spending time with others is really important for keeping your mind healthy. Same goes for urban design: "Social interaction is often achieved by concentrating groups of people in a single node or landmark so that it is suggested they interact with each other. Strategies for urban design to accommodate this can include higher density development, so that more people are concentrated in an area," shares Jonathan Monfries in his research paper 'The Psychological Effects of Urban Design.'

Making sure someone is physically healthy often helps their mental health too. Having enough public spaces in cities makes it easy for people to find places to be active. A study by Roe (2016) backs this up by showing that having green spaces in cities is good for people with mental health issues like stress, anxiety, and depression. Adding more trees, small parks, and even outdoor exercise equipment, especially in the city center, can really help improve how people feel and act, and make their overall mental wellbeing better.

The way we feel and act each day can be really affected by how we travel around the city. It can shape our mood and how we behave when we go to work and when we come back home. The things around us always have an impact on our thoughts. Making sure a city has good transportation and ways to connect is helpful. This can make traveling to work, especially on public transit, less stressful and make it easier to reach places and services. When transportation works well, it can lower stress and anxiety, which makes living in the city much smoother.

We hope this gave you some food for thought and showed how buildings can connect with human psychology. To see more interesting pictures of unusual buildings, just keep scrolling. And if you're curious for more, take a look at our earlier post on the topic here.