Weirdness is a notion long entwined with the concept of creativity. Mocked by the strait-laced confined to their boxes of conformism, celebrated by the bold and the brave who pursue the outré as a means of pushing beyond the banal. In Weird Buildings, a fabulous new book from Hoxton Mini Press, weirdness in a form most traditionally functional is celebrated in all of its unorthodox glory.
“In a world increasingly shaped by automation and engineered for speed, simplicity and sameness – a world in which algorithms serve us what we already like, and cities grow ever more homogenous – weird offers friction,” says Imogen Fortes in her foreword. “It makes us pause, ask questions and see things from another perspective.” And so true. When former bastions of grade-A journalism have been reduced to “it’s not just X, it’s Y” AI slop, and Spotify crams your playlists with made-up musicians because paying real creatives the sum total of fuck all was a few dollars too much for the megalomaniacal billionaires, real tangible offline oddness is more desperately needed than ever before.
The Basket Building © Andre Jenny / Alamy.
© Hoxton Mini Press 2025.
Mirrorcube Treehotel © Hufton+Crow-VIEW / Alamy.
Frank Gehry’s portfolio of potty projects might be the first place one would look for nonconformist constructions — his Bilbao Guggenheim masterpiece, or his contorted Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles — but Antoni Gaudí had been pushing architecture to its physical limits since the late 1800s. From then, through countless styles of the 20th century, to monumental modern projects that defy belief, a staggering array of alternative architecture is collected within Weird Buildings‘ 240 pages.
Grayson Perry’s kitsch A House for Essex; Europe’s first underwater restaurant; futuristic modernism of the space age; towering modern residential blocks; Alex Chinneck‘s architectural artworks; spellbinding pavilions; peculiar places of worship; whimsical American roadside oddities; and undulating contemporary tours de force like Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Centre and Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg … a vast and unconventional collection of structures prove just how inspiring a seemingly conventional practice can be.
“In an age when so much of our world feels standardised and streamlined, weird buildings remind us of the joy of divergence,” Fortes continues. “And perhaps most importantly, they encourage us to approach the everyday with curiosity and a willingness to live just a little more playfully.”
For those seeking an expression of individuality and a disconnection from the algorithm, Weird Buildings is available now from Hoxton Mini Press.
National Fisheries Development Board © UniversalImagesGroup.
Drina River House © 2024 HornyHamster/Shutterstock.
Casa del Acantilado © Luminar Neo.
Teapot Dome Service Station © Mark Kiver / Alamy.
The Balancing Barn © Edmund Sumner-VIEW / Alamy.
Casa do Penedo © Marc-Philipp Keller / Alamy.
Under © Lillian Tveit / Alamy.
The Wave © Finbarr Fallon.
The Big Duck © Randy Duchaine / Alamy.
Inntel Hotel © Pixelbiss / Alamy.
Taipei Performing Arts Centre © Finbarr Fallon.
