15 mind-bending buildings that defy gravity

The Crooked House: Literally called The Krzywy Domek, the Crooked House is located in Sopot, Poland. Built in 2004, it’s also part of the Rezydent shopping center and was designed by Szotyńscy & Zaleski, who were in turn inspired by children’s fairy tale drawings.

Puzzling World: Located in the Southern Lakes region of the South Island of New Zealand is Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World. Built as a trippy maze in 1973, it is now a tourist attraction which also includes the interesting-sounding Illusion Rooms, a Puzzle Centre/Café, obligatory gift shop and eccentric architecture and oddities. The most bizarre part of the architecture is the Leaning Tower of Wanaka, which has been pulled out of the ground and is balanced on one corner at 53 degrees. The Leaning Tower of Pisa only leans at a meager six degrees, 

Wonder Works: An inverted, stately home in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, this attraction is really just that — a place for folks to bring the family and have some fun. The amusement park has over 100 interactive exhibits and is close enough to the Smokey Mountains to illicit a quick stop — for the architecture and the laughs.

Cubic Houses: Piet Bloom designed these strangely entrancing houses in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The 40 cubes are attached and each one is based on the shape of a conventional house, but tilted 45 degrees and resting on a hexagon-shaped pylon. The walls and windows are all angled at 54.7 degrees. Talk about disorienting!

Hole House: Not much to go on for this structure dubbed "The Hole House" in Houston, Texas. Our best guess is an art project, but, of course, our second is the condemned home was sucked into a worm hole — to another dimension. Where there's a war being waged by good and evil robots. Oh, and dragons. What — don't look at me like that, Hole House!

Solar Furnace: This reflective structure is made up of parabolic mirrors, which reflect light to a focal point in order to heat a small area to a high temperature. This one was built in 1970 at Odeillo, Font-Romeu in the Pyrenees of France, and can heat up to over a whopping 6,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Norddeutsche Landesbank (Nord/LB): A huge bank complex in Hanover, Germany, was built by Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner after winning an international competition. Its goal was to reduce energy by bringing more sunlight into the structure using a number of green building techniques.

Puerta de Europa: These twin office buildings in Madrid have 26 floors and designed by American architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. They rest on an inclination of 15 degrees and are the first inclined skyscrapers in the world.

Wozoco Apartments: Wozoco is located in Amsterdam-Osdorp and is made up of 100 apartments. Because the regulations of the area, which restricted apartment blocks to 87 units, the idea was to create more units while giving each tenant more light. The conclusion? An extra 14 units were suspended from the side of the main building.

Device to Root Out Evil: A sculpture by American artist Dennis Oppenheim, this upside down mini-church was rejected by Vancouver’s parks committee and is now on display by Calgary’s Glenbow Museum.

Upside Down House: Along with making a statement on the Communist era and the state of the world, the Upside Down House has also brought hoards of tourists to its tiny village of Szymbark, Poland — though many complain of dizziness and seasickness when they come out.

Cybertechture Egg: Due to be completed at the end of this year, the Cybertechture Egg will be one crazy, 13-floor office building. As you can see, it'll let in plenty of light, and also has a green garden space up top to offer a view of Mumbai.

Floating Castle: How about that? An old bunker supposedly used for surplus mineral fertilizer in the Ukraine literally floats — held up by just one cantilever.

Cactus House: Gotta’ love the Dutch. The Cactus House is another apartment building meant to maximize sunlight and outdoor space — each of the 98 homes come with a balcony and a view.

Free Spirit House: This giant tree house on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, is suspended in the trees and billed as an “eco-resort.” But don’t expect bathrooms or plumbing — you’ll have to do with the built-in sauna and a fairly good stereo system (outhouses are available for your comfort).