12 of the Most Beautiful Buildings That Defy Gravity

If there is one requirement of architecture, it’s that the structure must remain upright. Forget any aesthetic purpose, architects would be out of a job if their buildings continually failed to meet this one test. Yet some architects push the boundaries, seemingly daring with Newton’s universal law of gravity, to design buildings that not only appear to defy logic, but are beautiful at that. From a cantilevered barn designed by the Dutch-based firm MVRD to an impressively stacked building in Hanover, Germany, by the Stuttgart-based firm Behnisch Architekten, these 12 buildings seem impossible to conceive, let alone build. Of course, all of these structures passed strict zoning laws before they were erected. What is not guaranteed, however, is whether merely looking at them will cause you vertigo.

Building: Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank
Location: Udine, Italy
Architecture firm: Morphosis Architects
Fun fact: The architects tilted the entire building 14 degrees to the south so the upper floors naturally shade the lower floors of the building, thereby conserving energy.

Building: Cube Houses
Location: Rotterdam, Holland
Architect: Piet Blom
Fun fact: The design for the 38 homes was meant to represent a village within a city, but practically speaking, the design was intended to optimize the space inside of the home set in an urban space.

Building: Odeillo Solar Furnace
Location: Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, France
Fun fact: The Odeillo solar furnace is the world’s largest solar furnace. The location was selected because of the duration (more than 2,500 hours per year) and the quality of sunlight that hits the area.