SLIDESHOW: 30 Most Amazing and Unique Buildings of the World - Part 1

Sanzhi UFO houses were constructed in 1978 and intended as a luxury vacation resort marketed primarily to U.S. military officers stationed in Taiwan. Although due to financial losses, the project was abandoned in 1980, Sanzhi UFO houses became a tourist attraction and were featured in film and used as a filming location by MTV. Legend has it that the doomed resort and several deaths during construction are attributed to a Chinese dragon sculpture that was disturbed in order to widen the resort entrance road.

The Dancing Building is the nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in downtown Prague, Czech Republic. The building was designed by Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in co-operation with Canadian architect Frank Gehry on a vacant riverfront plot (where the previous building had been destroyed during the Bombing of Prague in 1945). Resembling a pair of dancers, The Dancing Building stands out among the Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings in Prague and offers breathtaking views from the rooftop restaurant.

Opened in 2004, Krzywy Domek, translated into English as “The Crooked House,” was built by Polish architects Szotynscy and Zaleski and was inspired by the fairytale illustrations and drawings of Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg. Arguably the most photographed object in Sopot, The Crooked House is topped with a roof of blue-green enameled shingles designed to give the impression of a dragon.

The bizarre stone house in Nas montanhas de Fafe, Portugal, looks surprisingly similar to the home of Fred and Wilma in the 1960s cartoon – the Flintstones.

In 1989, architects Victor Kramarenko and Michael Vinogradov won the international contest for the new national library building in Minsk, Belarus with their cutting edge futuristic design, the “Belarusian Diamond”. The library stands 236 feet tall, spans 22 floors with the main architectural component in the shape of a rhombicuboctahedron and features 4,646 color-changing LED fixtures.

The futuristic, aluminum-clad building was designed by Japanese Architect, Kenzo Tange. It's fully earthquake proof and took three years to build (completed in 1996). The sphere on top of the building contains an observation gallery and a restaurant and is constructed of titanium to reduce weight. With a diameter of thirty two meters it was first constructed on the roof of the smaller building, then on April 17th 1995, using a special technique it was raised into its current position.

This unique piano and violin building was built in An Hui Province, China. Inside of the violin is the escalator to the building. The building displays various city plans and development prospects in an effort to draw interest into the recently developed area.

The Robot Building was completed in 1986 and designed for the Bank of Asia by Sumet Jumsai to reflect the computerization of banking. Its architecture is a reaction against neoclassical and high-tech postmodern architecture. The building's features, such as progressively receding walls, antennas, and eyes, contribute to its robotic appearance and to its practical function.

The Graz Art Museum was constructed in 2003 and features the award winning “communicative display skin” BIX designed by real:United. Using standard industrial fluorescent light tubes BIX transforms the outer biomorphic skin of the building, which is constructed out of translucent blue acrylic glass panels, into a low resolution grey scale computer display.

Claiming to be the world’s tallest wooden single-family house, the Sutyagin House stood 144 feet tall and spanned 13 floors. Constructed by the Archangelsk entrepreneur, Nikolai Sutyagin over the period of 15 years (starting in 1992), the house deteriorated while its creator spent a few years in prison on racketeering charges.