As it turns out there are some particularly evil-looking buildings out there. While not intentionally (we hope) the architect’s plan, most people can’t help to see a building’s more sinister side.
Architects around the globe have inspired us several times with their remarkable work. Seeing inspiring architecture can evoke the power of man’s imagination, a sense of chaos and beauty and an absolute wonder about the way the human brain works and create things. However, when these buildings are sighted, they bring an unsettling and spooky feeling with them.
Check them out below! Enjoy!
#1 Buzludzha, Bulgaria
Humans are very strange and imperfect creatures. Quite why certain inanimate things look “evil”, “creepy” or “spooky” is hard to pin down.
But some studies have actually been conducted on just this subject. A group of psychologists in a 2013 study set out to try to find out what makes us feel uneasy around “creepy” things.
Their study, while preliminary, did yield some interesting insights.
“[Creepy is] about the uncertainty of threat. You’re feeling uneasy because you think there might be something to worry about here, but the signals are not clear enough to warrant your doing some sort of desperate, life-saving kind of thing,” explained Frank McAndrew, professor of psychology at Knox College in Illinois.
#2 Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia, USA
#3 Mahanakhon Tower, Bangkok, Thailand
This apparently deep-seated psychological trait of our species is probably a hangover from our more “wild” past. In most cases being “creeped out” by something is simply a defense mechanism to prepare us for a potential threat – – like spider bites, etc.
After all its better to think you saw a tiger in that long grass and be wrong than not see anything and end up dead.
When it comes to things like buildings, our brain’s ability to “see” something that isn’t there (technically called pareidolia) is part and parcel of this evolutionary crafted instinct. But, as in the case of evil-looking buildings, this instinct can provide us with some morbid amusement.
#4 Polygone Riviera, France
#5 Riverside Museum, Glasgow, UK
#6 Catholic Church, Paks, Hungary
#7 Former Research Institute For Experimental Medicine, Berlin, Germany
#8 Bahnhof Office Built Into A Former Anti-Atomic Shelter, Stockholm, Sweden
#9 Maison St Cyr, Brussels, Belgium
Andrew Peter Martin, Philippe GHESQUIERE-DIERICKX
#10 Fort Alexander (Plague Fort), Saint Petersburg, Russia
#11 Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral, Clermont-Ferrand, France
#12 DC Tower I, Vienna, Austria
Something about the design of this tower is deeply unsettling. No matter what kind of business is taking place inside, I would never want to be near one of those slanted windows. Talk about vertigo. This looks like a building you would find in the Matrix.
#13 The National Library Of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus
SONY DSC – acornsoftware,ctv
#14 Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík, Iceland
#15 The Maze Tower, Dubai, UAE
#16 Expiatori Del Sagrat Cor, Mount Tibidabo, Barcelona, Spain
Clouds swirl through the pillars of Sagrat Cor Church, high on a hill above Barcelona. Twenty minutes later a thunderstorm hit the city. – amoschapplephoto,Adrián Pino
#17Temppeliaukion Church, Helsinki, Finland
#18 Oakley Headquarters, Foothill Ranch, Lake Forest, USA
Ed McGowan
#19 Basque Health Department Headquarters In Bilbao, Spain
#20 Aiguille Du Midi, French Alps
#21 Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, UAE
#22 Ostankino Broadcast Tower, Moscow, Russia
#23 Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea
#24 Taipei 101 Observatory, Taipei City, Taiwan
#25 Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, Japan
#26 Wedding Palace, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
#27 Pacific Design Center, Red Building, Hollywood, California, USA
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects,Jon Viscott
#28 The Bank Of America Center, Houston, USA
#29 Al Tijaria Tower, Kuwait City, Kuwait
#30 Cologne Central Mosque, Cologne, Germany
#31 Stamp House, Queensland, Australia
Charles Wright Architects, greenbuild
#32 Space Museum, Vancouver, Canada
#33 Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing Shi, China
#34 Omv Borealis Refinery, On The German/Austrian Frontier
#35 Science And Technology Centre, Pyongyang, North Korea
#36 Kafka Castle, Sant Pere De Ribes, Barcelona, Spain
#37 Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Seed Bank), Spitsbergen, Norway
#38 Ilinden, Krushevo, Macedonia
jan kempenaers,Flyfifer Photography
#39 The United States Air Force Academy, Colorado, USA
#40 AT&T Building, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Commenters have been quick to point out that this building bears an overwhelming resemblance to the ultimate evil building, the tower that holds the Eye of Sauron. There had to be a way to design this building without making it so that it looks like an evil wizard lives there when the fog rolls in.
#41 The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain
SONY DSC – Carlos Vieira Follow,Fani Torres
#42 Selfridges Department Store, Birmingham, England
#43 Jimbocho Theater, Tokyo, Japan
#44 Mcdonald’s, Roswell, New Mexico, USA
#45 Graz Art Museum, Graz, Austria
#46 Geisel Library, La Jolla, California, USA
#47 Reiyukai Shakaden Temple, Tokyo, Japan
#48 College Life Insurance Company Headquarters, Indianapolis, USA
#49 Rio De Janeiro Cathedral, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Cyro A. Silva,PROMaria_Globetrotter
#50 Church Of St. Giovanni Bono, Milan, Italy
#51 Atomium, Brussels, Belgium
Andrei Robu – RoSonic.photos, Sven Scho
#52 Kingdom Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
#53 Lyon Airport Train Station, Lyon, France
#54 Beekman Tower, New York City, USA
#55 Sunrise Kempinski Hotel, Beijing, China
worldarchitecture, Candy Shire
#56 Italian Fire Station, Margreid, Italy
#57 Cathedral Of The Northern Lights, Alta, Norway
#58 The Queen Sofía Palace Of The Arts, Valencia, Spain
#59 Museum Of Modern Art, Niterói, Brazil
#60 Brattvåg Church, Norway
#61 Sathorn Unique Tower, Bangkok, Thailand
Benjamin Wießner aka kleiner hobbit,Earth-Bound Misfit, I
#62 Aluminium Centrum, Nieuwegein, Netherlands
Imacon Color Scanner – NO/me
