If I say crooked, it is really crooked. These houses define what crookedness is all about. They were not design flaws. The weird-looking, strange houses were designed that way as a form of art. See the pictures below.

Cubic Houses in Rotterdam, Netherlands – The original idea of these cubic houses came about in the 1970s. The concept behind these houses is that Piet Blom tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest. The cubes contain the living areas, which are split into three levels. The triangle-shaped lower level contains the living area. The middle level contains the sleeping area and a bathroom, while the top level, also in a triangular shape, is used as either an extra bedroom or a living space.

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Here are the list of winners of the just concluded 2010 Skyscraper Competition held annually by eVolo magazine. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organization.

First Place 2010 Skyscraper Competition: Vertical Prison
This project examines the possibility of creating a vertical prison in the sky where inmates will have to work and live in a community that will contribute to the host city below. The prison will have agricultural fields, factories, and recyclable plants that will be operated by the offenders as a way to give back to the community. They will live “free” until they have completed their sentence and are prepared to rejoin their communities.

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Here are photos of the 10 World’s Most Unusual Prisons!

1. San Pedro Prison ( Bolivia ): where inmates have to ‘buy’ their cells

San Pedro prison, the biggest in Bolivia ‘s main city, La Paz , is home to about 1,500 inmates. Once you pass the thick walls and the security gates, any resemblance to a normal jail disappears: there are children playing, market stalls, restaurants, hairdressers and even a hotel. It looks more like the streets of El Alto , Bolivia ‘s poorest neighborhood that sprawls on the outskirts of La Paz , than a prison. There are no guards, no uniforms or metal bars on the cell windows. This relative freedom comes at a price: inmates have to pay for their cells, so most of them have to work inside the jail, selling groceries or working in the food stalls.
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Forget about 5-star hotels. Don’t even think of 6-star hotels. For hotels to be considered as one of the world’s best luxury hotels, they must be rated 7-stars! Seven-stars rating seems to be the norm nowadays, with new hotels aiming to be part of the best-of-the-best hotels list. So which hotels made it to the “World’s Most Luxurious Hotels” rankings (existing and under-construction)? No, not the Ice Hotel in Japan and no weird hotels included in the list even.

1. Morgan Plaza Beijing (now called Pangu Plaza 7-Star Hotel, under-construction) – Morgan Plaza is a super-luxury 7 star hotel under construction in Beijing, China. The plaza will contain two pavilions, a temple, a Japanese restaurant and a 600 meter long corridor.

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The biggest library in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the Library of Congress found in the United States. The judgment was based on the shelf space that the library collection occupies. The Library of Congress occupies a space of about 850 km (530 miles) for its 150 million item collections.

Library of Congress – World’s biggest library
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