From the fish out of water department: Landlubbers leery of getting their feet wet can live vicariously by visiting these 10 swell ship-shaped buildings.
1. Wanlihao Ship Building - Chengdu, China
Image via: littledutchboy
If the Wanlihao Ship Building was an attempt to make the Chinese city of Chengdu famous for something other than pandas and spicy food, then a hearty pat on the back goes to its designers. Ditto for Flickr user littledutchboy for capturing and posting the image above.
This rather large waterfront edifice houses a number of businesses and services including several seafood restaurants and the exclusive-sounding Flagship Club…sounds like the kind of place Judge Smails and Thurston Howell III might hang out at. As for being just a tad gaudy and ostentatious, well, you oughta see it at night!
2. Public Restroom - Chennai, India
If you were expecting a “poop deck” joke, forget abou… oh. Anyway, this public restroom in the city of Chennai, India doesn’t just look like a brick ship house, it’s built like one too. The top photo from iTravelnet dates from March of 2007 while the lower image from Lydia Depillis taken in the summer of 2012 shows significant deterioration. We’ll leave the state of the interior to your imagination.
3. Museum of Maritime Science - Tokyo, Japan
The Museum of Maritime Science (Fune-no-Kagakukan in Japanese) in Odaiba dates from 1974 and was one of the first buildings at that location constructed on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay…perhaps the contractors were hedging their bets a bit. The scale of the building is highlighted by the 83-meter (273ft) long Antarctic icebreaker Soya moored just offshore.
Image via: TKFuruse
The ship-like styling is purely intentional; inside visitors will find a veritable 3D history book that takes one back to the era of the Shoguns, forward through the destructive Second World War and into the present era. Models of the Yamato - the world’s largest battleship - share space with those of civilian and military ships, submarines and seaplanes.
4. Huntington Ingalls Industries Building - Newport News, Virginia, USA
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is America’s largest shipbuilder and the ONLY one able to design and build the nation’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The company’s headquarters building in Newport News reflects the firm’s long history (it was known until 2008 as Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding) and continuing focus on shipbuilding.
5. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. - Los Angeles, California, USA
Image via: Jaime Perez Dinnbier
The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. building at 1334 South Central Avenue was designed by Robert V. Derrah and opened in 1936. Meticulously maintained and clean as a ship’s whistle, the Streamline Moderne structure abounds with nautical references including dozens of porthole windows, a catwalk, a promenade deck, copious faux rivets and a massive red flying bridge looming over it all. Kudos to Flickr user Jaime Perez Dinnbier for the above sun-washed wallscape of this historic and distinctive building.
Images via: Big Orange Landmarks
Los Angeles monument tribute website Big Orange Landmarks captured the above views of the exceptionally ship-shape bottling plant building on a beautiful Southern California day in 2008. If anyone’s wondering, yes, the interior also explores maritime themes to the max. Any more boat-like and the entire edifice would rock to the rhythm of carbonated waves!
6. Titanic Belfast - Belfast, Northern Ireland
One does not simply build a “visitor attraction” on the site of the old Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built just over a century ago…one commemorates the tragic liner by evoking its lines in the building’s structure. Architects Eric Kuhne and Associates sought to recognize the yard’s long history of shipbuilding with a special focus on the Titanic: the building’s height of 38.5 meters (126 ft) matches that of the Titanic’s hull.
Image via: Wikipedia/Prioryman
Titanic Belfast opened on March 31st of 2012. With architecture resembling the clustered hulls of four mighty ocean liners, the building’s walls are clad in metal shards that reflect light in such a way that they appear to be in constant movement.
7. Nikolay’s Ark - Kemerovo, Russia
Image via: Victor Borisov
Nikolay Orekhov seems to be Russia’s version of Evan Almighty, sans the humour. He doesn’t claim to have obeyed a higher calling when he began building is ark-like home in Kemerovo, however. According to Victor Borisov, who visually enlightens us to Orekhov’s unusual abode, the wood-working Russian got the idea after having a particularly vivid dream. One thing’s for certain: trying to hang a framed picture or mount a mirror has got to be a nightmare!
Images via: Oddity Central
Mrs. Orekhov must be glad hubby isn’t collecting and housing tiny pairs of animals, at least. The 3-story home is quite spacious for a single human family, though, as it features a bathroom fitted out with a sauna and a swimming pool.
8. RATP Formation Centre - Paris, France
Completed in 2010, the centrepiece of the RATP Formation Centre was designed by Stephane Maupin Architectes and is the new workplace for employees of the Paris Metro maintenance division. Though the overall floor plan of the main building is roughly pie-shaped, from certain angles the structure gives the impression of being the pointed prow of a formidable warship.
Image via: Homedit
Those round, porthole-shaped windows visible on the exterior aren’t just for show, they play a role in enhancing the interior’s nautical theme. As for the vermilion and white hash-marked lower portion of the concrete building’s exterior, it recalls the red-painted keels of large passenger liners in dry dock while alluding to the safety and engineering functions of RATP and its workers.
9. Jockey Club Innovation Tower - Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Image via: Panoramio/Baycrest
Designed by renowned international architect Zaha Hadid, the 130,000-square-foot Jockey Club Innovation Tower at Hong Kong Polytechnic University cleaves the bustling city’s air like the prow of a majestic ocean liner from days of old! Full props to Panoramio user Baycrest for capturing the recently completed building to best advantage as dusk descends.
10. Encinitas Boat Houses - Encinitas, California, USA
Well house a boat that! The SS Encinitas and its next door neighbour, the SS Moonlight haven’t seen a drop of water (rain excepted) since retired engineer Miles Kellogg built them in the late 1920s. Though they may look for all intents and purposes like a pair of restored and re-purposed coastal launches, the popular twin tourist attractions have always been houses. Kellogg salvaged wood and other building materials from the Moonlight Beach dance pavilion and the old Encinitas Hotel after they were demolished.
Image via: Encinitas Preservation Foundation
Located at 726 and 732 Third St. in Encinitas, “The Boathouses” appear to lean as if they were tacking into an onshore breeze - a completely intentional part of Kellogg’s design. Both house/boats are 15 feet tall and 20 feet long, offering lucky homeowners 2,190 square feet of living space. Interior fixtures are ship-like as well and include a row of 19 portholes per side, two floors, er, decks, spacious flat-roofed pilothouses that serve as master bedrooms, a kitchen/galley, and a bathroom located below in the bilges. The homes are not “for sail” but their unique style and local notoriety would ensure the owners (currently the Encinitas Preservation Association) collect a respectable amount of treasure.
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