21st Century Buildings That Look Like Alien Spaceships

21st Century Buildings That Look Like Alien Spaceships


We may still be a long way from putting a human colony on Mars, but that doesn’t mean we can’t live like spacemen here on Earth. These 18 trippy buildings — all built since 2000 — look like they’re from another world entirely.

The City Hall of Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, 2002. Architect: Erick Van Egeraat.


Photo: Christian Richters


The Selfridges store, Birmingham, UK, 2003. Architects: Future Systems.


Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images


The Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, 2003. Architect: Frank Gehry.


Photo: David McNew/Getty Images


Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2005. Architect: Zaha Hadid.


Photo: Joe Nadin


The National Theatre, Beijing, China, 2007. Architect: Paul Andreu.


Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images


The Worrell, Weekes and Walcott stand at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, 2007.


Photo: Jenni Konrad/Tom Hodgkinson


The “Mobile Art” exhibition pavilion in Hong Kong, 2008. Architect: Zaha Hadid.


Photo: Kin Cheung/AP


The Beijing National Stadium known as the “Bird’s Nest”, Beijing, China, 2008. Architects: Herzog & de Meuron.


Photo: Bullit Marquez/AP


The Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany, 2009. Architects: Delugan Meissl Associated Architects


Photo: Thomas Kienzle/AP


The Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou, China, 2010. Architect: Zaha Hadid.


Photo: Lian Chang


The Flame Towers in Baku, Azerbaijan, 2012. Architects: Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum.


Photo: Nigel Treblin/dapd


The new Festival Hall in Erl , Austria, 2012. Architects: Delugan Meissl Associated Architects.


Photo: Kerstin Joensson/dapd/AP


The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, 2012. Architect: Zaha Hadid


Photo: Carlos Osorio/AP


Galaxy Soho, Beijing, China, 2012. Architect: Zaha Hadid.


Photo: Ningbo Ningbo


The EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2012. Architect: Delugan Meissl Associated Architects.


Photo: Joe Nadin


Pierres Vives government department, Montpellier, France, 2012. Architect: Zaha Hadid.


Photo: Jean-Baptiste Maurice


The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2012. Architect: Zaha Hadid.


Photo: Wikipedia


The Peoples Meeting Dome, Allinge, Bornholm, Denmark, 2012. Architects: Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen.


Photo: Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.