When roaming with your Europesure travel insurance protection, you may have been dazzled by many aesthetically striking buildings, from various epochs. But what about really quirky, unusual and truly amazing buildings? To celebrate the 70th birthday of Hollywood’s Capitol Records building on April 6, 2026, we’ve taken a look at this particular Californian icon, along with some other incredible buildings around the world.
Capitol Records Building, Los Angeles
You certainly need Europesure travel insurance protection if planning to say ‘happy birthday’ to this 1956 building, at 1750 Vine Street, Los Angeles. Medical treatment in the USA comes at an eye-watering cost that will get you in a spin – just as each of the 13-storeys of this building hints at doing.
Designed by Louis Naidorf, it is said to resemble a stack of records on a turntable with a spindle pointing skywards. This may have been coincidental, as the aim was really to just construct the world’s first circular office building. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places in the USA and became a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural monument 20 years ago.
Many a recording artist has used the studios within, but it is known as ‘the house that Nat built’, due to Nat King Cole’s contribution to Capitol’s success. Its tower is also pretty cool, spelling out the word ‘Hollywood’ in Morse Code, via a blinking light.
The Carpet Museum, Baku, Azerbaijan
You cannot fail to appreciate what goes on inside this very unusual building, thanks to it being designed in the form of a rolled-up carpet!
Sitting on Baku’s Seaside Boulevard, the Carpet Museum has been a photogenic lure for many tourists visiting the city, since 2014.
Designed by Austrian artist, Franz Janz, it houses the world’s largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets and helps the museum tell the story of carpet weaving. This, in itself, became part of UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in 2010.
The Lotus Temple, New Delhi
If visiting this particular building during an Indian family reunion, don’t forget to pack your Europesure Travel Insurance protection. Friends and family trips may seem more secure, but anything can happen.
The Lotus Temple is the colloquial name for what is actually the Bahá’í House of Worship. It has been a feature of the city of New Delhi since 1986, having been designed by Mr Fariborz Sahba.
Today, you can visit the Lotus Temple between 8.30am and 5pm Tuesday to Sunday and gain an appreciation of the architect’s vision. This was to communicate the purity, simplicity and freshness of the Bahá’ì faith, through the symbolic representation of the lotus flower.
The partly open flower is constructed using repeated components, including three sets of petals, and is designed to appear as if floating on nine pools that actually help cool the 1300-seater prayer hall and building. Walkways are available all around the lotus, which used Greek marble, cut and shaped in Italy.
Mueble Gigante, Bogota
If you want to draw attention to your family cabinet-making business, why not create the quirkiest building in the city of Bogota, Colombia? That’s what a young entrepreneurial couple did around the year 2000, when creating the Great Cajonera – a façade resembling a giant chest of drawers.
This clever and unmissable 10-metre-high façade is constructed out of weather-resistant granadillo madeira wood, maintained every six months or so through the insertion of hydrating pins. Expert cabinet-makers were involved in its construction and it’s certainly been worthwhile. Now a major talking point, it has also brought great worldwide success to the family-run business.
Want to see it for yourself? Just remember that, if you use your Europesure travel insurance protection to back your trip to Colombia, you may also need several travel vaccinations, potentially including yellow fever.
The Fosun Foundation, Bund Finance Center, Shanghai
Renowned architect, Norman Foster of Foster & Partners, worked with the Heatherwick Studio on this unique building, which pays homage to Chinese performing arts culture through a moving theatre curtain/veil, which shrouds the building.
Using kinetic principles, the metal curtain moves for around 10 minutes in every two hours, creating a huge visual impact. In total, 675 tassels, formed from differently sized bronze tubes in three overlapping layers, shift in different directions and to varying speeds. Moving in time to a precisely planned musical rhythm, it’s quite the spectacle.
Undoubtedly, the opening and closing illusion created by this curtain of bronze pipes is certainly worth witnessing, either from outside or from behind the veil. From the second floor, in particular, you can gain great views of the Pudong business and financial area of the city, through a space that separates the pipes.
The Gateway, Singapore
Think of incredible buildings in Singapore and you may immediately focus on the three-towered Marina Bay Sands – a hotel appearing to have a cruise ship on its roof. However, there is another remarkable building in this small country – the 37-storey, 150-metre-high, twin-towered complex known as The Gateway.
Found at 152 Beach Road, near to the Bugis MRT Station, it was the work of Chinese-American architect, I.M.Pei, of Louvre Pyramid renown. What’s so amazing about this building is the fact that, from a certain angle, it appears paper-thin – something that confounds the senses.
This optical illusion is created by a sharp trapezoidal and triangular design, eventually appreciated when changing the viewing angle by walking a little way down the road. But, for those few moments when you are questioning how anyone works in this virtually pancake-flat two-skyscraper building, complete with reflective glass panels, it’s quite incredible.
The idea was for it to act as a beacon, welcoming visitors from worldwide locations to Singapore. If that happens to be you, you will need to have packed your Europesure travel insurance protection to avoid personally paying for significant healthcare costs. Singapore is a glorious location but not a cheap place to live and the healthcare charges reflect that. Read more about our Singapore travel tips here.
Do not take the chance of being caught out financially wherever you travel to see amazing buildings. For a small amount of outlay on a travel insurance policy, you can avoid financial blows and also have the assistance of a medical liaison team who will help de-stress your medical situation. They will also do everything possible to get you home safely, with the right medical assistance.
If you live in the UK, EU, EEA, Monaco or Gibraltar, this support is just a few clicks away, if you buy your European resident or expat travel insurance policy online at https://www.europesuretravelinsurance.com Build your resilience before going building bagging and then relax, get the camera at the ready and enjoy the inspiration that architects worldwide have provided.
