| THERE are buildings and then there are buildings.  | | Form and function: The Longaberger building in the US. --AP, FILE | Some orderly and run of the mill. Some functional. Some so beautiful that they are described as poetry in stone. But what about the buildings featured on these pages? Call them the work of mavericks, of creative geniuses thinking out of the box.  | | The Flatiron Building in New York. -- AP, FILE | Icons to some, eyesores to others, they have become landmarks and tourist attractions in their respective countries. Take the Longaberger corporate office building in Columbus in the US, for example. When the CEO of the family-owned business making baskets decided to build a corporate headquarters, he knew he wanted something unique but had trouble describing it to the architects he had summoned to his office.  | | Nationale-Nederlanden Building in Prague. -- AP, FILE | Then Mr Dave Longaberger spotted the basket. He grabbed one of the company's products, pulled up its handles and said, 'This is what I want. Build it.' The job was no picnic for engineers, who completed the building in 1998.  | | What about our own? - EXPO MRT STATION | Like a real Longaberger basket, the building gets wider as it goes up, so each floor had to be designed differently. The building's 24m-high handles took 18 months to design and build. The handles, which weigh 75 tonnes apiece, came in 13 pieces that were welded together at the construction site. Each has a special heating unit that prevents ice from forming and falling into a 4,500-sq-ft glass ceiling below.  | | What about our own? - WHEELOCK PLACE | Another building which arouses curiousity is the Nationale-Nederlanden Building located in the historic district of Prague, Czech Republic. This curiously-shaped structure was designed by Frank Gehry, who was awarded with the 1996 Best Design of the Year by Time magazine.  | | What about our own? - ESPLANADE ON THE BAY | The building has been dubbed 'Fred and Ginger' by appreciative critics because of its resemblance to the famous dancing pair of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. However, those who don't like the structure have given it names like a 'crushed can of Coke.' One structure which has attained iconic status is the Flatiron Building in New York. It was completed in 1902 and is 22 storeys tall. When completed it was called the Fuller Building, named after its promoter. But locals took an immediate interest in the building, placing bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked it down and nicknaming it 'the Flatiron' because of the building's resemblance to the irons of the day. The building is also said to have made the phrase '23 skidoo', meaning scram, famous. That was what police would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds created by the triangular building. There are many other unusual buildings like these around the world that have become magnets for tourists. The Crooked House in Sopot, Poland, and the upside-down building at the WonderWorks amusement park in Florida are just two among many. | 
