Architecture Eggs: 10 Egg-Shaped Buildings Around the World

The Cybertecture Egg, in Mumbai, India, is scheduled for completion in the near future. By using this “egg” shape, the building has approximately 10-20% less surface area than conventional buildings. This 13 story “egg” will use solar photovoltaic panels and rooftop wind turbines to generate on-site electricity. In focusing on health and wellness, it will interact with occupant’s vital health statistics such as blood pressure and weight. The 32,000 square meter egg-shaped building will combine “iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent systems, and new engineering to create an awe-inspiring landmark in the city.”

The Gherkin skyscraper in London, UK. Designed by Norman Foster and constructed by Skanska, Gherkin has 40 floors and stands 591 feet tall. For energy savings, this unusual shaped building incorporates the double glazing effect. It has gaps in each floor to create six shafts, or chimneys, trapping air between two layers of glazing to insulate the office spaces.

Pysanka (Easter Egg) Museum in Kolomyya city, Ukraine. It is the only museum in the world, which was specially constructed for keeping and exhibiting the works of pysanka painting. The Museum is a home of 15 thousands Easter Eggs from all over the world. Pysankas for this museum began to be collected in the 1950s, with some of the Easter eggs dating to the late XIX century. Pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method, and considered to be a work of miniature painting. The art of the pysanka dates back to ancient times.  As long as the egg decorating custom continues, the world will exist. If, for any reason, this custom is abandoned, evil will overrun the world.

London City Hall is located on the south bank of the River Thames. Its unusual egg-like shape reduces surface area and improves energy efficiency. Inside the ten-story building, a 1,640 foot spiral staircase goes up to an exhibition and meeting space called “London’s Living Room.”

Peek & Cloppenburg Department Store is structure by Renzo Piano is a rather strange department store in the centre of Cologne, Germany. It definitely is a landmark in the city and helps to orientate within it. It’s glass façade shows high ambitions and the wooden structure which sustains the glass panels is highly sophisticated and elegant. You enter the building at its rear end and will only be able to experience it’s beauty by climbing behind the stalled goods.

The egg-shaped building of National Archive in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Bird watchers get a great view from this egg-shaped lookout at Banna Park on Ishigaki Island, Japan. Banna Park on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan is a sanctuary for more than 2500 species of birds. This playful overlook is an example of programmatic, or mimetic, architecture. Its shape refers to its theme of wild birdlife.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts, also known as The Egg, is a 129,000 square foot titanium and glass opera house in Beijing, China. The Opera House, The Hall, and The Theatre. It is said to look like an egg floating on the water; an artificial lake surrounds it. The hallway goes underneath the lake, but with a massive glass ceiling, light shines through the water to give visitors an otherworldly experience. The Egg was designed by French architect Paul Andreu. It held its first concert in 2007.

A unique egg-shaped residential house was built in Moscow, Russia, in 2002 by architects Sergei Tkachenko and Oleg Dubrovsky. This four-story, 342-square-meter house resembles a huge Fabergé egg (the sophisticated jeweled creations associated with the royally family). Thanks to its shape it’s the most unique private home on the market.  Obviously inspired by an egg, the architect has created the body in red and the bottom in white which gives it a look of an egg stand. The domed roof lined with arched and rounded windows and looks like wrought jewel work.

The museum of Salvador Dali in Figueres, Spain, is not egg-shaped as such, but instead is so generously decorated with eggs that we just could not skip it! The Dalí Theatre-Museum, the largest surrealistic object in the world, occupies the building of the former Municipal Theatre, a 19th century construction which was destroyed at the end of the Spanish Civil War. On its ruins, Dalí decided to create his museum. Inaugurated in 1974, the museum contains the broadest range of works spanning the artistic career of Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), from his earliest artistic experiences and his surrealist creations down to the works of the last years of his life.