It's not unusual for buildings to gather affectionate nicknames, especially when they bear a striking resemblance to commonplace objects. We've scoured the globe for some of the most innovative and interesting examples of mimetic architecture, where the inspiration – or unintentional result – is an uncanny look-a-like of an everyday item. 

From pineapples to picture frames, and binoculars to baskets, click or scroll to see some of our favourite doppelganger structures...

No, you're not dreaming! This building is shaped like a guitar, standing on its end. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino lies in Hollywood, Florida, and was designed by Klai Juba Wald Architecture + Interiors. It opened its doors in 2019 and the response was, perhaps unsurprisingly, varied.

Rising 400 feet into the air, the hotel was shaped to represent the hallmarks of the Hard Rock brand. Immersive design studio, FLOAT4, transformed it into "a digital sculpture", Design Boom says.

Capable of "presenting a multitude of visual effects and presentations", the façade features 2.3 million LED lights, as well as lasers and video mapping. At night, lights dart from the top of the building, resembling the neck and strings of a guitar.

As for the structure itself, it was made using 40,000 cubic yards of ready-mix concrete. To achieve the silhouette, the structure was crafted with varying floor sizes, creating "narrowing and widening", For Construction Pros explains.

At each of the curves, the exterior columns were inserted on a slope by as much as 40 degrees. Part of a wider development estimated at £1.2 billion ($1.5b), the amazing building has 34 floors, numerous restaurants and a series of outdoor pools around its base.

Typically, office buildings aren't very fun or exciting, but the headquarters of India's National Fisheries Development Board certainly is. Located in the city of Hyderabad, it was designed for the country's national fisheries and aquaculture industry.

The shape of the building is incredibly apt and features everything from eyes and a mouth, to exterior tiles and windows that resemble scales.

Nicknamed Fish Building, it was built in 2012 and features four floors across its 20,666-square-foot interior. It was reportedly inspired by Frank Gehry's ‘Fish’ sculpture, which lies in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

The building is clad in stainless steel panels and is almost completely raised off the ground thanks to pale blue support pillars, giving the impression the fish is swimming.

To this day, the building remains the HQ for India's fisheries and no doubt the workers love heading into the office each morning.

Unsurprisingly, the structure went viral globally in 2018 and it's still considered one of the boldest and most playful examples of mimetic architecture in the world.

One look at this building in Los Angeles, California, and you'll know exactly what it's meant to be. Carefully crafted to resemble a pair of binoculars, the building was originally designed for the advertising agency Chait/Day, by architect Frank Gehry.

Gehry’s designed two separate structures, so he needed to find a way to connect them. He decided to do so by using a “giant random object” as a sculptural bridge, according to Designing Buildings.

Gehry turned to his friends, artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, to design the sculpture. It was then constructed on a steel frame, clad with concrete and cement plaster.

Finally, it was coated with elastomeric paint. The Binoculars Building was completed in 1991, with the discovery of toxic waste on the site leading to some delays. 

Not just there for aesthetic purposes, the gap beneath the structure is the access point to the building, for both cars and pedestrians. It also contains conference rooms, which no doubt have very unusual dimensions.

In 2022, this Venice Beach icon was named the World's Largest Binoculars Sculpture and it's now reportedly leased by Google.

Bangkok's Chang Building has been nicknamed Elephant Tower, thanks to its unusual aesthetic. With tall legs, a trunk-like façade and even a pair of eyes, the cubist structure is as bizarre as it gets.

Standing 335 feet high and 560 feet long, the building is a national landmark and was designed in 1997 by engineering and real estate mogul, Arun Chaiseri.

Elephants are an important part of Thai culture. In fact, they are a national symbol of strength and intelligence. So, the property was crafted to mimic the forms of this sacred animal.

Inside, there's a shopping mall, offices and luxury apartments. Amazingly, the elephant even has ears, which are actually multi-storey balconies with city views, and a tail that is comprised of 20 floors of "smoked-glass enclosed rooms jutting from its rear".

At the front, two 'tusks' house the offices of the building's management company. How's that for weird and wonderful?

No prizes for guessing this building's look-a-like. Located in Chiayi County, Taiwan, this shoe-shaped structure is, in fact, a church.

Sculpted from over 320 tinted glass panels at a cost of NT$23 million, which equates to £569,600 ($714k), the result is pretty astounding.

Commissioned by the local government, the church was built to commemorate the Blackfoot Disease outbreak that struck Taiwan in the 1950s and resembles Cinderella's glass slipper. Opened to the public in 2016, the super-structure is almost 58 feet high (no pun intended) and 82 feet long.

Famed as the country's most unique wedding venue, the church was recognised by the Guinness World Records in 2016 as the world's largest building shaped like a shoe. 

​Inside, the toe of the shoe features a space for worship and can accommodate up to 100 people.

‘The Beehive’ is what the New Zealand Parliament’s Executive Wing building is more commonly known as, thanks to its uniquely tiered honeycomb shape.

Located in the capital of Wellington, it's where the Prime Minister and Cabinet Members meet. The structure is connected to Bowen House, where many members of Parliament have offices, by an underground tunnel that runs underneath Bowen Street.

The initial design by Scottish architect Sir Basil Spence didn't prove popular when it was first proposed in 1964. In fact, according to New Zealand's official parliament website, some called the concept Executive Wing "a shocker".

The Prime Minister at the time, Robert Muldoon, formally opened the building in May 1977 and the government moved into the upper floors in 1979.

The Beehive is 236 feet tall, with four subterranean floors, 10 above ground and a roof made from a whopping 20 tonnes of copper. With Wellington prone to earthquakes, it's also been designed to withstand tremors of up to 7.5 on the Richter Scale.

After its lukewarm reception, it's now considered an iconic landmark and a source of national pride.

30 St Mary Axe got its nickname ‘The Gherkin’ thanks to its elongated, vegetable-like design. The brainchild of British architectural firm, Foster + Partners, it was designed to be London’s first "ecological tall building" and has been described as an "unmistakable icon known to everyone, everywhere". 

The soaring skyscraper, which is 591 feet tall, was completed in 2004 and serves as luxury offices for various high-profile companies. It's also occasionally open to the public for special events, like the Open House Festival, which gives people the chance to step inside some of the city's most famous buildings.

The structure covers 41 floors and has 18 passenger lifts that travel up to 20 feet a second. Alternatively, you can take the 1,037 stairs, if you're feeling fit. Mainly built from steel, the building weighs a hefty 10,000 tonnes.

However, its design makes it highly sustainable and it boasts natural ventilation systems, which means The Gherkin is "capable of using less energy than most of its newer neighbours". In 2004, it was the winner of the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize.

Perched on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland, the SEC Armadillo was built in 2000. The auditorium, which seats 3,000 people, was designed by the same team behind The Gherkin, esteemed British architects, Foster + Partners.

The architects' inspiration for the design, which is often compared to the Sydney Opera House, was an interlocking series of boat hulls, paying tribute to the Clyde's shipbuilding heritage.

However, it's not difficult to spot the hard shell of an armadillo in the structure, either. To create the shape, overlapping, aluminium-clad shells were installed over a flat frame.

Today, the venue hosts conferences, exhibitions, live performances, concerts and corporate functions and has even been used for TV talent shows Britain's Got Talent and X Factor auditions. It's also a venue for sports and the weightlifting events for the 2014 Commonwealth Games took place inside the Armadillo.

An example of novelty architecture, this teapot-shaped gas station in Zillah, Washington, was intended as a reminder of the 1922 Teapot Dome Scandal, which occurred during Warren G. Harding's presidency.

The debacle saw the fraudulent leasing of the federal Teapot Dome oil fields, by the then Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon Fall, for which he was later imprisoned. 

The little gas station, which stands just 15 feet tall, is formally known as the Teapot Dome Service Station. It was handcrafted by Jack Ainsworth in 1922 and was originally located on Highway 410, between the cities of Zillah and Granger.

The 1920s and '30s saw an increase in similar novelty roadside structures, as the national highway system expanded. It was operated as a gas station for decades, until 1978, when the construction of the I-82 highway forced the removal of the building from its original position.

Five days before the scheduled move, the teapot was hit by a car and completely collapsed. Fortunately, the building was reconstructed and then moved, with the help of the State Department of Transportation, just over one mile away.

In 2007, it was bought by the city of Zillah and in 2012, it was moved to its current location, on 117 First Avenue in Zillah. It is now also on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places.

Formally known as the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), The Egg is technically an ellipsoid dome that's made of titanium and glass, surrounded by an artificial lake. But thanks to its reflection in the water below, the structure takes on the appearance of an egg – albeit one that is perfectly oval.

Designed by French architect, Paul Andreu, the 129,000-square-foot structure has a 696-foot dome from end to end and is 151 feet high in the centre. Construction began in December 2001 and its inaugural concert was held in December 2007. The building is said to seat 5,452 people across three halls.

Its futuristic design caused controversy at the time, since the structure was built close to the Forbidden City, in an area better known for its traditional Chinese architecture.

To combat this, Andreu's building was designed to both stand as a modern beacon and to complement the red walls of nearby ancient buildings, to softly meld into the surroundings. Incredibly, the building cost a reported 3.2 billion Chinese Yuan, which is £353 million ($442m).

In London, 20 Fenchurch Street is the official name for the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ building, nicknamed for its distinctive look-a-like shape. It was finished in 2014 and boasts a three-floor sky garden at the top. It is London’s highest public garden and provides 360-degree views of the city’s iconic skyline. 

The Walkie-Talkie was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects as "a high-performance, energy-efficient building on a compact site in the heart of the City of London".

The building's shape, narrow at the bottom and bulging at the top, enabled the architects to stick to the plot's limits, while providing "additional floor area to the valuable upper stories". Standing 525 feet tall, it has 32 levels of office space, a double-height entrance lobby, an open-air terrace and two restaurants.

The building was originally proposed to reach 656 feet, but this plan was rejected over concerns it would affect the skyline around nearby St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London. The amended building was not without controversy, though. Even with its revised height, it was the subject of a public inquiry, thanks to continued concerns over its impact on the surrounding area.

Though the inquiry ruled in the developers’ favour, the structure hasn't been universally popular, winning the Carbuncle Cup for the worst new building in the UK in 2015. Plus, the structure is said to have melted cars with a “death ray”, caused by its reflective glass.

An apartment complex in Aarhus, Denmark, the Isbjerget – meaning iceberg in the local language – was part of the district’s plans to transform the former port town into a vibrant new neighbourhood.

Completed in 2013 and designed to look like a float of icebergs, the structures house 7,000 people across 208 apartments and 12,000 workplaces, making it one of the largest harbour-front developments in Europe.

The building is unusual in this list, as it was designed to look like an iceberg intentionally, rather than nicknamed by locals for its accidental resemblance. It was imagined by a combination of two Danish, one Dutch and one French design studio, who were inspired by the site’s extraordinary location.

Their aim was simply to maximise views and sunlight for every single apartment, which is especially important during the dark northern winters. At the same time, their design needed to respect its surroundings.

The Iceberg is laid out in four L-shaped wings, according to Archdaily, with the street spaces in between open towards the water. "In order to obtain optimal daylight conditions and views over the bay, the building volumes are cut up by jagged lines", while the roofs "rise and fall into peaks and valleys", creating "visual passages" akin to floating icebergs.

The unusual geometry allows for a range of dwelling types, from two-storey townhouses and small studio flats to exclusive luxury penthouses in the iceberg's 'peaks'. The project won Best Residential Development at the MIPIM Awards 2013.

At 492 feet high and 311 feet wide, the Dubai Frame is the UAE’s latest cultural landmark. Positioned in the city's Zabeel Park, it also holds the Guinness World Record as the largest building in the shape of a picture frame in the world.

The project was conceived by Rotterdam-based architect, Fernando Donis, who won an international competition, organised by the Dubai Municipality and German company ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Donis beat over 900 entrants by designing a structure that would literally frame the city's impressive collection of old and new buildings through its void.

As well as a 305-foot viewing platform featuring glass walkways, there’s also a neon vortex tunnel that invites visitors into an interactive, augmented reality exhibition on Dubai’s past, present and future. 

Not just impressive in its appearance, the Dubai Frame is also a feat of engineering. Over 9,900 cubic metres (3,496 tonnes) of reinforced concrete, 2,000 tonnes of steel and 31,215 square feet of laminated glass were used in its construction. Plus, some 161,458 square feet of gold-coloured stainless steel covers the frame.

Again, this unusual building wasn't without its controversy. According to the New York Times, Donis filed a lawsuit against the Dubai Municipality in 2017, claiming he never received a contract or any compensation for his design. However, the Dubai government dismissed Donis' claims, stating that he received £79,700 ($100k) in prize money, for winning the competition.

Resembling a bottle opener (or a vegetable peeler, if you prefer), the Kingdom Centre stretches 991 feet over Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Strategically situated "at the intersection of the most important roads in Riyadh", it is a symbol of modern Riyadh, a touristic destination and an "incomparable world-class attraction".

Developed by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, it was designed by architects Ellerbe Becket and Omrania and completed in 2002. Due to its towering height, the building was constructed using two types of stability systems – reinforced concrete columns and a steel frame structure. 

The most intriguing part of the tower is its ‘bottle opener’ top – an inverted parabolic arch, in architecture speak. The 300-tonne sky bridge, which joins the two sides of the tower together, forms a long, window-lined corridor for members of the public to take in the incredible views. The tower also boasts a shopping mall, offices, a five-star hotel and luxury apartments.

Another example of novelty architecture, the Basket Building in Newark, Ohio, is the former headquarters of the Longaberger Company, who manufactured, rather fittingly, baskets! It was created as a replica of the company's best-selling product, the Medium Market Basket, but 160 times bigger.

Initially, architects proposed a design that subtly referenced the basket, but the company's founder, Dave Longaberger, apparently pointed to one of the baskets and told them to “make it look exactly like that”.

The basket is seven storeys high, with a 180,000-square-foot floorplan. It is said to have cost the company £24 million ($30m) to build and was finished in 1997. Inside, there's a central atrium, which draws in natural light through a glass roof.

It's topped by two steel handles, each weighing 75 tonnes, which are fitted with heating elements to prevent them from freezing. This also protects the glass atrium below from falling ice. On either side of the bonkers building, you'll also find two gold-leaf 'Longaberger' logos, measuring 175 square feet. 

In 2018, after the company folded, local developer Steve Coon bought The Basket for a reported £956,000 ($1.2m), significantly less than the asking price of £6 million ($7.5m). It's unclear what Coon did with the building, but it remains popular with local residents and has also now been named the world's largest basket building.

Aptly named, The Big Pineapple lies in the South African municipality of Bathurst, on agricultural land known for producing the tropical fruit. Measuring just under 56 feet tall, it is, rather unsurprisingly, the world’s largest pineapple-shaped building. 

Apparently, farmers settled in the area in the 18th century, but struggled to successfully grow crops. However, after planting pineapples, they soon began reaping the rewards.

Members of Bathurst’s agricultural community decided to honour the fruit that brought them prosperity, by constructing The Big Pineapple in the 1980s.

Crafted from metal and fibreglass, the building features three floors, as well as an observation deck beneath its leaves. From here, people can take in the surrounding pineapple plantations, while inside there's a museum dedicated to the fruit, with a range of pineapple products available for lucky visitors to sample and buy.

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