From New Zealand to Austria, and a few places in between, architect, environmentalist, and thinker Friedensreich Hundertwasser has left his mark with the presence of some pretty jaw droppingly spectacular and rather quirky buildings.Born December 15, 1928, Hundertwasser studied in Vienna. His best-known work is considered Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria which has become an Austrian landmark, known for its liveliness and creative construction, especially against the backdrop of traditional Austrian architecture. The common themes in many of Hundertwasser’s works are his use of bright colours, organic forms, individuality, the desire to reconcile humans with nature, and the overall rejection of straight lines, which he calls “godless.”

(MORE: )In his , he points out an interesting discrepancy between how society views arts versus architecture: “Painting and sculpture are now free, inasmuch as anyone may produce any sort of creation and subsequently display it. In architecture, however, this fundamental freedom, which must be regarded as a precondition for any art, does not exist, for a person must first have a diploma in order to build. Why?”Millennials are giving Hundertwasser some due attention, with the exceeding 36,700 tags, and exceeding 22,200 tags.

Hundertwasser’s architecture was a clear depiction of his weltanschauung, worldview, which saw the value in human individualism, peace, and opposed all forms of standardization and globalization. He believed that people should take full ownership of their homes, of their spaces, and that form of self-expression is a fundamental freedom.“Today we live in a chaos of straight lines, in a jungle of straight lines. If you do not believe this, take the trouble to count the straight lines which surround you,” Hundertwasser wrote in his manifesto. “Then you will understand, for you will never finish counting.” To continue on this metaphor and in developing his philosophy, he wrote, “This jungle of straight lines, which is entangling us more and more like inmates in a prison, must be cleared. Until now, man has always cleared away the jungles he was in and freed himself. But to clear a jungle you must first become aware that you are in one, for this jungle took form stealthily, unnoticed by mankind. And this time it is a jungle of straight lines.”And for that reason, he started building some of the trippiest buildings in Europe. Yes, some of his work resembles that of Gaudi in Barcelona, Spain, an architect and thinker who he respected profoundly.He also believed in whole harmony with nature, an idea he developed in the early 1970s, which is why many of his designs embed places of dwelling into their natural surroundings, like his notorious Bottle House in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. It was in fact there where he realized and actualized this idea of living in nature. In the Bottle House, he used solar panels for energy and his own water purification system.Though he died in February 2000, Hundertwasser’s legacy lives on in his buildings, his philosophies, museums, and Instagram.

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Artist rendering of Hotel Unbalance, to be built in Lima, Peru. (Credit: OOIIO)