Spaceships, alien architecture, moving buildings, giant robots: what do all of these have in common? Yes, they can all easily be found in a myriad of sci-fi, futuristic movies, and tv shows - but they can also exist right here and now, in our timeline!
Human creativity knows no bounds; or rather no frontiers. Plucked right out of seemingly future space and time, these destinations will have travelers feel like they’ve gone not just to another place, but also to other timelines.
10 Museum of Contemporary Art, Brazil
The aliens have touched the bays of Niterói, Brazil! A few kilometers from the state capital, Rio de Janeiro, stands the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, on the edge of a cliff as a spaceship that just landed. The 1996 structure was designed by iconic Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who was also responsible for the next item on this list!
9 Brasilia, Brazil
Brazil’s federal district and capital, Brasilia, was an ambitious urban project: the first entirely planned city in the country, it was built in the 1950s to resemble the shape of an airplane. Its Three Powers Plaza houses the modernist buildings of Brazil’s National Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace, slender and alien, which wouldn’t look out of place in a space opera setting. The Cathedral of Brasilia, with its glass structure and abstract shape reaching upwards to the sky, inspires the awe fit for a church from the future.
8 Marina Bay, Singapore
The futuristic attractions in Marina Bay, Singapore, could double as a World of Tomorrow theme park - but it’s a very real place that surrounds the Downtown and Bay area in Singapore. Marina Bay has everything: Gardens straight out of Avatar, architectural feats that make up a skyline better suited for 2042, eco-friendly parks, and events and attractions all year long. It’s a prime futuristic entertainment, living, and touristic waterfront center.
7 Odaiba Gundam Statue, Japan
Tokyo, the well-known inspiration behind many futuristic cities in the media à la Blade Runner, has no shortage of seemingly futuristic gadgets that make up the town's day-to-day, such as anything-you-can-imagine vending machines, automatic bathrooms, and lots of neon. One of its most fun future-hopping attractions is the 18-meter tall statue in perfect detail of a Gundam robot in Shiozake Park.
6 Alvernia Motion Picture Studios, Poland
In Cracow, a sprawling maze of half underground bubbles interconnected by glass tunnels looks every inch like a base of operation in the Matrix - but it's actually one of Europe’s most promising film studios. Alvernia Motion Picture Studios produces movies, creates special effects, and hosts events and festivals - all that from inside its sci-fi, Atomium-looking structure.
5 Universum Science Center, Germany
Somewhere between a metal whale and a massive spaceship, the Universum Science Center in Bremen, Germany is as fascinating on the inside as on the outside. Interactive exhibitions inside this Silver Whale take visitors on a real expedition through science, history, and the future in the categories of Nature, Mankind, and Technology.
4 Pierre Cardin’s Bubble Palace, France
Pierre Cardin was a visionary stylist, and his imagination was not just restricted to clothes. Sprawling, and almost seemingly melting on the cliffside of the Côte d’Azur coast in France, is his retro-futuristic, surreal space-age modern house: the Palais Bulles, a.k.a Bubble Palace, is a mansion made entirely of bubbly structures, round furniture, and fish tank windows overlooking the French coast.
3 Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Spain
A scientific and cultural center in Valencia, as can be inferred by the name - City of the Arts and Sciences-, La Ciudad looks not only to the past and present but also to the future. The complex features various structures that house artworks, scientific, interactive exhibits, a planetarium, an oceanographic park, covered gardens, uncovered gardens, and even an agora. They are built and designed in long lines, slick curves cutting through glass, resembling a futuristic, alien compound - or, you know… a fish in the waters of Turia river.
2 Nur-Sultan (Astana), Kazakhstan
Nur-Sultan, which was recently named Astana, is the futuristic, Tomorrowland-worthy capital of Kazakhstan. On the other side of Tokyo’s neon future or Brasilia’s slick space-age modernism, Astana has the quirky futuristic vibe down, like a pavilion in 2062’s World Expo, perfectly represented in one of its iconic buildings, Bayterek Tower, which calls back to cosmic imagery (or, as the locals often call it, a lollipop) and The Sphere - literally the Museum of the Future. Influences from various backgrounds are present in Nur-Sultan, which makes sense for the melting pot of cultures that is Kazakhstan.
1 Zhuhai Opera House, China
Built-in twin abstract shell-like shapes, Zhuhai Opera House, also known as Zhuhai Grand Theater, was built to try to capture the dynamic of the nature around it: the rising tide, the moon that influences it, the ebb and flow of the waters that converge on the bay of Zhuhai in the. the Guangdong province. Zhuhai Opera House has a 550 seat indoor theater, 1.500 seat opera house, and a 350 seat outdoor theater, not counting art exhibit venues, promenade and outlook areas, and multi-event spaces.
In here, it feels like it might be just the perfect place to hear the music of the universe, as a generation of the future.