The Art of Fixing What’s Broken (9 Photos)
Content warning: From cracked walls to twisted fences, these artists turned urban damage into delightful art. This collection features mosaic patchwork in Lyon, LEGO-infused stonework in Germany, and a charming book repair outside a library in Russia. Every photo shows ho
From cracked walls to twisted fences, these artists turned urban damage into delightful art. This collection features mosaic patchwork in Lyon, LEGO-infused stonework in Germany, and a charming book repair outside a library in Russia. Every photo shows how a simple intervention can spark imagination and breathe life into neglected spots.
More: 8 Inspiring Sculptures Seamlessly Integrated with Nature
1. Love Dog — Street Art in Leipzig, Germany
A peeling wall becomes the body of a dog, with the missing plaster forming its shape. The line art shows the dog gently nuzzling a bird, with a heart drawn above them.
2. Girl With Band-Aids
On a cracked asphalt surface, a young girl sits in black-and-white, carefully placing oversized band-aids to “heal” the broken pavement beneath her.
3. LEGO Brick Repair — By Jan Vormann
A damaged stone wall is rebuilt using colorful LEGO bricks, creating a striking contrast between old and new materials in a playful visual patch.
More!: Repairing the World with LEGO
4. The Stitch — Repair Art on Concrete Wall by ENDER in Paris, France
A vertical wall crack is creatively “stitched” together with red thread and paint. A painted figure at the base pulls the thread tight like a seamstress mending the wall.
More!: Repair Cracks with Art
5. Mosaic Patch — Ememem in Lyon, France
A triangle-shaped pothole near a lamppost is filled with intricate mosaic tiles in blue, white, and red tones. It forms a circular pattern radiating outward.
More!: Repairing Streets with Artful Mosaics (14 Photos)
6. Bent Fence Dog
A bent metal gate has been deformed as if a dog had leapt through it. A “Beware of Dog” sign is humorously placed on the warped bars.
7. Dancing Railing — Street Art by Oakoak
Rusted fence bars bent and painted to resemble two abstract human figures dancing, with added cartoon faces in pink, positioned against a stone building.
More!: From Homer Simpson to Obelix: Oakoak’s Genius Street Art! (10 Photos)
8. Book Wall — Samara Public Library in Yekaterinburg, Russia
Crumbled concrete at the base of a historic building is repaired with a stack of real books set in mortar, replacing missing bricks with bound literature.
9. The Crooked House of Windsor — Windsor, England
The Crooked House of Windsor was originally built in 1592 and later demolished in 1687 to make way for the neighboring Guildhall. A legal dispute forced the council to rebuild it on the same spot. To complete the reconstruction quickly, they used green, unseasoned oak wood with a high moisture content. As the wood dried, it warped and buckled, leaving the building with its characteristic lean. Once known as Market Cross House, it has served many purposes over the centuries, including a butcher shop and a teahouse. Today, its tilted form remains one of Windsor’s most recognizable sights.
These clever repairs show how creativity can restore more than just surfaces—it can change how we see the world around us. Whether with books, LEGO, thread, or tiles, these interventions prove that even damage can become part of a city’s beauty.
More: Playing with statues (25 photos)
Which one is your favorite?
Buildings That Look Like They’re From a Dream (8 Photos)
From a church in Iceland that looks like a spaceship preparing for launch, to a house zipped open on a street in Milan — this collection showcases architecture at its most imaginative. Included are cliffside wartime refuges, storybook cottages, optical illusions, and centuries-old constructions that defy gravity or blend perfectly into mountains. These aren’t digital renderings — they’re real places from around the world.
More: 8 Beautiful Artworks That Seem to Grow From Nature
1. Unzipped Building — Alex Chinneck in Milan, Italy
A building facade appears to peel open like a jacket, with an oversized zipper curling away the wall to reveal its inner structure. This public installation by Alex Chinneck uses stone, concrete, and illusion to challenge how we perceive architecture.
2. King Alfred’s Tower — England
This red-brick triangular tower rises dramatically from the fog in Somerset, England. Built in 1772, it commemorates Alfred the Great and reaches over 49 meters high with a narrow footprint that adds to its illusion of impossibility.
3. Alpine Refuge — Monte Cristallo, Italy
Located at 2,760 meters in the Dolomites, this hidden wooden shelter from World War I is embedded directly into the rockface. Built for survival, it now appears like a dreamlike relic barely distinguishable from the mountain.
4. Hallgrímskirkja Church — Reykjavík, Iceland
This iconic Lutheran church, inspired by basalt columns and volcanic formations, dominates the Reykjavík skyline. Designed in 1937 and completed in 1986, its symmetry and scale evoke science fiction architecture.
5. The House That Sank — The Crooked House, UK
Built in 1765 on top of a mine shaft, this British pub developed a pronounced tilt as the ground beneath it slowly gave way. Despite its slanting angles, it remained a local favorite for centuries.
6. Organic Slate Roof House — Germany
This home with flowing lines and a wave-shaped slate roof blurs the line between fairy tale and high-end eco-architecture. Natural stone and soft curves give it a whimsical yet grounded appearance.
7. Cliff House — France (Built 1347)
Balanced between eras and gravity, this timber-framed upper house sits atop massive medieval stonework. Located in France and completed in 1347, it seems to hover above the road with support beams stretching underneath.
8. Rock-Built Homes — Sanaa, Yemen
Traditional Yemeni tower houses in Sanaa rise directly from the rock, combining ancient stone masonry with ornate white geometric window frames. The buildings appear both sculpted by nature and intricately human-made.These buildings bend our expectations of what architecture can be — not just structures, but expressions of ingenuity, adaptation, and creativity. Whether carved into mountains or dressed like zippers, they show that the line between surreal and real is thinner than it seems.
More: 30 Sculptures You (probably) Didn’t Know Existed
Which one is your favorite?
