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"Gigantic, alien-looking buildings" that bring to mind melted guitars, mushroom-like parasols and UFOs.

That's how some of the world's finest examples of "blob buildings" have been described, by the company that wants to celebrate them.

Building data company Emporis of Hamburg, Germany, usually gives kudos to more traditional architectural triumphs, such as these new skyscrapers completed last year.

But this time "we felt that it's time to highlight this interesting and visually appealing topic," says Sarah Krenz, in the Emporis public relations office.

What makes a building a blob?

"Unconventional, right-angle-free geometric shapes," according to the report. It's also known as "liquid architecture."

Emporis cites the Experience Music Project in Seattle, locally known as "The Blob," as a prime example.

Others include the Golden Terraces in Warsaw, "whose wavy roof, created from 4,700 separate glass elements, rests like a frozen liquid over the atrium of this multi-story shopping center."

As well as standing out from other buildings in their vicinity, blob buildings often conjure imaginative responses from the public, not always complimentary.

While the Selfridges Building, a shopping center in Birmingham, England, is known as the Beehive due to its honeycomb-like façade, the London City Hall was once described as a "glass testicle."

This list anticipates the opening next year of another "blob" -- the exhibition building Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Création in Paris, designed by Frank O. Gehry.

1. Metropol Parasol (Spain)