The Asia Pacific region is home to some of the world’s most advanced designs and iconic buildings, including the Shanghai Tower, the Petronas Towers and the Marina Bay Sands.

It is also home to some more, shall we say, interesting buildings, developments with a singular approach to design and aesthetics. These might not win architectural awards but they do add a certain something to the skyline… More importantly, they show that Asian entrepreneurs have a sense of humour.

Why go to all the trouble to get rich if you can’t have a bit of fun? Liu Dejian, the founder and chairman of Chinese gaming company NetDragon Websoft, is a big fan of sci fi television series Star Trek. So much so that when he build a new headquarters building for his company in Changle, Fujian, he built it in the shape of the Starship Enterprise (see above).

The design is no knock-off, but officially licensed from CBS, which owns the Star Trek franchise. Our aerial shot shows off the space age lines of the building, but the design is also cleverly discreet, looking far more like a normal office building from ground level.

Don’t panic! Despite its appearance the King Power MahaNakhon is not on the verge of collapse. This dramatic 314 metre skyscraper takes the form of a glass curtain walled square tower with a cuboid spiral cut into the side of the building, giving it a “pixelated” appearance which leaves the observer unsure if it is quite real.

The pixelated sections allowed the developer to create balconies for some of the building’s luxury apartments, which are amongst the most expensive in Bangkok.

When Indian businessman Vijay Mallya, chairman of United Breweries Group, wanted to build a luxury apartment block on the site of his family home, he didn’t want to miss out on the villa lifestyle.

So, his ‘penthouse’ on the top of Kingfisher Towers in Bangalore (pictured above) was designed to resemble the White House, official residence of US presidents. Sadly, however, Mallya has so far been unable to move in. He is residing in the UK, fighting to avoid extradition to India over fraud charges.

Japan is home to some of the world’s most exciting and innovative architecture, ranging from mega-towers with colossal floor plates to tiny vertical homes adapted to Tokyo’s smallest spaces.

We have picked two, both of which show a certain eccentricity. Ark Nova (left) is an inflatable concert hall, designed by Arata Isozaki and Anish Kapoor to tour regions in Japan affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. With a slightly unsettlingly organic appearance, the building hosted a number of concerts around Japan.

The Aoyama Technical College in Tokyo (right) was designed to “represent a new order through the tolerance of chaos,” apparently. We’re not really sure what that means, but it does look like a giant robot!

If any organisation has committed itself to the mantra that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth overdoing, it is Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau. Just as Macau has long since surpassed Las Vegas as the gaming capital of the world, the Grand Lisbao cements it’s position as the capital of bling.

The 261-metre tall hotel and casino has 800 gaming tables and 1,000 slot machines. It is also very, very shiny.