The galloping development of mobile technology has made the public phone booths more and more redundant. However, the fact that it is abandoned doesn’t mean they’re not still cool.
If you pay enough attention, you will find that some of them are so awesome that them will make you change your opinion about the boring old school wired technology. Check out this gallery of the 24 most bizarre and creative phone booth designs around the world below and give your local phone booth a second look the next time you pass by it.
Phone Booth Aquarium
Image Via: Friggin Random
This fish tank made out of an old phone booth is an incredible recycled art created by Benoit Deseille and Benedetto Bufalino, for “le festival Lumières de Lyon”, the annual festival of light in Lyon, France. In case of emergency, just try not to break the glass.
Alive Phone Booths
They are the cutest and the most creative phone booths you can ever find! The arm gestures drawn on the wall, when accompanied by the booth shadows on the ground, create the lively phone booths portraits.
Hello Kitty Phone Booth
Image Via: KittyHell
The alive phone booths are no longer the cutest when you see this Hello Kitty phone booth, provided that you are a girl and crazy about any Hello Kitty related products. The white kitty, the red hair bow, even the girl standing under it, everything is irresistibly adorable.
Beach Phone Booth
Image Via: Ridere
We call it a beach phone booth not only because it’s next to a beach. Its beautiful color mix and the attached beach umbrella bring you the breeze of the ocean from the look.
Ice Alaska Phone Booth
Image Via: Xomba
Ice is probably one of the first things that pop up in your mind when somebody mentions Alaska. To make the ice less cold and Alaska more attractive to visitors, Ice Alaska in Fairbanks has organized the U.S. National Ice Carving Championship where they feature stunning ice artworks including this extremely well done ice phone booth.
Chattanooga Phone Booth
Image Via: Chattanooga TN Charm
Known as Chattanooga art district, Bluff View resembles a quaint little European town located on a scenic bluff over the Tennessee River. Everything here is a work of art, even the public phone booth.
Zurich Phone Booth
Image Via: Zurich Daily Photo
With the design straight out of a sci-fi scene, this phone booth, found in Zurich, can stand for itself as a street art piece in case it’s no longer used as a phone booth.
Italian Phone Booth
Image Via: Kitkatgo
Once you go to Italy, you are destined to find some masterpiece design pieces, either in Renaissance sculptures, in fashion, or in phone booths.
Japanese Phone Booths
Images Via: Weird Asia News
Japan once again proves that not only Western countries can be creative when it comes to public phone booth designs. The land of cuteness justifies its sense of aesthetics with a series of stunning phone booths. Different in designs, one thing they have in common is the unique look that you can find nowhere else in the world.
Dubai Gothic Phone Booth
Image Via: Brady
Found in Diving Village, Dubai, this cool shape of this phone booth reminds us of pointed arch windows of a Gothic church. The two oil lamps on its sides are there to add to its antiquity.
New York Phone Booth
Image Via: sisterpuff
New York – one of the most exciting cities on earth – wouldn’t let itself left behind in this phone booth competition. Its phone booths are simple yet stunning. Somehow the middle light’s not working makes the set up kind of art.
Chinese UFO Phone Booth
Image Via: Theshanghaieye
There must be a reason why many travelers name phone booth as one of the things they like the most about China. This glamorous orange twin booth can be found in almost every street corner in Beijing.
Brazilian Phone Booth
Image Via: betta design
Called orelhão (big ear), the distinctive Brazilian phone booth was invented in 1971. If you are relating this phone booth to the one in China above, you have reason to do so as it was designed by a Shanghai born architect called Chu Ming Silveira.
Brazilian Chicken Phone Booth
Image Via: Dale Walsh
Located in Chicken Port town in Brazil, this phone booth resembles a chicken. Here comes a chicken and egg question: the town got the name from its chicken phone booth, or because of the town’s name that its phone booths got their special chicken design?
Russian Shark Phone Booth
Image Via: English Russia
A street artist in Russia did an amazing work to turn the local boring phone booths into lively shark booths. One must see the human head disappearing behind the intimidating jaw to admire the beauty of the artwork. Unfortunately, the owners of the local phone company are businessmen, not artists. The immediately sent the repairmen to turn the booths back to their deep-blue virgin state.
Egg Shaped Phone Booth
Image Via: Rachel
Even though it’s unclear where the phone booth was found, we know for sure that it’d be a crazily fun experience to make your stealth phone call in this egg shaped phone booth. It’s small enough for an adult to huddle himself/herself up to fit in, and big enough for a kids to enjoy hide and seek.
Hopscotch Phone Booth
Image Via: FAKE
No this is not a thousand dollars advertising idea, but merely a smart move from an ultra creative person who wants to make his street look cool. According to the creator, it took them 45 minutes to clean the phone booth and then make it cool with stencils.
The Loneliest Phone on Earth
Image Via: Laundelles
Built sometime after WWII Pacific Bell in California for nearby miners to use, Mojave phone booth was never called until 1997. A guy had read about the booth and called the number over and over again until a desert dweller answered. The endeavor was soon spread all over the Internet and people started calling just to see if someone would answer and to talk to strangers. Travelers drove for hours just to answer the phone. In 2000, the once abandoned phone booth was finally closed because it was … getting too many calls.
Murdered Phone Booth
Image Via: Artlet
Created by the world renowned street artist Banksy, the crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, is a stunning visualization of the undeniable death of old school telecommunication.
Public Twitter Booths 2.0
This Twitter booth foresees a day where Twitter is as necessary as phone in 1990s. Even though the idea is cool, it’s quite unlikely that a Twitter nuts would go out unarmed by his smart phone.
Portable Comet Phone Booth
Some guys hacked an old hair dryer into a portable phone booth called “Comet Phone Booth”. By default, the device remains in standby mode but once the user sits on the chair and puts on the helmet, a red light glows up signaling that ‘it is in use’. The user keys in the number using a hefty keypad. Brilliant science application, but if I have to choose between a weird looking portable phone booth and a modern cell phone, I’ll pick the later one.
Indian Portable Phone Booth
Image Via: Wanderlust and Lipstick
Without any fancy technology hack, this portable phone booth is obviously much more applicable than the Comet phone booth above, at least for now. You can find this primitive phone booths anywhere in India.
Bonus: Future Cell Phone Booth
It’s an example of how future technology can actually go backwards. This futuristic cell phone booth design is for someone who needs perfect quietness in this increasing noisy world to talk on the phone, and prevent his/her talking from affecting people around.
