crookedy

Amsterdam is the home of crooked buildings of all shapes and sizes. There is a fine line here.....the buildings are either quaint or terrifying, depending on the level of your structural knowledge. And there is indeed an underlying structural problem.....there are hundreds of thousands of wood pilings that support buildings in much of central (old) Amsterdam. If these pilings remain below the water line, no problem. It is only when the top of wood pilings are above water that they begin to deteriorate, and thus cause subsidence of a building they support. This is an ongoing problem, and there are many construction firms that specialize in foundation renovation.

Right down the street. The leaning house at the corner of Brouwersgracht and Binnen Oranjestraat dates from about 1650.

It gets crazier:  not only are there crooked houses; many of the older houses actually lean slightly outward toward the street. This has been done intentionally to allow a hoist at the top of the building to have clearance at street level. Most older buildings have a hoist to haul heavy items to upper floors, because, you can't get that new IKEA sofa up those narrow steep stairs.