Little boxes on the hillside aren’t for everyone. While some people
might be content with a cookie-cutter home in a bland suburban
neighborhood, others create truly one-of-a-kind homes with incredibly
imaginative shapes and materials.
Architect Bart Prince is
renowned for his incredibly creative approach to designing structures.
The homes he has created look nothing like the boxy houses you and I
live in; they’re quirky, they’re organic, and they’re most definitely
one-of-a-kind. Prince says his designs start from the inside out, and
that every home he builds has an idea behind it. Pictured are Prince’s
own home in Albuquerque (top) and the Seymour residence in Los Altos,
California.
This striking rock palace is not a hotel or a museum. It’s not even a primary residence. Dar al Hajar was built as a ‘summer home’ by Imam Yahya in the 1930s, and it’s a stunning example of rock-cut architecture. Standing at the base of this imposing structure, you have to crane your neck to see the top. The palace has since been restored so that visitors can buy a ticket and get a breathtaking 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape.
The ‘bubble house’
of Tourrettes-sur-Loup, France, is only 35 years old and has yet to be
finished, but that hasn’t stopped the French ministry of culture from
listing it as a historic monument. Designed in the 70s by Hungarian
architect Antti Lovag for fashion designer Pierre Cardin, the bubble
house is futuristic yet organic, with lots of built-in furniture and
oval, convex windows. The design is meant to take optimal advantage of
the volcanic Côte d’Azur landscape, and its windows certainly provide a
beautiful view of the Mediterranean.
Nikolai Sutyagin, a former gangster, began building this ‘wooden skyscraper’ in Arkhangelsk, Russia with the intention of it being only a two-story building. But, a trip to see wooden houses in Japan and Norway convinced him that he hadn’t used roof space efficiently enough, so he kept building. “First I added three floors but then the house looked ungainly, like a mushroom,” he said. “So I added another and it still didn’t look right so I kept going. What you see today is a happy accident.” The multimillionaire became a pauper after his possessions were destroyed during a stint in prison, and the house is now decaying around him, but he still lives in the bottom floor with his wife.
Polish businessman and philanthropist Daniel Czapiewski built The Upside Down House
as a statement about the Communist era and the end of the world. It
took 114 days to build because the workers were so disoriented by the
angles of the walls. It certainly attracts its fair share of tourists to
the tiny village of Szymbark, who often become dizzy and ‘seasick’
after just a few moments inside.
Looking like something out of a child’s fairytale gone wrong, the
bizarre-looking structure in Dalat, Vietnam was built by the daughter of
Ho Chi Minh’s right-hand man. Madame Hang Nga created the Hang Nga Villa
– now known simply as ‘Crazy House’ – to reflect her interest in art
and architecture. Made of concrete, the house now serves as a restaurant
and reception area for an adjacent French colonial-style hotel in a
jolting contrast in architectural styles. The inside is said to be even
stranger, with all the kitschy decor you can handle, including a giant
eagle with red Christmas light eyes, “for the Americans”.
The world’s one and only toilet-shaped house
was built to mark the launch of the World Toilet Association, a
campaign for more sanitary restrooms worldwide. Sim Jae-Duck, nicknamed
“Mayor Toilet”, had the 4,508-square-foot concrete and glass structure
built in his native city of Suweon, South Korea. At the center of the
home is a glass-walled “showcase loo” that produces mist to make users
feel more secure. Sim, who was born into a toilet and has made clean
restrooms his life’s work, now lives in the home.
Called the ‘Eliphante house’
for the look of its entrance, this sculptural home was created by
artist Michael Kahn and his wife Leda Livant with found materials over a
period of 28 years. Eliphante and several outbuildings occupy 3 acres
of land and incorporate rocks and scraps from construction sites. There
was never any kind of floor plan for Eliphante – it just sort of
evolved. Ms. Livant’s residence on the property is the ‘Hippodome’, a
mosaic-covered creation that looks like a hippo emerging from a lake.
When two old studio buildings owned by The Art League
in Houston were set to be demolished, they decided to take the
opportunity to turn them into a temporary art installation. Artists Dan
Havel and Dean Ruck sculpturally altered the two buildings, peeling off
the exterior siding of the front building to simulate the appearance of a
funnel-like vortex. The opening was actually a tiny hallway (only kids
could fit through it) that passed through the two structures and emptied
out into an adjacent courtyard.
The ‘shoe house’
of South Africa is the work of artist and hotelier Ron Van Zyl, who
built it for his wife Yvonne in 1990. The shoe houses a little museum of
sorts, showcasing Van Zyl’s wood carvings. The shoe is part of a
complex that includes an eight-chalet guest house, camp site,
restaurant, pool and bar.
Architect Terry Brown created this much-maligned ‘mushroom house’,
an unusual piece of architecture situated in a rather upscale area of
Cincinnati. Brown’s architectural style developed when he began
experimenting with materials like wood, colored glass, shell, ceramics
and various metals to create irregular shapes that mimic those found in
nature. A professor of architecture and interior design at the
University of Cincinnati, Brown frequently had to defend the unique
design of the house against complaints by neighbors before passing away
in 2008.
An optical illusion? Trick of Photoshop? Nobody really seems to know much about this supposed ‘floating barn’ which was reportedly located in Ukraine and may or may not still be standing. Cantilevered barns do exist – mostly in the Appalachian region of the United States – but usually aren’t quite this dramatic looking. Real or fake, it’s certainly pretty striking.
The ‘Space House’
in Signal Mountain, Tennessee was built by Curtis King and his sons in
the 1970s and is quite a draw for curiosity seekers in the area, who
have been filing by and taking photos for decades. Six concrete support
pillars look like landing gear beneath the main part of the building.
The Space House sold on the auction block in March 2008 but the buyer
defaulted, so it’s being offered for “whatever the public is willing to
pay” on December 14th.
From Poland comes another interesting building, the ‘Crooked House’.
The design was inspired by the drawings of Polish artists Jan Marcin
Szancer and Per Dahlberg, which have a whimsical and Dali-esque feel.
It’s not actually a house – it’s part of a shopping complex. But, it’s
very cool all the same, with its surreal angles and blue-green glass.
Austrian artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser may
not be well known across most of the world, but anyone who has visited
Vienna knows of his iconic creation, the Hundertwasser Haus.
It’s an apartment complex characterized by patchwork paint, undulating
floors, the incorporation of vegetation and a façade with seemingly no
rhyme or reason to its structure. Hundertwasser reportedly took no
payment for designing it, considering it a public service to prevent
something ugly going up in its place.
Bart Prince House – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Dar al Hajar – Yemen
This striking rock palace is not a hotel or a museum. It’s not even a primary residence. Dar al Hajar was built as a ‘summer home’ by Imam Yahya in the 1930s, and it’s a stunning example of rock-cut architecture. Standing at the base of this imposing structure, you have to crane your neck to see the top. The palace has since been restored so that visitors can buy a ticket and get a breathtaking 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape.
Bubble House – Tourettes-sur-Loup, France
Wooden Skyscraper – Arkhangelsk, Russia
Nikolai Sutyagin, a former gangster, began building this ‘wooden skyscraper’ in Arkhangelsk, Russia with the intention of it being only a two-story building. But, a trip to see wooden houses in Japan and Norway convinced him that he hadn’t used roof space efficiently enough, so he kept building. “First I added three floors but then the house looked ungainly, like a mushroom,” he said. “So I added another and it still didn’t look right so I kept going. What you see today is a happy accident.” The multimillionaire became a pauper after his possessions were destroyed during a stint in prison, and the house is now decaying around him, but he still lives in the bottom floor with his wife.
The Upside-Down House – Szymbark, Poland
Hang Nga Villa – Dalat, Vietnam
Toilet-Shaped House – Suweon, South Korea
Eliphante & Hippodome – Cornville, Arizona
Inversion House – Houston, Texas
Shoe House - South Africa
Mushroom House – Cincinnati, Ohio
Floating House – Ukraine
Space House – Signal Mountain, Tennessee
Crooked House – Sopot, Poland
Hundertwasser Haus – Vienna, Austria