Some Unusual Houses

Hi, I’m Liliya. We are taught that architecture is the art and technique of designing and building. There are so many beautiful houses in the world. But there are a lot of houses which are really weird. I found information about some bizarre houses which surprised me and I’d like to share with you the project of mine. By the way, bizarre means very strange or unusual, especially so as to cause interest or amusement.

Transparent House, Japan

The Transparent House is made of glass in the form of a tree. This house is in Tokyo built by Sou Fujimoto Architects inspired by the ancient lifestyle of human predecessors living on trees. The house is known as House NA, stands out with its modern and transparent style. The building is unlike its neighboring houses in its appearance and structure. The house is entirely glass.The interior of the residence has hardly any walls. The house boasts large glass windows for plenty of daylight, but the downside seems to be a lack of privacy. Just about everything indoors is exposed to neighbors and passersby.

The spatial design of the transparent house is unique and ultramodern. The space of the house, whose surface is 85 sqm, is divided on several levels, which are connected with each other by fine stairs. In the house there is the modern kitchen, the bedrooms, the excellent recreation zones with panoramic windows. The dominant color of the interior is white. The architects preferred exclusively natural materials – wood, glass and metal. The book shelves and the other pieces of furniture are made of birch, the floor and stairs were also made of natural wood. At any moment, the housekeepers can make the atmosphere private and quiet, for which the huge windows are equipped with the roller shutters.

Keret House, Poland

This house is  the slimmest house in the world. The compact home was built in 2012 by the architect Jakub Szczęsny as an art installation for the Polish Modern Art Foundation, which owns the space.  Szczesny squeezed his famous Keret house between two huge buildings.

The building served as a link between the old and modern world. The first brick building on Selazna Street, symbolizes life in the city before the Second World War, while the second building, a co-op structure on Chłodna Street, represents the modern world.

The house itself sits on stilt, and access into the building is through a staircase installed underneath. This is unlike a regular house with a front door. The semi-transparent, multistory structure has no windows. It might sound pretty scary to claustrophobes. Even the widest point of this unique home measures only 122 centimeters. The narrowest point is only about 52 centimeters wide. However, the space fulfills all the basic requirements of its inhabitant. Live, cook, and create –the Keret has it all.

The Keret House is ideally designed for writers, artists, intellectualists, and those who would like an ideal place to spend some alone time. The house is open to all Warsaw visitors. In fact, Keret House has become somewhat of a symbol in Warsaw.

Hobbit House, Wales

The Hobbit House of Wales is considered to be one of the most eco-friendly houses in the world. It has got an exquisite design and charming interior. It is a must-see place in Wales.

Simon Dale, a designer, a builder managed to construct the hobbit house in a hillside for his family to live. His family realized this dream. They together gathered recycled wood, metal, straw, mud, and stones to erect this fairy tale house. Dale ensured that every element of the house was constructed in harmony with nature. The frame of the house is constructed from oak thinnings that were gathered by the family while the walls and other foundations were constructed from stone and mud. To insulate the house, the family used straw bales in the floor, walls, and roof.

The interior is gorgeous –with wooden branches and lamps all around. The day-to-day activities are all sustainable. Air-cooled refrigerators, solar panel electricity, and water from a nearby stream. This house is really nature-friendly!

The Flintstones House, California

The Flintstone House is a free-form, single-family residence in Hillsborough, California, overlooking and easily seen from the Doran Memorial Bridge. The house was designed by architect William Nicholson and built in 1976 as one of several experimental domed buildings using new materials.

The house is known popularly as the “Flintstone House”, from The Flintstones, a Hanna-Barbera Productions animated cartoon series of the early 1960s about a Stone Age family. It is also known as the Dome House, the Gumby House, the Worm Casting House, the Bubble House, and “The Barbapapa House”, from Barbapapa, a character and series of books created by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor in the 1970s.

Under the ownership of businesswoman Florence Fang, the Flintstones House in California is a real-life replica of the house of Fred Flintstone from the American Sitcom. Fang couldn’t have been happier living in her fairytales, and her home today is worth more than 3.6 million dollars! Not only this but tourists from all over the world come to see this marvel of architecture.

The Upside-down House, Germany

Built in 2008, Trassenheide’s Upside-Down house was the first of the many upside-down houses to be built in Germany. The unusual, unique dwelling was built by Polish architects Klaudiusz Golos and Sebastian Mikiciuk.

In the Upside-down house the only asset not inverted is the staircase that leads up to the attic or the ground floor entrance in reality. The sofas, beds, plants, everything is flipped as you stand on the ceiling, turning the fan with your fingers. The curtains hang in a way that makes you rethink if gravity has really deceived you. In the bathroom, we almost expect water gushing out of the flipped toilet.
Although not the only upside-down house, this one is particularly insane owing to its 6% incline – as if it fell to the ground and balanced on its roof! No wonder visitors love it so much.

Have a look at these bizarre houses.

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