The most unusual houses in the world amaze with their shapes, bright design, interior layout and even the material from which they are made. Human imagination, with the help of which unique masterpieces are created, has no boundaries.
The top 10 includes the most unusual houses in the world, photos and descriptions of which are located below.
"Crooked House" - outside view 10."Crooked House"(Sopot, Poland) reveals 10 of the most unusual houses in the world. When looking at the building, one gets the impression that the contours of the structure have been melted. The optical illusion of deception was realized by two Polish architects at once - Shotinski and Zalewski.
“Crooked House” - interior Absolutely all the details of the building are asymmetrical, and the walls resemble waves. The Crooked House was built for commercial purposes and is currently used as a shopping center.
Shell House - outside view 9."Shell House"(Isla Mujeres, Mexico) is a fantastic piece of architecture that was designed by Eduardo Ocampo. Every detail of the interior is made in a marine style, and the building itself reflects the natural beauty of nature. It took about four thousand shells to decorate the snow-white building. The owner of the shell house is the artist Octavio Ocampo, brother of Eduardo.
Shell house - interior The work of art is rented out, and anyone can relax here, enjoying not only the interior of the home, but also the picturesque views around.
Hobbit's house - outside view 8."The Hobbit House"(Wales, UK) - a fabulous architectural structure by Simon Dale, which is an environmentally friendly home with low energy consumption.
Hobbit house - interior The main materials for construction were stone, oak wood, clay and earth. The house was built over the course of 4 months by Dale and his friends. The author of this creation settled in an earthen house with his family.
Cube houses - outside view 7. Cube houses(Rotterdam, Netherlands) are the most unusual among all the works of architect Piet Blom. According to the idea of the Dutch architect, each of the buildings should look like a tree. There are a total of 38 such trees in the complex, which collectively resembles a small forest of houses.
Interior of Cube House There are practically no straight walls in the room. It is noteworthy that the residents who originally settled here consider the classic houses with straight walls to be very strange.
Boot Hotel - outside view 6.Hotel-boot(Mpumalanga, South Africa) - the most unusual house in Africa. Its author and owner was Ron Van Zyl, who rebuilt the magnificent building for his wife.
Hotel-boot - interior Currently, the remarkable architecture serves as a museum where the works of the author of the shoe house are exhibited. Inside is a seven-room cave, which Ron Van Zyl calls "Alpha Omega". One of the cave rooms is a chapel where weddings are held.
Mushroom house - outside view 5. The list of the most original houses in the world rightfully includes "Mushroom House"(Cincinnati, Ohio, USA), built according to the design of Professor Terry Brown by students of the architectural institute.
Mushroom house - interior In 1992, the architect purchased an ordinary residential building and decided to remodel it in his own way. Brown wanted to create something unusual, and he succeeded quite well. It took approximately 14 years to rebuild. The material for the reconstruction was wood, and broken ceramics, colored glass and handmade tiles were used as decoration.
Flintstones house - outside view 4.Flintstones Mansion(Malibu, USA) takes fourth place in the ranking of the most unusual houses in the world. The unique building, inside and out, looks like a cave with elements of modern decor.
Flintstones house - interior In 2013, the house was put up for sale. The announced price for it was $3.5 million.
Stone House - outside view 3. " House-stone"(Fafe, Portugal) is one of the most eccentric buildings. It is located near the city of Fafe, in a mountainous area. Giant stones covered with moss serve as the walls of an unusual dwelling.
House-stone - interior Due to the fact that the building became the object of attention of numerous tourists, the residents were forced to move from the stone house.
Madhouse - facade 2."Madhouse" or the Hang Nga Hotel (Dalat, Vietnam) - one of the most unusual creations created by man. The author of the construction work was the Vietnamese female architect Dang Viet Nga. The building, made in the expressionist style, is an echo of the creations of the Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi. The design completely lacks any straight lines, and the structure itself resembles a huge tree decorated with multiple decorations. The house got its unusual name because the first visitors exclaimed: “Crazy house!” Indeed, the building is eccentric to the point of madness.
Crazy House - Interior Each hotel room is different from the other and has its own theme. The Vietnamese do not really like this building for its non-standard nature, but tourists are happy to visit the hotel-attraction. Dang Viet Nga herself decided to stay and live in her creation, so visitors have a unique opportunity to personally meet the creator of the “Madhouse”.
House Mila - facade 1."House Mila" or “Stone Cave” (Barcelona, Spain) - the most unusual house in the world, owned by the legendary architect, Antoni Gaudi. This is the last completed masterpiece by the brilliant architect. The uniqueness of the building lies in the complete absence of symmetry and load-bearing walls. The house is supported by columns, and many of the walls are movable, allowing for redevelopment at any time.
House Mila - interior
But that’s not all that the building can surprise you with: it is provided with natural ventilation, thanks to the unusual layout of the courtyards. Even in the hottest weather, the rooms do not need air conditioning.
House Mila - courtyard The roof of the “Quarry” is decorated with various sculptures of fairy-tale characters. They serve as camouflage for ventilation pipes and chimneys. Anyone who comes to Barcelona can admire the legendary creation, which is more than a hundred years old. Wealthy Catalans live in some apartments in the building. The mezzanine, also known as the exhibition hall, and the roof are used for excursion needs.
Building your own home is the dream of many. Anyone who has thought about this would like an individual home, not like everyone else’s. There are people who embody their wildest fantasies in real architecture. Here are some of them.
Strange houses of the world
Teapot house
In Texas, USA, there is a teapot house. A strange building with no residents. Local residents no longer remember where and when he appeared, but someone regularly visits there, although no one really knows the truth.
In Portugal there is a pile of stones covered with a roof. At least at first glance, this is exactly what it looks like. But, nevertheless, this is a completely habitable house and ordinary people live in it. The stone house looks attractive in its own way, despite its strangeness.
Boot House
In Pennsylvania, USA, a shoe house appeared 50 years ago. Comfortable home with all possible amenities. The owner's design thought gave a similar look to everything accompanying the strange building: a dog kennel, a mailbox, a sign and even a birdhouse.
In Sopot, Poland, there is a "Crooked House". A strange, all curved, but at the same time amazingly harmonious building, erected in just a year. Its owners, a famous Swedish artist and a Polish illustrator, live there to this day.
Royal House in China
There is an amazing building in China. In the middle of a vacant lot stands a huge piano with a violin leaning against it. The house is not residential, it is a place where music college students improve their talents.
House in the Clouds, Suffolk
In Suffolk, there is "House in the Clouds". A huge water tower, transformed by someone's thought into a residential house. This house has no permanent inhabitants, but anyone can rent this home for the night and spend several hours there, hovering above the ground.
There is a peculiar tiny house in Warsaw that claims to be the narrowest house in the world. The width of the main facade is only 122 cm, and the narrowest place of the house, from another angle, is 72 cm. The house is two-story. It was inhabited for only six months and with only one tenant. Now it is an art studio. It is intended for all creative people in the world.
House made of broken dishes in France, Louviers
In Louvieres, there is the House of Broken Crockery. The name is original, appeared due to the unusual interior design. The entire interior and exterior decoration of the room is made of mosaics, which are assembled from shards of all kinds of broken dishes. Even the doghouse was not spared such decorations. The house is inhabited and the son of the people who built it lives in it.
In Darmstadt, there is an unusual house "Forest Spiral". The twelve-story residential building with 105 apartments has the appearance of a shell twisted into a spiral. At the same time, this is a quite comfortable building with its own garage, bar, cafe, children's playground and a small artificial lake. One of the striking aspects are the windows, which have different shapes and sizes, scattered throughout the entire façade in complete disarray.
Basket building in Ohio town
In Ohio, USA, there is a unique office “Basket Building”. It looks like a shopping basket; there are even handles for the basket on top. The view is completely unusual. Seven-story basket!
Upside Down House
There is an Upside Down House in Tennessee, USA. Its appearance has its own history. Allegedly, this house was once completely ordinary, but the scientists who worked in it, as an experiment, created a tornado, which turned the house upside down, that is, onto the roof. Nobody turned it back, so that’s how they use it now.
Houses can be different: cozy one-story ones, dizzyingly tall ones, built according to the laws of the classical genre, and extravagant ones that are simply impossible to pay attention to. It is the last category of houses that will be discussed in our review.
1. Hundertwasser House in Vienna
A bright "hilly" residential building with a roof covered with soil on which grass and shrubs grow. The Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser embodied his ideals of art and beauty in this project, such as the use of a large palette of colors, the absence of straight lines, a large amount of greenery and versatility.
2. VM houses in Copenhagen
An unusual residential complex with numerous protruding triangular balconies, making the house look like a huge prickly hedgehog.
3. House NA in Japan
An absolutely transparent residential building designed by architect So Fujimoto for a married couple.
4. House-wall in St. Petersburg
The residential building, which from the outside looks like a prop, was built in 1909 by the architect M. B. Kvart.
5. Narrow house in Warsaw
An unusual residential building, built by Polish architect Jakub Szczesny, is located in a one and a half meter gap between two apartment buildings. At its narrowest point the building is only 72 centimeters wide, and at its widest it is 122 centimeters wide.
6. Housing in a water tower. Belgium
Design studio BHAM has transformed an old 30-metre water tower into a cozy family home.
7. The Flintstones' house in Malibu
The house of American TV presenter Dick Clark and his wife, built in a “cave” style based on the famous cartoon “The Flintstones”. The unique architecture of the home imitates a Neolithic cave, complemented by some elements of modern life.
8. River House in Serbia
A small residential building built on a rock that stands in the middle of the river.
9. Forest Spiral in Darmstadt
The snail-shaped 12-storey building with a roof garden is designed for 105 apartments, each of which has its own unique design. The facade is decorated with multi-colored ceramic columns, and inside the house there are no rectangular shapes, sharp corners or straight lines.
10. “Dancing House” in Prague
An office building in Prague, built in the deconstructivist style, consists of two cylindrical towers: normal and destructive.
11. Shell House on Isla Mujeres
An amazing white house in the shape of a sea shell, built from traditional materials such as cement and high-quality concrete, as well as natural recycled materials in the form of crushed shells and corals found on the coast.
12. Music House in Dresden
At all times, people have attached great importance to their home - the place with which the entire future life of their family will be connected. Therefore, it is not surprising that they approach the process of building a house with all seriousness, not limiting themselves to their fantasies and, without exaggeration, putting a piece of their soul into their home.
Nowadays, you can see houses that can amaze the imagination with the complexity or, conversely, the simplicity of their design. We offer you a selection of the most unusual buildings in the world, each of which undoubtedly absorbed part of the personality of its owner.
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1. The airplane house you can see in this photo is located in the village of Miziara, North Lebanon. Misiara is known for its extraordinary houses, and seeing buildings there that resemble ancient Greek temples or Egyptian ruins is not at all unusual. (Photo: Aziz Taher / Reuters)
2. On the roof of this house located in Oxford, you can see a shark statue. The sculpture, made of fiberglass and measuring 7.6 meters in length, was installed to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. (Photo: Eddie Keogh/Reuters)
4. A house that looks like an ancient Greek temple is under construction. Baalbek, Lebanon. (Photo: Aziz Taher / Reuters)
5. On the roof of this 19-story building located in Guangzhou, a gazebo surrounded by green trees was illegally erected. (Photo: Reuters/China Daily)
6. This house is built on a cliff near the Drina River, near the western town of Bajina Basta in Serbia. The house was built in 1968 by a group of young people who decided that a rock near the river was the ideal place for a tiny shelter. So says the co-owner, one of the company that built the house. (Photo: Marko Djurica / Reuters)
7. Houses on the roof of a factory building in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China. (Photo: Reuters/China Daily)
8. A small tumbleweed house driving along a highway near Colorado. The construction of tiny houses began several years ago thanks to lovers of simple living. The area of these small houses ranges from 93 to 9.3 square meters, but, nevertheless, they can hardly be called shacks. (Photo: Rick Wilking/Reuters)
9. 38-year-old Liu Lingchao carries his home in the Chinese town of Shapu. Five years ago, Liu decided to walk back to his hometown in Rongang County from Shenzhen Province, where he had previously worked. From improvised materials - bamboo, plastic bags and sheets - Liu made himself a “portable room” 1.5 meters wide and two meters high. The room weighs about 60 kg, and Liu constantly carries it on himself, walking about 20 km a day. On the day this photo was published, Liu was 20 km from his hometown. (Photo: Reuters/Stringer)
10. Heliodom, a bioclimatic solar house, was built in Causevillers near Strasbourg (Eastern France) in 2011. The house is a huge three-dimensional sundial. It is placed at a certain angle in relation to the movement of the sun, so in the hot summer months the house is always shaded and cool, and in autumn, winter and spring the sun is lower in the sky and shines directly through the large windows, warming the house inside. (Photo: Vincent Kessler/Reuters)
11. This photo shows girls jumping on a trampoline near a house built right in the rock. The unusual house is located in the Rockland Farmers' Cooperative in Utah. “The Rock,” according to the memories of the 15 families living there, was built about 35 years ago in sandstone deposits near Canyonlands National Park. (Photo: Jim Urquhart/Reuters)
12. In this photo you can see a Bulgarian woman looking into her house, built right in a wine barrel. In central Spain there is an entire camp of these quaint houses, where the 40 inhabitants are ethnic Turks who came from Bulgaria to pick grapes during the six-week annual harvest. They sleep in overturned wine barrels about the size of a car. The makeshift camp is located in Castile-La Mancha near the agricultural society of Soquelamos. (Photo: Andrea Comas/Reuters)
13. Bogumil Lhota, a 73-year-old builder, built his house near the town of Jablonec nad Nisou, a hundred kilometers northeast of Prague. Lhota came up with the idea to create a unique house, and in 1981 he began construction. The man wanted to build a home closer to nature and the earth in order to be able to take advantage of the cool temperature of the underground. Construction was completed in 2002, the house can move up and down and turn in different directions, allowing you to change the view from the window. (Photo: Petr Josek / Reuters)
14. This house is located near San Jose del Pedros in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. For more than 30 years, Benito Hernandez and his family have lived in a strange house made of adobe bricks, dried in the sun, and their roof is a rock 40 meters in diameter. The property is located near the city of San Jose del Pedros in the arid Coahuila Desert, approximately 80 kilometers from the Texas border. (Photo: Daniel Becerril/Reuters)
15. Architect Harry Chang relaxes in a hammock in his apartment, which is located in Hong Kong and occupies 32 square meters. Chang grew up in exactly the same small apartment and has now come up with an innovative solution for the increasingly cramped conditions of city residents. This is a “transforming apartment”, just like in science fiction films. (Photo: Bobby Yip/Reuters)
16. This is one of the narrowest houses in the world. It was built as an art installation between two buildings in Warsaw. The width of the building is only 92 centimeters; it was built for the Israeli writer Etgar Keret. Keret told television channel TVN24 that he would live there, visiting Warsaw twice a year. The writer conceived this project as a kind of memorial to the families of his parents who died due to the Holocaust during World War II. (Photo: Kacper Pempel/Reuters)
17. These 70 domed buildings were built by an American organization in the village of Samberharjo near Jakarta for residents left homeless due to the earthquake that occurred on May 8, 2007. (Photo: Dwi Oblo / Reuters)
Architecture is always a high art, but we have long forgotten about this, since most of the buildings on our planet are very similar to each other. The dull boxes of residential buildings have not been pleasing to the eye for a long time, but there are craftsmen who create unique houses. Those projects that have come to life become famous throughout the world, and hundreds of thousands of tourists rush to remote corners of our planet to see modern buildings that surprise with their appearance.
Today we will look at the most unusual houses in the world, which often become the calling cards of cities.
Kubuswoning in the Netherlands
Thus, the symbol of Rotterdam is the amazing cube houses installed at an angle of 45 degrees. Original looking, they are built into hexagonal bases and raised above the ground. It is curious that the idea of creating an avant-garde structure belonged to the administration, which planned to build living quarters over the bridge.
Local architect Blom, who received the order in the 80s of the last century, combined them into an air village and turned them at an angle. He gave free rein to his imagination, creating a unique “city within a city”, which became well known for its unique design. The creative architect brought to life the idea that megacities should have cozy villages - quiet oases for residents, where they have their own courtyard, playground and shops.
Avant-garde architectural complex
The cube house, made of cement and wood, stands on a high support and is angled so that three of its sides face the sky and the other three face the ground. The roofs of 38 buildings were painted gray and snow-white, so that the buildings from a distance resembled mountain peaks. From a bird's eye view, this design looks like a huge children's puzzle.
Inside the avant-garde houses there are the same unique apartments, the shape of which is about 100 meters2, but the entire space cannot be used for housing due to the angle between the floor and the walls. The Cube House in Rotterdam is a very popular place among tourists. For a fee, you can see what is inside it and appreciate the weirdness of life in such a strange complex.
A house where it is difficult to spend a lot of time
When it comes to the most unusual houses, it is impossible not to mention the so-called “reversal” buildings, the fashion for which came from the USA. These are mainly exciting attractions created to attract tourists. You can visit such a strange room and take interesting photos for a few hundred rubles. However, avid travelers have already seen in different countries an unusual house looking into the sky, which architects erected as a symbol of our world going crazy.
In Poland, businessman Czapewski 10 years ago ordered a project for such a “shifter” with a roof lying on the ground, which became a real attraction for tourists. In small Szymbark, located near Gdansk, there is an upside-down house, in which it is difficult to spend a lot of time, because your head begins to spin, and your brain does not accept the new reality. It is for this reason that it was built not in a few weeks, but over three months.
Visitors enter the wooden house, turned 180 degrees, through a small attic window, and then, carefully maneuvering among the chandeliers, go for a walk through the rooms. By the way, there is a legend that the customer of the project wanted to use the inverted house as his own home, and now the local landmark attracts foreign guests from all over the world who want to walk on the ceiling without hindrance.
Fairytale house in Sopot
It is in Poland that the famous building is located, recognized as the best. In 2004, a popular “crooked” house appeared in Sopot, which became part of a shopping center. The original building was designed based on illustrations from fairy tales and surrealist paintings.
It seems that the “crooked” house in Poland melted in the sun and lost its former shape. And some tourists at first sincerely believe in an optical illusion and a special mirror that reflects the original masterpiece of architecture. However, this structure, built to attract tourists to the city, actually does not have a single right angle. The architects brought to life the most original ideas, thanks to which the delightful house gained worldwide fame.
Most photographed building
The windows and doors of the building, built from a variety of materials, are intricately curved, and the roof, made of shiny plates, looks like the back of a magic dragon. The multi-colored glass entrances, which are illuminated at night with colorful lights, also evoke delight. Without exaggeration, we can say that this is the most photographed building in Poland.
Visitors to the shopping center will see a wall with writing on the ground floor, which is an analogue of the star-studded avenue in Hollywood, where media personalities express their admiration.
Eco-style house
When architects design the most unusual houses, differing from others in their original forms, they often care only about profit, since such buildings immediately become objects of close attention of tourists. However, there are also masters who think not about commerce, but about harmony with nature. was a supporter of the ecological style, and all his masterpieces fit perfectly into the natural landscape. He said that living in identical buildings is very harmful to a person’s mental and physical health.
Waldspirale snail complex
Thus, in Darmstadt, Germany, there is a stunning residential complex consisting of 12 floors. The huge building, made in the shape of a horseshoe, is designed for 105 apartments, and each of them has its own characteristics. Now this house, with trees growing on the roof and a small pond with fish in the yard, allows you to feel the beauty of unity with nature in the very center of a noisy city.
The "Forest Spiral" in Darmstadt is a snail-shaped structure with no straight lines or sharp corners. The building has thousands of windows of unique shapes and sizes, and each is decorated with a miniature crown, so that people feel like real kings of their living space. The architect’s rejection of the usual forms also affected the interior, and here no one will find right angles between the wall and the floor, and all the lines are rounded.
Nautilus in Naucalpan de Juarez
The building, which appeared in Mexico, also lacks the usual geometry of modern buildings. Resembling a giant snail shell, the Nautilus House, where the furniture grows straight out of the walls, is often compared to the masterpieces created by the great Gaudi. A very bright and colorful building with colored stained glass windows appeared 11 years ago, and during this time it received recognition from foreign guests rushing to enjoy the amazing spectacle.
They mistake the bizarre masterpiece of architecture for a futuristic monument or an unusual attraction, although in fact it is a residential building where a Mexican family lives. The couple, who dreamed of merging with nature, ordered a project for a unique structure and took care not only of the aesthetic appearance, but also of safety. Today designers consider this unusual house to be a unique monument of the so-called bioorganic architecture. A miracle of architectural thought, fully adapted to life, wonderfully fits into the surrounding landscape.
Safety and beauty
Thanks to the frame made of reinforced wire, the streamlined building will withstand even in the event of a strong earthquake. And the material from which the clam shell is constructed is a type of fire-resistant ceramic that can withstand adverse weather conditions.
The sun's rays, illuminating the facade decorated with mosaics, penetrate into the room, on the walls of which multi-colored reflections sparkle. And upon entering the house, visitors will see not an ordinary floor, but a grass carpet along which winding paths lead to the owners’ rooms. Numerous green spaces are an organic component of the interior. The rounded windows give the impression that this is a real shell lying on the ocean floor. It seems that this is some other dimension, genuine magic, immersing residents and guests into another reality. The bedrooms and kitchen are located at the rear of the structure, away from the prying eyes of visitors.
It is impossible to describe all the famous masterpieces of architectural mastery. As long as a person lives, the most unusual houses will appear that inspire, surprise and evoke a sense of pride. I am glad that many unpredictable designs are used for their intended purpose.