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Thursday, July 14, 2011

10 Houses You Won't Believe People Actually Live In


From: http://www.cracked.com/





Part of the appeal of being a homeowner is the ability to customize your house the way you like it. For some, that means adding a deck, repainting or expanding the bathroom. For others, it means entering the realm of madness and becoming its eternal ruler. We know all of these houses make you want to scream, "Fake!" but we promise: They're all astoundingly, inexplicably real.



#9. Ultra-Small Home
Via CNN

The economy is tough right now, and we all have to cut back. For most folks, that means going out less or securing a lucrative second job in the organ-harvesting market. To others, it means building your entire home in a parking space so tight you might circle the block to look for a better one. Thirty-nine-year-old Fuyuhito Moriya decided to do just that, saving a lot of money and a ton of virginity by purchasing a 30-square-meter parking space on which to build a three-story home for himself ... and his mother.

Via Dornob.com

Well, hello there, tiny sardine people!
To make it work, the Moriyas undertook every space-saving measure imaginable, like using a triangular staircase instead of the normal spiral one (thus saving precious inches), stashing appliances in sliding cabinets and even sharing a bedroom. Though it looks like a bizarre prison crammed into the space between dimensions, the house is functional and livable -- and it only set Moriya back a measly $500,000.

That's right: In Tokyo, a cool half a million dollars gets you a house that looks like an ancient booby trap in mid-crush and a bed that you have to share with your mother.

#8. Just Room Enough

This house is cutely titled Just Room Enough. At first sight, it looks a picture taken 30 seconds before somebody died in a flood, but the structure is actually built on an island exactly the size of the house. Located between Canada and America on the St. Lawrence River, Just Room Enough was bought by the Sizeland family in the 1950s. They purchased the little parcel of land in the hopes of having somewhere to go to to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and they figured an inaccessible island fortress with literally no earth around it on which strangers could stand would work nicely. Instead, due to the novelty of the house, the island quickly became a tourist magnet.
Via Life

Somewhere in the river, irony is giggling in its tiny rowboat.

#7. House Between Two Rocks

This real-life Flintstones house stands in Nas Montanhas de Fafe, Portugal. It was built in 1974 and used as a family's rural retreat. Even though the house is next to several immense wind turbines, it still has no running water or electricity. Instead, all of their appliances have been replaced by repurposed animals that spout smarmy one-liners like "it's a living" when in use.
Once the home started appearing on obnoxious "comedy" websites running lists of stupid crap like "weird houses," hundreds of tourists showed up at the remote location, some even trying to break in. Now all windows in the Boulder House have been converted to bulletproof glass, and the front door was replaced with a slab of solid steel. See? You really can have it both crazy ways: You can live like a character from The Lord of the Rings while still preparing for the zombie apocalypse.



Nothing says prehistoric like blast-proof shielding.
Speaking of both those kinds of lunacy ...

#6. Ultramodern Hobbit House

The Hobbit House stands in Switzerland, near the famed Vals thermal baths. The building was supposedly built this way -- sunk into the mountain -- so as not to disturb the natural environment ...
... of typical suburbia?
The home is only accessible via a secret entrance in a nearby barn or by, you know, walking up to the big conspicuous hole in the ground and jumping in.

Via Dornob.com

"Watch out for that hole, dude." "What h--" Thump!

#5. Zombie-Proof House
You might wonder how the Safety House in Warsaw, Poland got its name if you catch it when it's open for business. But check it out after something spooks the inhabitants ...

There's nothing anywhere saying it was specifically designed to be zombie-proof, but what else would the owners possibly be trying to keep out? Last time we checked, Jehovah's Witnesses could be deterred by some firm words and impromptu nudity -- a transforming concrete bunker just seems like overkill. The Safety House lacks no essential feature for the paranoid psychotic: The exterior walls open and shut at the touch of a button so that the residents can live somewhat normally during the day, then shutter up for the night (or whenever the trees start whispering). The immovable walls are made of pure concrete, while the sliding portions are made of lighter -- but plenty strong -- steel. And until the zombie apocalypse does arise, the massive security door doubles as a projection screen!

The house also features a retractable drawbridge, secret openings and a sliding security gate that seals off the entire property -- not just the home. BAM! While those suckers outside have their entrails feasted upon, the owners are playing bocce and disc golf safe behind the walls of their Paranoia Cube.







#4. Bubble House

This settlement on Tatooine -- sorry, this "totally a home on Earth, for real" called the Bubble Palace was conceived in the 1970s by architect Antti Lovag. He was commissioned to design the home near Tourrettes-sur-Loup in France by an eccentric wealthy industrialist, but when the deal fell through, designer Pierre Cardin, the fashion guru who created the bubble dress, took on the house in 1989. That's right: Not one, but two separate people not only immediately loved the idea of living in a bubble bath but also were actually in the position to finance said sprawling bubble compound.

All the rooms in the villa are round, with no straight edges anywhere in the house -- not even the beds. Cardin says it's because, "The circle is my symbol; the sphere represents the creation of the world and the mother's womb. Holes, cones, breasts -- I've always used them in my designs." The architect who built the house says it's because straight lines are "an aggression against nature ... human beings have confined themselves to cubes full of dead ends and angles that impede our movement and break our harmony."

So there you go, totally legit reasoning: They had to build this house so they could live inside a boob and put an end to the race war against Gaia.
Via Izismile.com
Hehehe. Boobs.

#3. Extreme Treehouse

This is just one example of the typical dwelling used by the Korowai tribe of New Guinea, who had no idea the outside world even existed until 1970. Instead of building treehouses 10 feet off the ground for their kids, stalling out halfway through and just living with a plank in their trees for the next few decades, the Korowai build their treehouses like real men: To the finish, and up to 165 feet in the air. They do this to avoid predators, floods and ant swarms, and also because it just looks ... so awesome.

Seriously, we would abandon our civilized lives in a heartbeat to live in that thing. We would take zip lines everywhere, we would befriend an Ewok and name him Jarvis, and we would spend the rest of our days fighting lions together.

#2. Sidewalk Egg House

Dai Haifei is a Chinese architect. He works for a company whose slogan is "Our Buildings Are Eggs Laid by City," and apparently nothing was lost in translation there -- seeing as how Dai now lives in an egg-shaped house small enough to fit on the sidewalk.

He built this pod on a bamboo frame insulated with wood chips, with bags of sprouting grass on the outside. Total Cost: $964. Though quite small, the pod is big enough to house a bed, a water tank, a night table and a crushing sense of claustrophobia. Dai says he typically works at his architectural firm until midnight and only uses his home for sleep anyway, allowing him to save a ton of money that he can hopefully use one day to escape that incredibly sad-sounding existence.

#1. Broken Column House

The aristocracy in pre-revolutionary France had way too much time, way too much money and by the looks of things, way too much laudanum. The hot new thing to do as a drug-addled European hedonist back in the day was build yourself a themed garden, like the Desert de Retz, constructed by aristocrat Francois Nicolas Henri Racine de Monville. The centerpiece was the Broken Column mansion, designed to look like it was all that remained of a column from a gargantuan, destroyed, ancient temple.
Via Pruned.blogspot.com

The building as it stands now, fully restored.

It wasn't just decoration, either: Monville lived in the building himself and hosted esteemed individuals like Thomas Jefferson there. Jefferson visited the Desert while serving as a minister to France and borrowed some design elements of the Broken Column for the rotunda of the University of Virginia.
Via Narratingwaste

"Yes! This is just the kind of crazy bullshit America needs to thrive as a foundling nation!" -- Thomas Jefferson


Honorable Mention:  Xanadu of Sedona
 
Name: Xanadu of Sedona
Built: 1993
Square Footage: 5685
How Many Domes: 10 Amazing Features:
Tornado Proof
Hurricane Proof
Fire Proof
Earthquake Resistant
Super Energy Efficient
Save 50% on Heating/Cooling
Amazing Domes:
Sunken Dining Room Dome
Champagne Glass Bed Dome
Great Room Fountain Dome
Entertainment Dome
Home School Dome
 

"Xanadu of Sedona" is a Monolithic Concrete Dome Home that is practically indestructible! It was originally designed and modeled after "Xanadu, The Computerized Home of Tomorrow" built in Orlando Florida over fifty years ago. "Xanadu of Sedona" is one of the most unique Dome structures you will ever see! It is located in Sedona, Arizona and was voted in USA Weekend's Magazine as the number 1 most beautiful place in the world! As you walk into this 5685 sq. ft. home you feel as if you are in another world!!! The 10 connecting domes each have their own size, shape and feel. High ceilings and skylights throughout give a sense of space and the natural lighting and the indoor water fountain brings the sounds of nature indoors. You will be amazed at the first Dome you enter! It has a towering height of 30 feet. In this dome a spiral staircase takes you up to a 500 sq. ft. open area loft called our Health and Healing Room. The "Great Room Dome" is your next surprise, a very spacious room with a height of 25 ft., 3 skylights, a sunken sitting and lounging area and a beautiful red rock indoor fountain. There is also a private guest bedroom and full bath off of the "Great Room Dome". From the "Great Room Dome" you can either go left into the "Formal Sunken Dining Room Dome" or to the right into the "Master Bedroom Dome Suite". The Master Bedroom suite consists of 3 connecting domes. Two bedrooms and a beautifully designed "Master Bath Dome". This unique master bath has a walk-in glass block shower, a Jacuzzi spa bathtub and a 6 ft. portal-like window looking out into a courtyard with a fountain and beautiful gardens. Another surprise awaits you as you enter the second bedroom. Not only is there a 6 foot round skylight above, but a 10 foot round "Champaign Glass Shaped Bed", built-in directly underneath it! Perfect for viewing spectacular starlit Sedona skies! Next, you enter into the "Entertainment Dome" with state of the art surround sound, giant screen TV, DVD, and Stereo equipment. "The Kitchen, Formal Dining and Home Office Domes" are so unique; you won't ever want to leave this one of a kind home! Xanadu is also networked throughout for Computers and Internet access. This home sits on 3.63 acres and is the first piece of property on the west side of Highway 179 coming into Sedona, Arizona.

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