House. Ready to learn a little story about each of them? Then we’ll start soon.
10. Stone House (Portugal)
Remember the tale of three piglets? So, a Portuguese craftsman named Victor Rodriguez implemented the idea of Naf-Naf and built his home literally in stone. The man took two cobblestones as the basis of his mansion (they play the role of walls), the rest (improvised door, windows and roof) was made by the master manually. The main argument of Rodriguez in the construction of such an extravagant house was solitude away from people. In fairness, it turned out the perfect option. However, to the misfortune of the Portuguese, his home began to attract many tourists. There were so many curious people that poor fellow Victor had to move out - at the moment the house is empty.
9. Crooked house (Poland)
This unusual building is located in the Polish town of Sopot. It looks like the house is drunk: it barely holds and is about to literally spread out along the street. It was this effect that the architects of an outstanding building sought, taking the optical illusion as the basis for the construction. In fact, the house is more than stable, and you certainly should not be afraid of its collapse. Crooked house safely exists for 14 years. It houses entertainment venues, a restaurant and retail shops. In addition, two studios of local radio stations were located here at once. To get an office or a pavilion in such a house is an excellent marketing move. At the very least, the client is definitely not mistaken for the building.
8. The planet house of Sheikh Hamad (UAE)
No wonder they say that the rich have their own quirks. For example, Sheikh Hamad from the UAE owns seven machines of seven colors of the rainbow for every day of the week. However, this is not the most spectacular "trick" of Hamad. Sheikh is the owner of a very extraordinary housing. At his disposal is a mobile home in the form of ... Earth. Yes, yes, this gigantic globe has absolutely all the conditions for a comfortable stay. What can I say if in this ball 12 meters high and 20 meters in diameter there are already 6 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms. The sheikh’s imagination was noticed by the Guinness Book of Records, and in 1993 the planet house was recognized as the most extraordinary building in the world.
7. Sutyagin House (Russia)
We will say right away that one will not be able to take a first look at the world's first wooden skyscraper. Despite the impressive height of the house at 38 meters (approximately 13 floors), the fate of the building went downward from the very beginning. First, its owner, businessman Nikolai Sutyagin, was arrested, and the construction froze. And at the end of the construction of the failed record holder (the house could seriously claim a world achievement, since it was built without a single nail), the building was completely recognized as illegal. In 2008, by decision of the court, the skyscraper was “shortened” to 4 floors, and 4 years later the rest of the house burned down. Here is such an absurd story. However, the exact same epithet can be used to characterize the appearance of Sutyagin’s house. Strange building, agree.
6. Crazy House (Vietnam)
No, no, this is not about a mental hospital (although it is that unusual house). In 1990, the Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga opened one of the most non-standard hotels in the world. The building is made in the form of an ancient tree with decorations in the form of giant animals, mushrooms and caves. The huge effect is added by a huge artificial web. The first visitors were so impressed with Dang's design decision that they opened their mouths and literally shouted out the phrase “crazy house”. The architect, in turn, was impressed by the reaction of citizens, and since then the hotel has been called so. By the way, the Vietnamese themselves are rather skeptical about the building and often bypass it.
5. Inverted house Szymbark (Poland)
In general, the village of Szymbark, in Poland, is full of attractions. Residents have worked hard to attract the attention of tourists to this area. The world's longest table-board, fishing pond and historical museum - all this is great, but it is clearly inferior in terms of effectiveness to the main feature of Shimbark. We are talking about a house inverted in the literal sense of the word. What is outside, what is inside is rotated 180 degrees: the furniture is attached to the ceiling, lamps stick out from the floor, TVs are screwed on the contrary and even the windows are curtained upside down. It is noteworthy that in such a house orientation is instantly lost - visitors soon become dizzy. In order to prevent people from going crazy and keeping themselves in good shape, glasses of water are placed on the entire floor (or ceiling?).
4. House-hole (USA)
And here it is no longer up to illusions and optical illusion. Everything present is both a house and a hole. The story of this fascinating building dates back to 2005, when the Texas authorities sentenced one of the houses to demolition. Having learned about this, two young artists without an imaginary thought made an unusual tunnel inside the building. They planned to show the resulting art object to the public as much as the house would last until demolition. To the surprise of the guys, the hole-house they created became very popular, and so quickly that at the allotted time for the arrival of the bulldozer, the building became a real asset for local residents and tourists. The authorities refused to demolish the house, and Texas is now famous not only for legends about cowboys.
3. Flying saucer in Moscow (Russia)
Another building of an unusual configuration from Russia. The Flying Saucer was located in Moscow Tekstilshchiki and at one time was the building of the AZLK Museum (Moskvich cars). It seems that I did not want to compare the “UFO” with the notorious Sutyagin’s house, but these buildings have too much in common. It is still unclear why the “plate” was chosen by the designers, because the building does not look very impressive. During the operation of the museum, completely unique exhibits of cars were preserved here, preserved in a single copy. However, fate decreed in such a way that today there is no longer a plant or a museum. The building is empty, and in the offices there is probably talk about its possible demolition.
2. The ideal palace of Ferdinand Cheval (France)
Almost all of the objects of our interest today were built by professional architects, engineers, or at least people who have sufficient knowledge of this business. All but one. The so-called ideal palace was built by a simple postman named Ferdinand Cheval. The building is striking in its beauty and variety of styles: here you can find figures of people and animals, various towers and fountains, as well as columns and stairs. However, the fact that Ferdinand had nothing to do with architecture is most striking. The postman carefully collected stones during the performance of his main work. It took 33 years to build the miracle palace at Cheval.
1. Bookshelf (USA)
Everything ingenious is simple. Most likely, this principle was guided by architects who worked on the construction of the library in Kansas City. After all, the idea of making the facade of the building in the form of books is extremely naive, but at the same time, hell, it’s a hit in the bullseye! Visually, the front wall of the library is a giant shelf, on which there are about two dozen books. Moreover, the "bindings" are drawn in such detail that for a moment you can feel like a midget, who ended up in the library. In general, such an original approach to the design of the reading room deservedly occupies the leading position in our rating.