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Extraordinary Houses

The Crooked House in Sopot, Poland: Coming from the Fairy-tale

It looks like something unreal – may be a surrealist painting or a cartoon but it is a real building. The most photographed building in Poland, the Crooked house is located in Rezydent shopping center in Sopot, Poland. This 4,000 square meter house was designed by the Polish architect Szotynscy Zaleski, who got the inspiration from the fairytale illustrations of Jan Marcin Szancer and the artwork of Per Dahlberg. The special impression is given by colourful stained glass entrances, stone elevation decors and windows framed with sandstone. One more peculiar of the extraordinary building is a roof of blue-green enameled shingles designed to give the impression of a dragon. Moreover, it looks really fantastic at night when it is lighted. This is a great zest of the architect’s thought.



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The Longaberger Company in Newark, Ohio, United States: the Basket Building

The Building of the Longaberger Company located in the United States might just be one of the strangest office building in the world. It could stay just a dream of Dave Longaberger because many experts tried to persuade him to alter his plans but he wanted an exact replica of the real thing. The founder believed that such an unusual design would draw attention to the company, while simultaneously helping to build the brand. The building was designed by Strange but true. It looks like a huge market basket, cost $30 million and took two years to complete. It covers 25 acres, weighing 8,000-9,000 tons with a square footage of 180,000. The two basket handles were settled to the top of the building with copper and wooden rivets weighing about 150 tons. I’m sure it is really worth to see this tremendous basket.



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Unusual Projects: Cubic Houses in Rotterdam, Netherlands

One of the really exciting places for tourists in Rotterdam is the street of Cubic houses. 40 conventional houses were tilted 45 degrees to become the first cube-shaped houses of Holland. Piet Blom, the designer thought of creating of a kind of village within a main city. When you look at them from outside, these houses appear disorienting, and it's quite difficult to imagine how one can stay upright inside them. But perhaps the most amazing thing is that they are inhabited. One of the Cubes is opened for the visitors to show them how it is to live in such a weird house. It looks tight and cramp outside, but inside the space is just right. Every little space here is utilized for something, so it is efficient. The living space is split into three levels: lower for the living area, middle for the sleeping one and the bathroom and the upper one for the extra bedroom. Take a look.



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The Clingstone House by Lovering Wharton: an Unusual Mansion on the Island

Clingstone, an unusual, 103-year-old mansion in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay survives through the love and hard work of family and friends. This house on an island looks straight out of a fairy tale. And 79 year old Boston Architect Henry Wood is its owner. The Clingstone House designed by J.S. Lovering Wharton with artist William Trost Richards probably got its name because it “clings” to a little rocky island. This mysterious dwelling with a 360-degree view of the ocean has a certain history. Three storeyed tall, the Clingstone House has a large centre hall, ten bedrooms and 23 rooms totally.



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Holman House by Durbach Block Architects

Sitting at the edge of a 70-meter high cliff above the Pacific Ocean in Dover Heights, a very beautiful and modern house was designed by Durbach Block Architects. Clear geometric forms, the use of black metal supports in conjunction with the natural terrain of rock and masonry, create an interesting contrast and turn this house in unique house. Interiors are very light.  Glass walls allow to maximize views of the ocean, which owners can enjoy almost everywhere. According to the architects they were inspired by Picasso art during the work. You can imagine that it was difficult to create house in this site, but the result is really excellent.



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Seashell House in Finland by Olavi Koponen – A Nook of Calmness

If you prefer to avoid crowds and dislike anyone to disturb your private life then you will be delighted by the Seashell house in Espoo, Finland from Olavi Koponen. This house is his own one and it pretends to be one of the most interesting houses at the Asuntomessut, the Architecture and Design exhibition taking place in Finland. Kotilo (this is another name of this unusual dwelling) was designed around a fireplace of which almost all the spaces of the house are twisted around. It has a grass roof and hasn’t got many windows. The Seashell house offers necessary privacy. The house is rather spacey and simple. Kotilo’s design is not sophisticated but it gives the feeling of harmony for those who like silence and loneliness.



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The Unique Arc House by Maziar Behrooz Architecture

This amazing residence was built by Maziar Behrooz Architecture for a small family of two and their two big dogs. It?s located in East Hampton, NY, near the local airport and train track. The architects considered this fact and accentuated it in house\\\'s exterior by making it look like an airplane hangar. Such structure does not only look extraordinary, but is also very cost-effective because it doesn?t require too many supporting walls or columns inside of the building. The arc contains just some of the facilities, such as living, dining rooms and the kitchen, whereas the rest of the house is very well integrated to the landscape, housing some of the more intimate areas. The materials for the house were selected with energy saving in mind, making the power consuption of this house much lower than of the typical house of this size.



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Stained Glass Art House by Tom Pruin

There are some cities and countries that can be proud of its architecture connected with fairy-tales and of famous people who lived there. Finland is known for the residence of Santa-Claus. Sweden was the home-land for Astrid Lindgren. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was the place of living for Hans Christian Andersen. And this city is also well-known for the statue of Little Mermaid. But it is not the only touch of fairy-tale in Copenhagen. Tom Pruin, the New-York based architect, has designed an unusual stained glass art house right in the middle of the city. It looks really amazing and unreal especially at night when it is lit from the inside. Moreover all the space around this miraculous house is coloured by wide range of lights. It is extremely beautiful! Tom Pruin was inspired by all the lights that he had faced in Copenhagen so he decided to combine them all in his own one. The result was this piece of faire-tale.



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