This year, a lot of beautiful, designed structures by starchy engineers made the news. You can find these in other blogs. We are much more interested in the strange and unusual homes, buildings, and neighborhoods that we came across this year.
In California and Arizona, there are neighborhoods where everyone is a private pilot. Thus, the entrances and garages in each house were proportional to the size of the plane, and the quarters were built adjacent to a runway.
Real Estate Cameron Air. Source: Bikes, Tricycles & Blades
Built in a country besieged by sanctions, Presence in Hormuz is a village designed by Iranian architecture firm ZAV Architects with an unconventional look and mission.
The tallest building for sale in London this year is just six feet wide. Take a look inside.
Dubbed “Permanent Camp 2”, this quaint and unusual little home just over six feet wide in Australia, by Casey Brown Architecture.
Each year, the National Association of Home Builders highlights the “New American Home,” whose design is intended to signal upcoming trends in living styles. This year’s pick features an inverted design.
Speaking of upside down, this luxury apartment is the opposite of a skyscraper setback, and the perfect metaphor for our current society.
Not quite upside down, but the Taco Bell is testing a pandemic-based, largely windowless design that can only be used for driving on stilts.
Moving higher, the brutal Mercedes-Benz dealership has certainly not been built into the sky this year, but it has drawn attention for its unusual configuration.
Also old, but getting attention right now, is the inventory on the Cheap Old Homes website, which helps first-time homebuyers get deals on unusual homes.
If you already have a home and are just looking to enlarge it, this company specializes in creating octagon-shaped homes and home additions. They think it is more cost effective and they have a lot of designs.
In Germany there is a town where many houses are divided into two families, dividing the aesthetics. Photographer Wolfgang Froehling has documented a number of them.
picture: Wolfgang Froehling
This year Habitat for Humanity began building their first 3D-printed homes.
A company called Icon beat the H over its H, and began selling “the first 3D-printed homes for sale in the United States” in Austin, Texas.
Tom Cruise doesn’t hurt the money, but he decided to sell his 10,000-square-foot Colorado mountain retreat this year. We enjoyed checking out the menu.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, was rumored to have moved into this 400-square-foot home in Texas this year.
Another billionaire donated $200 million to the University of California, Santa Barbara so that he can realize his dream of designing a residence. The only problem: he had no training, and he designed a building with mostly windowless rooms. A practicing engineer on the commission resigned in protest.
