Unique Houses From Around the World

1
Unique Houses From Around the World

• Some of the styles are part of distinct cultures.

2
Earth House

• This unique house is located in Switzerland. It
  is an earth house, an architectural style
  characterized by the use of natural terrain to
  help form the walls of a house. An earth house
  is usually set partially into the ground and
  covered with thin growth, and is often intended
  to have a small ecological footprint.

3
(No Transcript)
4
Rondavel

• This pretty amazing house is called a rondavel, a
  traditional African-style house. They are usually
  round in shape and traditionally made with
  materials that can be locally obtained in raw
  form. The rondavel's walls are often constructed
  from stones. The mortar may consist of sand,
  soil, or some combinations of these mixed with
  dung. The floor is finished with a processed dung
  mixture to make it smooth. The roof braces of a
  rondavel are made out of tree limbs, which have
  been harvested and cut to length. The roof itself
  is made out of thatch that is sewn to the wooden
  braces with rope made out of grass.

5
(No Transcript)
6
Shell House

• One distinct house is the Shell house. It is the
  most original house in Mexico or maybe in the
  world. It is one of the most beautiful houses you
  will surely enjoy. It is located in Isla Mujeres
  northeast of Yucatan peninsula in the Caribbean
  Sea.

7
(No Transcript)
8
Rumah gadang

• Rumah gadang which means "big house," are the
  traditional homes of the Minangkabau in
  Indonesia. The architecture, construction,
  internal and external decoration, and the
  functions of the house reflect the culture and
  values of the Minangkabau.  A rumah gadang serves
  as a residence, a hall for family meetings, and
  for ceremonial activities. With the Minangkabau
  society being matrilineal, the rumah gadang is
  owned by the women of the family who live there -
  ownership is passed from mother to daughter.

9
(No Transcript)
10
Toda Hut

• The peculiar hut of a Toda Tribe of Nilgiris,
  India is noted for the decoration of the front
  wall, and the very small door. The Toda people
  are a small pastoral community who live on the
  isolated Nilgiri plateau of Southern India.
   Prior to the late eighteenth century, the Toda
  coexisted locally with other communities,
  including the Badaga, Kota, and Kurumba, in a
  loose caste-like community organization in  which
  the Toda were the top ranking.

11
(No Transcript)
12
Korowai Tree House

• This bizarre house is home to the bizarre tribe
  called the Korowai or also called the Kolufo.
  They are a people of southeastern Papua  (i.e.,
  the southeastern part of the western part of New
  Guinea). Until the 1970s, they were unaware of
  the existence of any people besides themselves
  and some immediately neighboring villages.  Only
  a few of them have become literate thus far. They
  are one of the few surviving peoples in the world
  that are thought to possibly still engage in
  cannibalism. Others dispute this, saying that
  these practices ended decades ago and that there
  have been no reported instances of cannibalism in
  over twenty years.

13
(No Transcript)
14
Trulli House

• Trulli houses, distinguished by conical stone
  roofs, are traditional in the southeastern region
  Apulia, Italy.

15
(No Transcript)
16
Palloza

• A palloza is a traditional thatched house as
  found in the in Galicia, Spain. They are circular
  or oval, and about ten ortwenty meters in
  diameter. These houses are built to withstand
  severe winter weather  at a typical altitude of
  1,200 meters. The main structure is stone, and is
  divided internally into separate areas for the
  family and their animals, with separate
  entrances. The roof is conical, made from rye
  straw on a wooden frame. There is no chimney, the
  smoke from the kitchen fire seeps out through the
  thatch.

17
(No Transcript)
18
Icelandic Farmhouse

• Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of
  using earth against building walls  for external
  thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily
  maintain a steady indoor air temperature. Earth
  sheltering is popular in modern times among
  advocates of passive solar and sustainable
  architecture, but has been around for nearly as
  long as humans have been constructing their own
  shelter. The picture above is Earth covered farm
  houses located in Keldur, Iceland.

19
(No Transcript)
20
Crannog

• A crannog is an artificial island, usually
  originally built in lakes, rivers and estuarine
  waters, and most often used as an island
  settlement  or dwelling place in prehistoric or
  medieval times. The name itself may refer to a
  wooden platform erected on shallow floors, but
  few remains of this sort have been found

21
(No Transcript)
22
Mardin Stone Houses Turkey

• This Arab-style architecture is located in
  Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey. It is
  commonly recognized for its Arab-style
  architecture, and it also has a strategic
  position on a rocky mountain overlooking the
  plains of northern Syria.

23
(No Transcript)
24
Beehive Mud Houses Harran, Turkey

• These traditional mud houses are located in
  Harran. The interesting thing about them is that
  they were constructed entirely without the use of
  wood. The design of these mud houses is believed
  to have stayed the same for at least 3,000
  years, until about the 1980s, when they
  officially stopped being used as living space.

25
(No Transcript)
26
Tongkonan

• Toraja People House Sulawesi, Indonesia These
  distinctive wooden houses have curved roofs with
  tall gable ends that make them look likes boats.
  The houses are built on stilts and are entered by
  curved steps and beautifully decorated doorways.
  They are the homes of the Toraja peoples, who
  live in central Sulawesi

27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
House of Marsh Arabs Iraq

• The Houses of the Marsh Arabs are built from
  reeds. They are often constructed on floating
  platforms woven  from tips of reeds still growing
  up out of the swamp. The people travel around by
  canoe. The Marsh Arabs' lifestyle is threatened
  by drainage projects that are taking water from
  swamps, causing them to dry up.

30
(No Transcript)
31
Log Cabin House USA

• The log cabin house is among the first house
  designs of early America.  It is sturdy and easy
  to construct, and can be built by hand to provide
  shelter in a very short period of time.

32
(No Transcript)