Who cares what the neighbors think? Let's build a house that looks like a snail shell! That's just what a Mexico City couple did, with the help of the astonishing imagination of those wild and wooly architects at Senosiain Arquitectos. Unlike that House of the Future we showed you yesterday, this abode is built now and the couple is already living in it with their two small children.
It's more of a sculpture than a dwelling. Taking cues from a Nautilus shell, the house is put together using ferrocement construction, a technique involving a frame of steel-reinforced chicken wire with a special two-inch-thick composite of concrete spread over it, resulting in a structure that's earthquake-proof and maintenance-free.
The open concept inside the house is dominated by smooth surfaces, spiral stairs and natural plantings that makes the inhabitants feel like they're living inside a snail who swallowed the entire contents of somebody's back yard. While the house is surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mexico City, its West side (where most of its portal-style windows are located) has a breathtaking view of the mountains. Wow. Maybe someday all houses will be made this way.
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Architectura Organica, via Architecture News
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By IsoTek at 5:56 PM ON 02/14/08
I like it, it kinda reminds me of a house that might be seen in the movie "Sleeper".
By Ohmish at 9:09 PM ON 02/14/08
Babe Lair. Gotta love those hippie ladies.
By Ohmish at 9:10 PM ON 02/14/08
Talk about a babe lair. Gotta love them hippie ladies.
By technabob at 11:58 PM ON 02/14/08
Kind of reminds me of the nautically inspired Sea Ranch chapel:
http://www.roadsidescholar.com/2007/07/17/the-surprising-sea-ranch-chapel/
By Drakkcoon at 9:08 AM ON 02/16/08
My kind of home, very unique. I would buy this house and be very happy in it.
By Dave at 7:46 PM ON 02/16/08
Looks like a Roger Dean inspired design. Would love to live in somthing like this.
By obvious at 3:09 PM ON 02/21/08
Better hope you never need to seat more than 4 people in your living room.
By NikFromNYC at 1:10 AM ON 02/22/08
The whole point, I exaggerate only a bit, about this *type* of concrete-replaces-adobe architecture was that it was not only customizable, but CHEAP! The thing is made of crystallized clay! Dirt, literally. Like the Pantheon. Unlike Geodescic Domes, which had 500 places to leak water in, hardened clay houses merely cracked here and there, or flaked a layer a year, but those things were solvable by adding a bit of acrylic emulsion to the mix. First you build the design on paper. Then you bought really cheap rolls of chicken wire, to make a form. Then you made clay/cement that you could stick to the chicken wire, from top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top, in a few days' stages. Then you hired a stain-glass artist to arrange glass in a wire net that you later filled in with modern day cement that did not crack or flake, come summer or harsh winter's rain.
I am not the first to comment here though about the GIRL. The girl who lives there, in a what is obviously a man (as in male) made structure. Total hottie. No fat-assed over-the -hill pussywhipping feminist wife types allowed. Build your own Tee Pee miss prissy in the black leotard.
By mootpoint at 9:17 PM ON 02/23/08
I'll bet the hottie is really thin, too. Because there's no kitchen!
By Angelbws at 6:17 PM ON 02/27/08
I think this house is fantastic, I have a plan to build my own house one day and this has given me lots of inspiration.
By annette at 10:47 AM ON 03/08/08
woooow! I would love to live like this!
By farah at 11:45 AM ON 03/21/08
cooollllll
m inspired totally