10 Unique Houses From Around the World

Houses types and styles vary greatly according to region, climate, culture and tradition

1. Earth House

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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 c

overed with thin growth, and is often intended to have a small ecological footprint.

2. Rondavel

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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.

3. Shell House

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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.

4. Rumah gadang

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Rumah gadang which means "big house", are the traditional homes of the Minangkabau. 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.

5. Toda Hut

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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.

6. Korowai Tree House

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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.

7. Trulli House

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Trulli houses, distinguished by conical store roof, are traditional in the southeastern region Apulia, Italy.

8. Palloza

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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.

9. Farmhouse

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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.

10. Crannog

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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.

For related topics see

20 Amazingly Unique Architectural Designs of Houses From Around the World

Unique Houses of the World

Bizarre and Unique Architectural Designs of Houses of Worship

For spectacular bridges from around the world see

20 World's Most Notable Bridges: Architectural and Engineering Feats

15 World's Most Notable Bridges: Architectural and Engineering Feats-2

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