7 Amazing Houses (Built by Equally Amazing People)

The world is home to pretty much every shape, size and bizarre form of house you can possibly imagine, but as amazing as these houses are, the stories of the people who built them are often even more fantastic. A house says a lot about a person, and these houses tell the world that its owner isn’t about to conform to it’s rules (or maybe that they just forgot to take their medication).


The Toilet House

No need for a lengthy description here—it’s a house designed to look like a giant toilet. We realize housing markets are in the can and all, but we’re not sure we needed a house that illustrated it quite so literally.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Sim Jae-Duck was born in a washroom. Usually this is the kind of personal trivia you try to keep to yourself, but Sim Jae-Duck isn’t merely unashamed of the fact that the first thing he saw in this world was that the tub could really use a de-grouting, he’s downright proud of it. It was no mere coincidence that his mother gave birth there either, as Sim’s grandmother told his mom tthat babies born in bathrooms were destined to live long successful lives. Normally that kind of advice would be cause to ship grandma off to the nursing home, but it turns out that she may have been on to something as Sim Jae-Duck went on to become the Mayor of the South Korean city of Suweon.

During his term Sim was given the nickname “Mayor Toilet”, and while this is hardly the first time people have referred to politicians and toilets in the same sentence, Sim truly earned his moniker by being completely obsessed by the things. Sim believes bathrooms should be “clean and beautiful resting places imbued with culture” and hopes to transform them into something closer to a garden or art gallery (if those things were filled with the smell of poop).

Yeah yeah, toilets are great. Enough already.

In 1999 Sim Jae-Duck launched his World Toilet Association, and to celebrate unveiled his glass walled toilet house, which features two bedrooms, guestrooms and of course three luxurious state-of-the-art washrooms. Feeling disappointed that you can’t literally live your life in the crapper? Well if you have 50 thousand dollars laying about you too can spend a night in Sim’s toilet house. Just remember to bring some good reading material.


The Scrap Wood Skyscraper

Believe it or not, this thing that looks like some sort of haunted scrap heap is in fact an inhabitable house.

Located in the Siberian town of Arkhangelsk, it’s believed to be the tallest wooden dwelling in the world, towering 13-stories and seemingly defying several laws of physics by not toppling over every time a slight breeze hits it.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Nikolai Sutyagin built the entire house himself by hand mostly from scrap lumber. According to its creator the house was originally intended to only be 2-stories, but looked “ungainly”, so he just kept building, which we’re pretty sure isn’t a technique recommended by most architectural schools.

Despite the quirkiness of his final product, Nikolai sounds like quite the inspiring figure doesn’t he? The kind of guy you tell your kids about when you want them to get their asses up from in front of the TV. Well until you find out that Nikolai Sutyagin was actually a Russian gangster who built his house to be the Russian equivalent of the Playboy mansion.

You're more likely to get tetanus than in the real Playboy mansion. On the plus side, you're also less likely to have to sleep with Hugh Hefner.

The house contains a garden, ballroom, 5-story bathhouse and numerous rooms where Sutyagins business colleagues could “entertain” various women. Come to think of it, he may inspire us even more now.

Of course he's not wearing a shirt.

The Narrow House

Well, clearly this is just a picture of a house in construction. That white structure is just one of the walls of a full house to be built later, right?

Nope, turns out that’s an entire house, the thinnest one in the world in fact. The house measures only about 3-feet wide at the front, expanding to a roomy 6-feet across at it’s widest point. Despite being narrower than a lot of human beings here in America, this Brazilian house manages to pack in two living rooms, three bedrooms and a kitchen.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

A few years ago, Helenita Queiroz Grave Minho found herself out of a job. While some people might use this as excuse to catch up on their daytime TV while hiding inside to keep the disability checks coming, Helenita decided to be proactive. She wanted to build a house that she could rent out for extra cash, but unfortunately the only land she had to build on was a narrow alleyway. That didn’t stop her.

Helenita's a lady who gets her way.

Helenita went through a lengthy battle with the Mayor’s office before she was allowed to build (during which we imagine the phrase “are you completely insane?” must have been common) but eventually the authorities gave in. Despite having no architectural training, Helenita designed and built the house with her husband, and it’s now become a local tourist attraction, with Helenita planning to build another story on it as well. Hopefully she stops there though, since we’re not sure “world’s narrowest collapsed pile of rubble” will have quite the same draw.


The Coral Castle

On the southernmost tip of Florida, an area not exactly known for it’s high culture, lays the Coral Castle, a structure that has been compared to world wonders like Stonehenge and the great pyramids of Egypt, and it was all built by a single man who, if his neighbours are to be believed, may have had magical powers.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Latvian immigrant Edward Leedskalnin was dumped by his fiancé on the day before their wedding. After a steel toe to the nuts like that a lot of men might fantasize about building a fortress to shut themselves away from humanity in, but Edward Leedskalnin, being a can-do kind of guy, actually did it. Edward moved to south Florida and began building himself a castle using giant blocks of limestone from the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Everything in the castle, from Edward’s two-story tower living quarters, to the furniture, to the strange sculptures in the courtyard, to his throne (he way have been overcompensating just a tad with that one) were made of these stone slabs, with no mortar or cement to hold them together.

While that’s odd in and of itself, even stranger is the fact that nobody knows how the hell the guy did it all. Leedskalnin went to great lengths to make sure nobody saw him working, and it remains a mystery how he managed to move, cut and precisely assemble these chunks of rock (some of which were up to twice as large as the stones used at Stonehenge) all on his own. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, eventually he decided the location he’d chosen for his project wasn’t quite right, so he moved the whole thing 10-miles down the road. Think changing apartments is tough? Try moving when you have to take over a thousand tons of limestone with you.

See this giant hunk of stone? I totally lifted it, and I'm not going to tell you how.

Over the years people have come up with plenty of interesting theories to explain the creation of the Coral Castle, and by “interesting”, we mostly mean batshit insane. Neighbours say they witnessed Edward placing his hands on the rocks, chanting and causing them to levitate, local teenagers claim to have seen him flying the blocks like hydrogen balloons, and some even believe Edward may have discovered the very key to the universe. Edward himself said his amazing building abilities were due to him discovering the secrets of the pyramids. Gee, thanks for the clarification. Even Spock himself demands an explanation…



The Beer Can House

Somewhere in Houston, Texas lays the Beer Can House, which in a stirring tribute to both recycling and alcoholism, is adorned with over 50-thousand crushed beer cans.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

We know what you’re thinking, and no, the Beer Can House was never a frat house believe it or not. The house was actually created by upholsterer John Milkovisch. The whole project started when Milkovisch decided to replace his lawn with cement slabs which he covered with marbles, metal and all sorts of other random junk, because in his words, he just “got sick of mowing the damn grass.”

With his property now officially an eyesore, he decided to really go for broke. According to friends, Milkovisch lived on the route the beer truck drove to get to the grocery store, and like a middle aged beer bellied kid, he’d run out like he’d seen the ice cream truck and clean it out, stocking eight to ten cases in his garage at all times. Perhaps it was the influence of all those beers that made him think sticking the empties on the walls was a good idea, but it turned out fine for Milkovisch as the house is now considered a beloved local landmark. Basically what we’re saying is that if there’s ever a vote on who the awesomest guy ever was, John Milkovisch ought to at least be on the ballot.

John Milkovisch appreciated the finer things in life.

The House on the Rock

Near the unassuming small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin lays one of the oddest houses in America. For starters it’s perched on top of a 60-foot tall column of sheer rock, and inside you’ll find a seemingly randomly assembled collection of bizarre themed rooms. There’s a room full of strange automated instruments, a recreation of an early 20th century town, a large carousel and more. Basically it’s what Disneyland would have been like if Walt had banged his head a few too many times as a kid and spent most of his life doing shrooms.

Apparently Godzilla lives somewhere in this house.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

The house’s creator, Alex Jordan Jr., was famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s biggest fan. Jordan travelled to meet Wright so he could show him the plans for a building he had designed, hoping to get his idol’s approval, and well, Wright basically straight-up told Jordan he was the shittiest architect in history, dropping the following awesome line on him…

"I wouldn't hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop. You're not capable." There’s only one thing to say to that. Ouch.

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Don Rickles of the the architecture world.

Well after that Jordan turned in his Frank Lloyd Wright fan club badge, and decided he was going to make Wright eat his words by building a house on top of a rock spire he spotted while driving home in a huff from the fateful meeting. 80-years later Wright is America’s most respected architect and Alex Jordan is one of seven crazy people mentioned in a Cracked article. You sure showed him Alex.

Not even Alex Jordan's hat could compare to FLW.

Le Palais Ideal

Somewhere amongst the French countryside, near the town Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, lays Le Palais Ideal (“The Ideal Palace”), a large incredibly ornate palace built out of small stones, and decorated with imagery from the Bible, India and many other cultures from around the world. It may seem like a monument from some sort of long-lost civilization, but in reality the Palais Ideal is only celebrating it’s 100th birthday this year, and it’s creation was all the result of a man tripping over a stone.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Le Palais Idea was entirely the work of Ferdinand Cheval, a mailman who tripped over a stone one day while on his route. Cheval could have simply tossed the rock aside, or perhaps gone with his mailman instincts and hurled it at somebody’s head, but instead he found himself fascinated by it’s shape and was inspired to create the Palais. From that day on, and for the next 33-years, Ferdinand Cheval would collect stones along his route, at first stuffing them into his pockets, before upgrading to a basket and eventually a wheelbarrow. Fortunately the backhoe wasn’t invented yet because we’re sure Cheval would have taken one on his route if he could.

Clearly not the kind of man you say "no" to when he asks to pick stones off your sidewalk.

After collecting the stones, Cheval would then painstakingly piece together his ideal palace, usually working at night by the light of an oil lamp. Cheval wanted to be buried there, but unfortunately that was against French law. Since Cheval was a mailman, and thus possessed that unique postal worker combination of insanity and love for pointless rules, he decided not to fight it and instead spent the next eight years building a mausoleum using the same techniques he had used for his palace. He made sure the mausoleum didn’t get all musty before he moved in either, promptly dying less than a year after he finished it.

Nathan Birch also writes the solidly constructed webcomic Zoology.