Quite special this one. Not only is it a) super and b) shiny, it’s c) officially the best house in the world and d) it exists in more dimensions than it ought to!

Confused? Then I’ll cover these points one by one.

a) and b) – well just look at it.

klein_bottle_house01

klein_bottle_house02

(Photographs by John Gollings – Gollings Photography)

I rest my case.

c) It was recently awarded first prize in the ‘individual house’ category at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona. Amongst the judges are some of the most influential archictects around, so they should know a thing or two about what makes an amazing house.

and d) The science bit: it was designed around the principal of the Klein bottle, which according to Wikipedia is “a certain non-orientable surface, i.e., a surface (a two-dimensional manifold) with no distinct “inner” and “outer” sides”.

Which I take to mean an object which is both inside out and outside in at the same time and makes your head hurt the more you look at it.

klein_bottle

(image source)

But back to the house. Obviously it was not a slavish attempt to recreate the shape above, that’d be silly. Just telling the kids to go outside would condemn them to an endless loop and social services would soon be paying you a visit.

However the Australian architects McBride Charles Ryan were keen to stay, in their words, “topologically pure” to the form which meant that:

“The development was intense, the serious pursuit of joyful nonsense. The result we think is a unique shape and internal space, an unexpected entry sequence and series of new relationships between the traditional components of the home.”

They go on to admit, “The building required extensive use of 3d software for both its development and eventual execution”.

To which my reply is, “No sh*t Sherlock”.

More pictures and the full ‘how what and why’, over at World Buildings Directory.

Related Tags: Architecture & Design, Super Shiny Homes

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