Tour the World's Wildest Houses
It's time for another healthy dose of the wildest houses in the world! Take a tour of a castle made entirely of trash, a replica of the house from the classic television show The Munsters, and a couple of architectural wonders that take us below the earth's surface. If you'd like to experience some of these strange structures yourself, a few of them are available for sale or rental. So if cottages and Capes bore you, you may find the house of your wildest dreams here. -Karen Ziga and Tabitha Sukhai, This Old House online
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Cold War Era Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Silo
Saranac, New York
To the naked eye, this is just a house with killer Adirondack views. But hidden below the surface is a 176-foot-deep missile silo, measuring 52 feet in diameter. In other words: a massive bomb shelter built to withstand a 200-pound-per-square-inch blast.
Certainly not an ordinary mountain getaway, the silo was constructed by the United States Air Force in 1958 and was an active Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launch facility from 1961 until 1965, when it was decomissioned.
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Inside the Silo
Here's what a Launch Control Center turned residential studio looks like. When the current owners bought the space 20 years ago, it was filled with water. They drained it and went on a remodeling blitz that resulted in the airy, modern space shown here. This glorified basement is connected to the silo by a 40-foot-tunnel (as shown in the previous slide).
The property (19.2 acres) is currently on the market. But it's part of a larger 210-acre airpark that's divided into lots for a subdivision, complete with an FAA-approved runway so homeowners can taxi right up to their front doors. There's also an aircraft hanger building and a log cabin on the site-altogether listed for sale for about $1.8 million. But if all you need is a really, really safe place to rest your head, you can pick up just the silo home lot (listed separately) for $750,000.
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Roll-It Cylindrical Experimental Housing
Karlsruhe, Germany
We have the great minds over at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology to thank for this small-housing prototype. The soup-can-shaped home was born out of an interdepartmental collaboration at the school to create a design that maximizes functionality in a minimum amount of space. The cylinder's outer shell-used as advertising space for the prototype's sponsors-has four sturdy support rings so it can roll along without damage.
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Inside the Roll-It
Tiny as it may seem, there are loads of small-space solutions in this rolling residence. There's a compact dining area, kitchen, exercising area, and sleeping quarters-all in a clean and modern space.
SEE THE REST OF OUR WORLD'S WILDEST HOUSES ON THISOLDHOUSE.COM
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