Unique Houses From
Around the World
Some of the styles are part of
distinct cultures.
Earth House
• 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 covered with thin growth, and is often
intended to have a small ecological footprint.
Rondavel
• 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.
Shell House
• 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.
Rumah gadang
• Rumah gadang which means "big house," are
the traditional homes of the Minangkabau in
Indonesia. 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.
Toda Hut
• 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.
Korowai Tree House
• 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.
Trulli House
• Trulli houses, distinguished
by conical stone roofs, are
traditional in the
southeastern region Apulia,
Italy.
Palloza
• 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.
Icelandic Farmhouse
• 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.
Crannog
• 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
Mardin Stone Houses Turkey
• This Arab-style architecture is located in
Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey. It is
commonly recognized for its Arab-style
architecture, and it also has a strategic
position on a rocky mountain overlooking
the plains of northern Syria.
Beehive Mud Houses: Harran, Turkey
• These traditional mud houses are located in
Harran. The interesting thing about them is
that they were constructed entirely without
the use of wood. The design of these mud
houses is believed to have stayed the same
for at least 3,000 years, until about the
1980s, when they officially stopped being
used as living space.
Tongkonan
• Toraja People House: Sulawesi, Indonesia
These distinctive wooden houses have curved
roofs with tall gable ends that make them
look likes boats. The houses are built on stilts
and are entered by curved steps and
beautifully decorated doorways. They are the
homes of the Toraja peoples, who live in
central Sulawesi
House of Marsh Arabs: Iraq
• The Houses of the Marsh Arabs are built from
reeds. They are often constructed on floating
platforms woven from tips of reeds still
growing up out of the swamp. The people
travel around by canoe. The Marsh Arabs'
lifestyle is threatened by drainage projects
that are taking water from swamps, causing
them to dry up.
Log Cabin House: USA
• The log cabin house is among the
first house designs of early
America. It is sturdy and easy to
construct, and can be built by
hand to provide shelter in a very
short period of time.