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.
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.
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 store roof, 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.
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.
CrannogA 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.
