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NARRATOR: There are extreme homes all over the world,
and we're taking you inside some of them
for a personal tour.
The word "extreme" means different things
to different people, but to these homeowners,
it means dreaming, daring, and innovating.
From construction to completion,
we'll take a closeup look at these spectacular homes
to find out just what makes each of them so extreme.
Like this house, made from desert sand.
And this one, designed on the principles of yoga.
We'll show you a home
made out of a quarter of a million pieces.
And another that's brought a fossil to life.
Exciting shapes, exceptional sizes, and exotic locations --
these are some of the coolest homes around.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Our first home is in Switzerland
and looks more like something from Middle-earth
than the middle of Europe.
In fact, this isn't just one home -- it's nine.
All part of a village called Dietikon
on the outskirts of Zurich.
At first glance,
these homes seem straight out of "The Lord of the Rings."
The fluid, curved shapes of these burrows
were built into the ground
and turn a fantasy into a reality.
Each circular dwelling has a grass roof
and a patio that opens onto a pond.
It all merges together to create a very organic feel.
Architect Peter Vetsch
didn't build the burrows below ground just for fun.
There's real, practical benefits, too.
[ Speaking native language ]
INTERPRETER: We cover them with Earth.
In summer, they are very cool and not hot at all.
In winter, we use the ground heat
so we have very low heating costs.
NARRATOR: These subterranean dwellings
use only a third of the energy of conventional houses.
That's because they use nature's insulation.
Each house is tucked deep into the ground
and buried in a layer of earth up to nine-feet thick
topped off with grass.
The architects didn't choose the circular shape at random.
They chose it because of the strength it creates.
INTERPRETER: The round form
emerged out of a synthesis of form and function.
Because of the round shape,
you can put a lot of weight on top of the houses.
NARRATOR: Which is a good thing
when you're burying your home under tons of earth.
The circular subterranean structure
has another advantage -- it can't be uprooted
or blown over by the Gale-force winds that buffet this region.
Kosi Robin has lived here for 17 years
and would never go back to living in a regular home.
[ Speaking native language ]
INTERPRETER: We usually live in angular homes,
and that's not as attractive.
It's fabulous living in these organic shapes.
They have a comfortable feeling.
NARRATOR: The inside of Kosi's home feels more
like a living organism than a man-made structure.
Walls and ceilings, floors and doors
all merge together to create a natural and organic feel.
The bathroom and other ground-floor rooms are connected
by an arched corridor
that curves around a central dining area and kitchen.
At one end of the corridor,
there's a south-facing living room with a courtyard.
At the other end of the hallway, the bedroom and patio face north
for a dark and peaceful night's sleep.
The staircase leads downstairs into the basement.
Here, curves make way for straight lines
and right angles -- easier for Kosi to make a study
and a bedroom with its own sauna.
During construction, this basement was built first.
Next, a frame made from rebar and iron mesh was fixed on top
and then covered in concrete to form the domed top floor.
Finally, a roof of soil and grass was laid on top.
The end result is a village community
where residents live together but separately.
INTERPRETER: Everyone still keeps their own privacy.
You can design it very nicely
so that every house has an outside seating area
either in front or on top of the house or by the pond.
NARRATOR: It's not an apartment building or condos
or anything like the rest of Swiss suburbs around it.
This community, tucked into a Swiss hillside,
is simply fantastic.
Our next home is in London,
and should really float your boat.
The river Thames is the best place to see the city,
from Big Ben to St. Paul's Cathedral.
And this houseboat is perfect for sightseeing.
But it's not on the Thames exactly.
It's high above it,
firmly anchored to roof of an art center on the south bank.
Yes, it really is a boat on top of a building.
This nautical home was commissioned
as part of London's 2012 Olympic celebrations.
Richard Day is part of the crew behind the boathouse.
DAY: We wanted to make sure that we found
a scheme that really worked for this site.
And we went to a competition.
And the design that was chosen was from the architect
David Kohn and artist Fiona Banner,
who combined together to create this space.
The theme being around "Heart of Darkness,"
which is a book about
an old sea captain's tale of sailing up the Congo.
But he told the story from the bank of the river Thames --
hence the connection.
NARRATOR: In the book,
written by Joseph Conrad more than a century ago,
there's a steamship named The Roi des Belges.
Sadly, this houseboat isn't steaming off anywhere.
It's definitely landlocked.
But there are compensations --
one, it has the best views in town.
Because it was built on top of an art gallery,
you might think it's just some weird art installation,
but it's actually a home for artists.
Architecture should be fun as well as practical.
The other part about this project was that we did it
because it was there and it was a challenge
and it could be done.
And why not be a bit different and put a boat on a roof?
NARRATOR: Space on board is at a premium.
Stowed away behind this wooden door is a hidden bathroom.
And beyond that is a kitchenette and dining room...
plus a double bedroom with window seat.
To get to the bridge above, there's a set of metal steps.
This is one serious room with a view.
It may be landlocked, but this vessel looks ready for sea.
DAY: The structure itself follows a nautical theme.
The timber you see is marine ply that's been stained.
You'll see portholes as you go around,
and there's other nautical features throughout.
NARRATOR: As you can imagine,
building a boat on a roof can have its challenges.
The boat itself was built in three sections off-site,
and it was brought here and lifted up on a crane.
The three sections being the main deck that we're on here,
the library, and then the wind turbines,
which are at the top, which create enough power
to fund about 80% of our power usage while we're here.
NARRATOR: A house boat on top of a building
might seem like madness, but this home is a total success,
with hundreds of artists lining up
for a chance to enjoy the river from on high.
Our next home in Los Angeles
really knows how to make an exhibition of itself.
NARRATOR: We're back with more extreme homes.
We're off to California
to see a suburban home with a modernist makeover.
This house was transformed into a home
and art gallery all in one.
A work of art for art's sake.
It all started when Jenn Pinto and her husband
realized they had too much art for their home.
My husband and I have been collecting art
for about 10 years,
and we decided we would love a home
that showcased our art collection.
So we looked to our brother-in-law Scott Kutcher,
and what we didn't realize that was a pleasant surprise
was that the house he designed for us, in essence,
became a piece of art itself.
NARRATOR: What Scott did was transform a dull suburban house
into a stunning art-gallery dwelling.
The original house was really boxy,
so they created a radical new floor plan.
They stripped everything back to the wooden beams
and then knocked out some interior walls,
putting in new ones to create more open spaces.
Then they replastered and painted the exterior walls.
The slanted walls give the home an angular theme,
which starts at the entrance.
Some corten steel stairs lead to a cantilever deck overhead.
The dining room is large --
a perfect gallery for large canvases.
And it links to the kitchen and a living area.
There's art everywhere,
and everything -- even the sink and fixtures --
is artfully done.
Go to the second floor, along the frosted-glass flooring,
and you'll find the master bedroom.
In the bathroom, there's a tub, a shower,
and all the usual items,
but still, all very arty, angled, and unexpected.
Out back, there's an open patio with a pool for entertaining.
With white walls and dark floors,
it's purposely made to look like a stylish gallery,
designed to let visitors explore and enjoy the works of art.
If you look around, the rooms are so open
that it really enables you to view art from afar and up close.
And then, the house itself --
everything sort of flows into different rooms into itself.
NARRATOR: The sense of flow is accentuated
by light fixtures hidden at wall edges --
top, side, and bottom --
which also emphasizes the unusual angles.
And like any good gallery, the lighting complements the art.
The new angled interior walls
create new lines of sight right through the home.
And small, carefully positioned windows resemble works of art,
but they also maintain privacy.
It really turned out to be, you know, very private.
You know, we're smack in the middle of Los Angeles.
When you come into the house,
it is so serene, so quiet, so private.
There's a lot of natural light coming in.
And Scott made sure
that he could really maximize the light with the windows,
but yet, all of the windows are in places
where we have the most amount of privacy.
NARRATOR: This home, right in the heart of Hollywood,
houses the private Pinto art collection.
But the house itself is a very public display
of angular, architectural art.
Our next home, in Bali, Indonesia,
is based on the principals of yoga
and the ancient Sanskrit word "prana,"
which means "life-force energy."
This tropical habitat is constructed to mirror
how breath enters the body
and moves around the circulatory system while practicing yoga.
The design follows natural patterns,
and the house is made of natural materials.
In fact, it's made mostly out of grass.
Though, not the lawn type, but bamboo,
which is a member of the grass family.
Yoga enthusiast Therese Poulsen
is the owner of this tropical abode.
She wanted a structure that would allow air and energy
to flow easily through the house.
Even the position of the home
is intended to capture the flow of currents in the atmosphere.
POULSEN: The house was created, really, from nature's signs,
allowing the freedom of flow.
So, no obstruction of flow of energy.
If I shifted the house slightly to the left,
then the movement of the energy -- the oxygen --
actually would flow.
And that's why we don't need any air-condition.
NARRATOR: It's not a big surprise
that you don't need any air-conditioning
when you don't have any windows or walls.
The design is based on a traditional Balinese house
called a wantilan.
That, like this house, has a thatched roof
and no solid exterior walls -- perfect for the climate.
The house is made entirely from local materials.
The roof thatch is a local grass called A lang-A lang.
And the support structure is built from large bamboo columns,
sourced from the nearby jungle.
The swimming pool is built with local river stones.
There's more river stone in the ground-floor kitchen,
as well as in the walls and central stove.
There are two bedrooms on the middle level,
with black, bamboo floors and native furniture.
The bathroom is made from broken white stone.
This bathroom at the top of the house
echoes the ocean around Bali
with shell mirrors and lighting sconces.
The master bedroom next to it is literally the stuff of dreams.
Therese came up with the seashell design on the teak bed
in her sleep.
When you sleep, you get many visions and dreams.
And for me, it was very important
to bring them into the building.
NARRATOR: Here and there, shrines and statues of Hindu gods
reinforce the spiritual feeling in the house.
Outside, there's even a meditation cave
concealed in a tranquil setting.
Bali has been a center for meditation
since the eighth century.
This 21st-century home ensures the ancient tradition lives on.
Next, a puzzle of a home
that brings the Mediterranean to California.
NARRATOR: We've checked out
community living, subterranean-style,
a boathouse floating in the London skyline,
and a home that breathes the flow of yoga energy.
In Santa Barbara, California, one group of homes
has truly made its mark
in hundreds of thousands of ways.
The design of this apartment building has transported
the traditions of the western Mediterranean
to the California coastline in a completely original way.
The arches, the courtyard garden,
the white-washed walls,
and colorful mosaics made from 250,000 tiles --
all of these architectural details
come from the moorish regions of Southern Spain.
The Spanish flag flies throughout the courtyard.
The colorful design shows up in the balcony awnings, too,
giving shade from the California sun.
Architect Jeff Shelton
designed this seven-apartment complex with a flamenco flavor.
It was a parking lot. Now it's called El Andaluz.
For all the mosaics, Jeff used four-sided ceramic tiles
in 12 patterns, ranging from flowers to insects.
This ant is made in which you could turn this
and put this tile any direction at anytime.
So this ant could just be turned in any way.
You don't need to line anything up.
They're already automatically aligned,
and what you get out of it is a bunch of ants
crawling in different directions.
NARRATOR: The offices and garage
are all on the ground floor of the development.
The entrance is under a massive 20-foot-tall neon-light fixture.
The ceilings, painted with salamanders eating fruit,
hint at what's to come.
Upstairs, the courtyard is full of color.
Fruit trees, like figs and oranges,
grow in big planters around the fountain.
Everything about the house is a little bit out there,
even the insulation in the walls.
It's made from soya beans.
And these doors were recycled from the local high school.
This is made out of used gymnasium seats
from Santa Barbara High School.
And, as you can see, the old holes were left in it.
NARRATOR: There are four apartments on the first floor
and three on the second.
And all have the moorish look.
This one has a wide living room with fir beams on the ceiling.
Lighting in the kitchen and dining room is custom-made.
And there's a balcony with a view for dining alfresco.
Two bedrooms overlook the courtyard garden.
The master bedroom has two balconies
that look out at the mountains and a bathroom in earth tones
with a chandelier and a moorish arch.
Despite all the historical details,
there are very modern materials scattered around.
30 tons of steel went into the winding railings,
designed by Jeff's brother.
The traditional balconies, called loziers,
would have been made with wood or plaster in Spanish castles.
These were pre-fabricated
and are so heavy, they had to be dropped in by crane.
And they do more than just look romantic.
SHELTON: One of the magical things about these balconies is
that they are made of one-inch steel,
and so, you couldn't ask for stronger material,
more masculine material to make these things out of.
They are structural. They're holding themselves up.
But what we did was cut them out and into a pattern.
They do emulate some lace
that you'll find in moorish structures.
NARRATOR: This trip around the Med
includes a nod to Verona, Italy,
with a "Romeo and Juliet"-style courtyard balcony.
Up on the roof terrace, the feel here is more American
with views of the Santa Ynez Mountains.
Some of the chimneys are for the birds.
No, really.
They're birdhouses for the local wrens in a residence
where the Mediterranean has come home to roost.
Next, a Canadian home which combines modern glass
with ancient rock for the ultimate lakeside lookout.
NARRATOR: We're back on our tour
of the world's most extreme homes.
Our next home really stands out
alongside its more traditional neighbors
here on Stony Lake in Ontario, Canada.
It was designed by a photographer to be
a picture-perfect house and a studio combined.
This front-row seat to nature's beauty
is perfect for photography.
The wall-to-wall windows are made of a special glass
that doesn't distort the view
and really brings the surroundings into focus --
Good news when you want to
take shots of the lake and its wildlife.
This photographer's dream
was designed by architect Pat Hanson
and built on top of an old boathouse.
HANSON: The building -- you can see right into it,
and it's partly because of the type of glass that we used.
We used a glass that has very low iron content.
Looking in and out of the building is sort of perfect.
So, it makes taking photographs for him, you know, really easy.
NARRATOR: So, if something's happening on the lake,
you can shoot from inside
and not scare off the wildlife outside.
At first, the architect's radical design
somewhat frightened the owner.
I don't think he really thought, initially,
that the building should be all glass,
but as you think it through logically --
and it's fairly secluded --
for what he wanted to do, it seemed to be a way of kind of
making the building as simple
and as invisible as possible in the landscape.
NARRATOR: He needn't have worried.
The house complements the location perfectly.
The building is something old and something new.
The dark underside has a mechanical door which opens up
to a wooden boathouse tucked into the granite.
The bright topside is new.
And combined, they're like a large,
comfortable photographer's blind on the lake.
You get to the entrance across a stone courtyard
with a barbecue for outdoor dining.
The interior glass, 2 1/2 stories high,
lets in lots of light and heat,
which is absorbed by the black, stone floors
and slowly released during the evening to keep the house warm.
And just in case the temperature goes way below zero,
there's radiant heat and a gas fireplace.
There's a storage area and bathroom on the lower floor.
And upstairs is split-level,
with a bedroom and large bath overlooking
the living room and lake beyond.
And if you want privacy,
there are some sand-blasted glass panels
that can close off the bedroom.
The living room, with 16-foot-high windows all around,
is multipurpose.
It serves as a living room, dining room, and work space.
By shifting the furniture,
the space becomes a photographer's studio
with a full set of professional lights already in place.
The simple, functional theme of the property extends
into the kitchen and other utility areas,
which are hidden away or off to the side.
It's basically been a principal of the whole design, right?
It's sort of a ways of putting away stuff
and kind of making the space simple
as a way of using it as a studio as well as a house.
So, there's a series of blinds for the whole thing.
They're tucked up in a cove.
All of the supply vents for heating and cooling
are tucked up into the ceiling.
NARRATOR: Not everything's hidden, though.
Some things are really shown off, like this.
It looks like a table built for a giant.
But in fact, it's the terrace.
It's constructed from aluminum and glass
and supported by steel pilings.
It's deliberately curved
to contrast the home's square lines.
The rock garden,
designed by landscape architect Diana Gerrard,
follows the home's mantra of "new and old,"
but in this case, "new and positively ancient."
GERRARD: When I first came to this site,
the thing that was incredibly obvious to me
is that it did not look at all
like a northern-Ontario landscape.
Everything you see here, this rock -- it didn't exist.
it was all covered by shrubs
and ground covers and weeds and all kinds of things.
It took a giant excavator over a month
to dig out 1,600 tons of rock, but the effort was worth it.
Now rocks hidden for two billion years are exposed,
creating an ancient but new garden.
It's the ultimate lakeside location.
Our next home is inspired by the golden age of ocean travel,
which is convenient, as it stands on the waterfront
in the busy port city of Antwerp, Belgium.
This home looks nothing like a monastery,
but that's how it started out.
Artist Will van Roosmalen bought a derelict building on the site
that had been the cloisters of an abbey,
but a religious dwelling
was not he and architect Bob van Reeth had in mind.
I bought the house almost for nothing.
And I talked with Bob, and I asked him, "What would you do?"
And he said, "It's not the house that's beautiful,
it's the point in the town."
And he said, "I would break it down,
and we're gonna make something."
NARRATOR: So, they stripped the old building to the bare bones
and started from scratch.
The rebuild was done in black and white.
The idea for the striped exterior
came from this old design model, commissioned but never built
by architect Adolf Loos in the 1920s
for his favorite showbiz star, Josephine Baker.
The new building combines Hollywood glamour
with the vitality of the big seaport.
Many details are inspired by the golden age of the luxury liner.
It has porthole windows and watertight bulkhead doors
like something from the Queen Mary Liner.
Everything, including the funnels on the roof deck,
suggests life on the high seas,
which was the effect Will was shooting for.
VAN ROOSEMALEN: This looks like something
which I like from the water and things.
You see a boat, I like the movement of a boat.
This is beautiful.
NARRATOR: The new building is six stories tall
and split into two apartments.
Will lives on the top floors.
The sleeping quarters are on the bottom deck of the apartment,
hung with artwork from Will's collection.
Above the bed in the master suite,
is a giant photo taken of the construction team
before building began.
And the bathroom is less liner, and more luxury.
Upstairs is a kitchen, next to a large dining room,
and the living room,
with paintings and sculptures everywhere.
VAN ROOSEMALEN: The architect was a friend of mine,
and when he started to build this house,
the only thing I ask -- I need walls because I love paintings.
This is built -- the walls built for a painting.
NARRATOR: A spiral staircase leads from the living room to the top deck.
There's an art studio, a reading room to relax in,
and a viewing platform.
A ladder takes you up even higher for an even better view
with a very Belgian sense of humor.
When Will first built the home, the harbor area was run-down.
Since then, this part of the Scheldt riverfront
has been renewed -- thanks in part
to this stylish home with the nautical theme.
Our next home, in Virginia, takes care of itself
and has even traveled the world.
NARRATOR: We're back with more extreme homes.
There's a home in Virginia that follows the sun
and has a mind of its own.
It's driven by space-age technology
and can open itself up to capture the sun's rays,
close down to protect itself from high winds,
live off rain and solar energy, and even predict the weather.
It was built by architecture students and lecturers
from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg.
Professors Joseph Wheeler and Robert Dunay
were part of the team behind it.
The house has an ability to adjust itself
to be 100% energy efficient at all times of the year.
The way it works is we have a weather station.
The weather station's mounted on the upper corner of the house,
and it's monitoring temperature, humidity, wind, daylight, rain.
It's sending all that data to the home-control computer,
which then adjusts the house accordingly
to make it perform optimally.
NARRATOR: Temperature changes outside
are detected by either the built-in weather forecaster
or hidden sensors in the concrete floor.
Then the computer thinks about it
and moves a set of perforated, sliding steel shutters
and luminous insulation panels
to adjust levels of shade and temperature inside.
This is one smart house.
And if it looks like the house of the future,
that's because it is.
It's made with materials
developed by NASA for space flight.
Even though the footprint is very small -- 600 square feet --
the house has a metabolism.
It seems to have a way to expand when it needs to
and contract when it needs to.
So, extreme temperatures -- it closes up.
In beautiful weather, it opens up.
NARRATOR: The Virginia countryside
is known for violent summer thunderstorms,
so you need a home that can batten down the hatches.
WHEELER: We have the computer programmed
that if you have a gust over 30 miles an hour,
all screens, all panels will close
and protect the house.
NARRATOR: It's called The Lumenhaus,
partly because of how it uses luminous light
and also because of its German Bauhaus architecture.
The interior is as functional as the exterior.
It's small, but has everything you need.
The hallway, made of maple veneered plywood,
leads into a bedroom with a foldaway bed
that doubles as a sitting room.
The cupboards act as dividing walls and hide a flat-screen TV.
In the center of the house is a tiled bathroom
with a wet-room shower.
There's an office off the living room,
which has a kitchen area at one end.
A stone cover doubles as a countertop,
and you can eat outside on the ipe-wood deck.
This home operates quite sufficiently on its own.
As an autonomous house, even when you're not home,
the house will automatically
always stay in the state of optimal energy efficiency.
NARRATOR: This is not a passive solar home.
It actively follows the sun across the sky,
which is essential for a house that generates
100% of the electricity it needs,
and charges an electric car, too.
So, the home aggressively harnesses solar energy,
and it uses the rain, as well.
On the roof, we have a rainwater-harvesting system.
So, all the water is collected at one point,
and it goes into a tank,
which is distributed then to our water plants,
which will filter the water.
NARRATOR: So, the ponds on either side of the building
are functional as well as decorative.
The water they clean is used in sinks,
showers, and the washing machine.
A smartphone app lets you track energy consumption in the house
and control all the electrical devices
no matter where you are in the world.
This house even remembers to do things for you.
DUNAY: The house learns you patterns.
There's instruments all over the house.
And some of them are occupancy sensors,
some of them are daylight sensors.
So, if someone's no longer in a room,
the lights will automatically turn off.
NARRATOR: Also, this self-sufficient sanctuary
can chase the sun, literally.
It can be packed up and shipped somewhere new.
WHEELER: We've designed this house to be easily transportable
so that the house itself
could be fully built, fully detailed, even furnished
before it hits the road.
It moves to its site, and it's a very simple installation.
NARRATOR: Before it settled down in Virginia,
this smart house traveled to Manhattan, Chicago,
and even Madrid, Spain.
It's a forward-thinking home
with the planet's future in mind.
Our next home is located near the coast of Argentina.
Architects generally avoid building on sand.
However, this modern cement home in Mar Azul
is built into a slope on a sand dune
hidden under a coastal pine forest.
And, believe it or not, it works.
After buying this lot near the beach,
architect Guillermo De Almeida
skipped the traditional log cabin in the forest
and instead went for a concealed concrete dwelling built on sand.
[ Speaking in Spanish ]
INTERPRETER: Building on sand isn't very difficult.
Actually sand is a suitable material to build a house on.
Sand is inert -- it's ground-up stone after all,
and it's very stable.
The only thing is,
you have to make sure you contain it, enclose it.
NARRATOR: Now, a normal builder would pour deep footings
to stabilize the home on the shifting sands,
but Guillermo went about things differently.
He locked only one of the front corners
with a concrete foundation.
The rest he simply laid directly on top of the sand.
The home is actually held in place
by the roots of the pine trees surrounding the house,
which keeps the sand dune from moving.
And it works. It's barely shifted in nine years.
The home looks like it's been pushed over a little bit by the dune.
Out back, the sand goes five feet up the wall,
but that's not the result of the house sinking in the sand --
It's a mistake in the design.
When Guillermo was trying to
expand the building plan on the computer,
he accidentally gave the home a slant.
INTERPRETER: We were surprised when we saw what had happened,
but we decided to see how we could take advantage of it,
how we could use it to create a new design,
so everything became crooked --
the window, the wall, the door, the table leg.
NARRATOR: It's a lucky mistake
that helps the house blend into the landscape.
You enter the home across a wooden deck
and straight into the living room.
Some of the furniture is made
from recycled Canadian pine from shipping containers.
There are interesting angles everywhere,
from the concrete dining table to the window frames.
The kitchen has a long, molded concrete counter
with forest panorama to match.
From the inside, this feels like a warm house in the woods,
with a wood-burning stove and bedrooms with forest views.
Everything inside reinforces the connection
between this concrete dwelling
and the beautiful wooded dunes all around.
The decor is kept simple with the concrete left bare
throughout the inside of the home.
While outside, it's simply decorated by nature.
It's weathered, grown moss, and now blends in with the forest.
Concrete was just the material Guillermo needed
to shape his home the way he wanted it.
INTERPRETER: Because it's a liquid that can be molded,
it can be made into any shape.
I think it's one of the most pleasing things about concrete.
NARRATOR: The property has merged
an industrial, urban design, sand dunes, and a coastal forest
to create one spectacular home.
Our next home, in the U.K.,
mixes musical rock with a fossilized roll.
NARRATOR: We're back on our tour
of some of the most extreme homes in the world.
There's one home in the U.K.
that runs circles around all the rest.
The circular design is based on the fossilized spiral shells
of extinct marine creatures called ammonites.
This shell of a house,
with its curved corridors and rotund rooms
is in Surrey, England.
It's a home with a background in prehistoric rock
and rock 'n' roll --
a sort of ammonite castle for rock royalty.
Members of The Who and Depeche Mode
have lived here in the past.
The current owner, Paul Dickson, lives here in the present.
[ Guitar plays ]
DICKSON: The circular nature of the property
means that you can have some challenges.
One of the features of the design of the property
meant that a lot of the standard fixtures and fittings
were already built in,
so there's built-in cupboard systems,
and the kitchen, as you can see, is all completely fitted out
to recognize the shape of the property.
NARRATOR: The colors of the house
help it blend in with the countryside.
The brown roof, green powder-coated steelwork,
and walls of stone mixed with green-glass fragments
all feel organic.
However, inside, it's less about blending in,
and more about standing out.
The interior is a credible contemporary home
for rock 'n' rollers -- or anyone else.
The entrance leads directly past a staircase
and into the circular kitchen.
DICKSON: Over to the right-hand side, we have,
first of all, sort of the breakfast area.
And that leads through to --
leading through to the dining room here.
NARRATOR: The dining room opens
onto a living room and games room.
Behind the pool table, at the center of the building,
is a staircase which spirals like an ammonite.
DICKSON: This is very much at the center of the house,
and it's just a fantastic, three-story spiral staircase
with a glass dome at the top.
NARRATOR: At the top is a room fit for any rock god or goddess.
DICKSON: This is the master bedroom.
A highly unique design
because of the round nature of all of the rooms.
Then through into the en suite bathroom,
which has two different types of marbles,
a circular pattern on the floor, lots of stainless steel.
NARRATOR: There are two other bedrooms on this floor.
One has an unusual bunk bed,
the other an eye-catching screen.
Both have stylish bathrooms.
When you've had a nap and feel like swimming,
there's a pool and Jacuzzi on the ground floor.
Music history was made here by its previous celebrity owners.
DICKSON: We bought the house from Vince Clarke, and Vince Clarke was
one of the founding members of Depeche Mode.
Before Vince Clarke,
the property belonged to Keith Moon of The Who.
In this garden area here,
The Who held the launch party for their "Who's Next" album
in, I think, 1971.
NARRATOR: When musician Vince Clarke
bought the property in the 1990s,
he wanted to go one better and record and album here...
...so he added an extra wing.
It looks more like a mini observatory,
but it was a recording studio
where he recorded several records.
DICKSON: The recording studio -- it's a huge concrete dome
clad in copper and built by Vince Clarke
as his recording studio.
NARRATOR: But that's history.
The dome is a reading and movie room now
in a home that used historic rock and a little rock 'n' roll
to create a memorable abode.
Our next home, in the Arizona desert,
has made the most of its surroundings --
it's made from desert sand.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to "Extreme Homes."
Now we'll head to Arizona,
where the desert is not just the backdrop of a home,
it was actually used to make the building.
This desert dwelling was made of dirt
using a process that Mexicans have employed for centuries.
These two-foot-thick walls have been built to stand
for 1,000 years.
The load-bearing walls are dirt.
A lot of people think that they're concrete.
And then, when I say it's dirt,
they think they're still concrete
with a little bit of dirt added in.
That is not true -- they are dirt, just dirt.
NARRATOR: 6,000 cubic feet of earth made of gravel and clay
was excavated from the site, mixed with water,
and rammed between wooden frames to make a solid wall.
It's an incredibly strong material,
allowing the architect to build huge walls --
40 feet long and 20 feet high.
Despite what some may think, they are water resistant.
Rain can't bring down these walls.
But they do crack,
which makes some people nervous, but not Eddie.
He knows the movement
is just part of the natural life of the house,
so he simply fills the cracks with pebbles
and leaves them alone.
It may feel modern,
but the layout of the home is in the traditional Mexican style.
If you were to diagram a typical Mexican hacienda,
you would see the diagram of this house.
It starts at the street.
There's a path that leads you
to high walls that you cannot see over,
and then you enter into a beautiful garden
with the sound of water.
And it's a different experience.
NARRATOR: The hacienda's entrance
is a pivoting door that weighs half a ton.
The staircase in the hallway may feel dark and closed in,
but when you turn the corner,
you're met by a flood of light and air.
A thick glass floor connects the upstairs rooms
and overlooks the living room.
You can never see where you're going,
you just see the reflection of light at the end,
and you finally turn the corner and it's anything but confined.
It is very open and light-filled.
NARRATOR: Daylight shines in
through a 40-foot-long, 5-foot-wide skylight
filling the floors below with light.
Owner Eddie came up with a clever way
to make sure the downstairs never gets gloomy.
The hallway that occurs below the floor
had the least amount of daylight,
so, of course, you have to make the floor glass
in order to borrow the daylight from the skylight
and light the floor below.
You know, adults will step onto
that glass floor at the top of the turret and freak out.
Personally, I think it's thrilling,
and my grandkids think it's thrilling, too.
NARRATOR: The see-through walkway
leads to the master bedroom.
At the end of the walkway is a roof patio.
Downstairs, beneath the transparent walkway,
is a shadow-striped corridor with black granite floors
and two bedrooms to one side.
There's also an open-plan kitchen
with overhead downlighters over a granite worktop.
And you can see the media room through a hole in the wall.
The main open-plan living room
has a dining table and enough room for a grand piano.
And there's a lot of colored industrial glass
catching light everywhere in the house.
There's a patio, hot tub, and swimming pool shielded
by an 18x40-foot glass wall at one end of the house,
plus a great view of the desert hills.
Desert temperatures here
can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer,
so keeping the house cool is important.
The trick here is placing the glass
where the sun shines least.
So, the 40-foot window in the living room faces north,
away from the sun,
but it still lets in enough light to keep plants happy.
The windows in the rest of the house are small,
which keeps the sun out.
If you're not careful,
the desert will eat your house with heat gain,
so we're very careful about
the orientation of any opening in the house.
NARRATOR: Some of the home's interior opens onto the outside.
For example, the kitchen counter continues through
the glass wall to the patio and becomes a barbecue pit.
We've minimized the separation
between the interior and the exterior.
You can see that in all the glass detail.
We eliminated frames.
We took glass right into the dirt as opposed to the floor.
We planted a very large tree inside our living room,
and we get to have dinner under a leaf canopy.
NARRATOR: The design and materials in this house
were chosen to survive in the harsh desert environment.
Add color, imagination, and a family,
and this hacienda has blossomed in the desert.
We've seen homes of all shapes and sizes
in locations around the world.
From a home that takes care of itself,
to one built to look like a giant fossil...
...and another more like a home from "Lord of The Rings."
But all of these houses have something in common --
to their owners, they're simply "home, sweet home."
Thanks for watching "Extreme Homes."