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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 close-up look at these spectacular homes
to find out just what makes each of them so extreme.
This home was inspired
by the world's most indestructible animal,
while this house is also, well, pretty tough.
We check out a floating putting green
and a tiny home less than 7 feet wide.
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.
Salt Point is a small village
just 85 miles north of New York City,
and it's where Cristina Grajales and Isabelle Kirshner
have built their 21st-Century cottage.
We love nature, so we wanted to have that relationship
between the outdoors and the indoors.
At first glance,
it seems like the architect got the brief wrong.
It looks kind of out of place.
But give it a moment,
and the home magically blends into the surroundings
using clever screens.
The screening process was very experimental.
I think our house
was probably the first residence in the United States
to utilize this kind of system.
To hide the home, the architect put in
sheets of perforated metal 50 feet high.
They reflect sunlight and are great camouflage.
You might expect them to make the home feel closed off
from the surroundings,
cutting out the light and the views.
But the architect has pulled off a minor miracle,
because the inside is bathed in light.
The metal screens are cleverly perforated,
so although it's difficult to see in, it's easy to see out.
Downstairs, the combined lounge, dining room, and kitchen
are all open and light.
And what a set of views.
You hardly notice the screens.
There's a porch at one end of the house
where Cristina and Isabelle can enjoy the summer air
without being eaten by mosquitoes.
The screens let them leave the porch windows open at night
to enjoy cool breezes in the home.
The house is set next to this small, little lake,
and we have a waterfall.
During the summer,
we can always keep the doors in the bedrooms open
so you always hear the waterfall.
And because the porch is screened,
you don't have to worry about bugs,
so just the most beautiful detail of the house.
Upstairs, there are two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Again, simple, but airy.
The interior, with its maple-clad walls,
looks quite simple.
But, again, like most things in this house,
looks can be deceiving.
What's interesting in the building of the house,
it's so tall,
the ceilings on both the first and second floor are high.
There are giant steel beams
that frame both ends of the house
for the engineering purposes,
'cause there's no internal weight-bearing walls.
The high ceilings and glass walls create a light, open feel,
made even more magical by the roof lights.
There are 12 tubular-glass lenses called oculars
fitted along the roof,
and they channel sunlight deep into the home
all year 'round.
They're not exactly circular.
They actually have these weird shapes
that they begin almost as square,
and then they become circular.
And what's amazing about them
is that they really regulate the light
in the most beautiful way.
In the summer, even at 10:00 at night,
we never turn the lights on, because the house is so bright.
To help spread this light throughout the home,
the upstairs landing is clear glass.
It's a bit freaky to walk on, but a small price to pay
for a house bathed in warm, natural light.
Many people are afraid to walk on top of it --
terrified, actually.
In fact, our dog refuses to walk across it.
And, also, there are many people that refuse to walk over it.
We never expected that reaction, but there are many people
that absolutely refuse to walk over the glass floor.
It's good. It discourages guests.
[ Laughs ]
With glass floors, oculars, and a cloak of invisibility,
Salt Point House is definitely
not your typical country cottage.
For people with a sense of adventure,
the island of Bali has become the place to build
a home away from home.
Italian designer Valentina Audrito
and her husband, Abhi, were attracted to the jungle setting.
They took the three separate wooden houses that stood here
and converted them into a single modern structure,
but they kept the traditional teak frames and flooring.
And, like many creative homeowners,
they designed the interior around a central theme.
It's an unusual idea.
They drew their inspiration from eggs.
I was drawn to the eggs because of their beauty, their shape,
the fact that they are fragile, but yet very strong,
and they represent life in themselves.
This piece of design is called "Don't Break My Eggs,"
and it's a sofa that we designed a few years ago,
me and my crazy husband.
And it's just to jump in, lounge around, and take it easy.
NARRATOR: Both Valentina and her husband, Abhi, are designers.
Their working relationship is based on the understanding
that Valentina's the boss.
ABHI: Any ideas that I have, I have to pass it and run it by her.
[ Laughs ]
And if she rejects them, then they never get made.
And she's free to do whatever she pleases.
No.
How we work together is this --
we completely disagree on everything,
but then somehow, things always come together.
So it's like we inspire each other,
we put down each other, and then things come up.
[ Laughs ]
The house is L-shaped, with a living room, kitchen,
an alfresco dining room on the long side.
The bedrooms and outdoor bathroom
are placed 'round the corner.
This is the master bathroom, all open,
because we are in the tropics and we can do that.
And the bathtub, as you can see, is the shape of an egg, again.
NARRATOR: There are eggs everywhere --
in the furniture, on the ceiling.
There's even what passes for a giant dinosaur egg
out in the tropical garden.
VALENTINA: This is the guest bathroom, which is done, again,
in the shape of an egg.
And it's really cocoon-ish, so when you are here,
you feel like you are in another world completely.
NARRATOR: Egg tables, egg lights, egg ashtrays,
and even an egg disco ball.
But what came first, the chicken or the egg --
or, in this case, the birth of their son?
Maybe it's a coincidence,
but it came about when our son was very small,
so it was the first --
We were eating a lot of eggs.
Yes. It's true.
And now, actually, he doesn't like eggs at all.
[ Both laugh ]
It's true.
Now we're off to California
to peek into the tiniest house on the block.
NARRATOR: We're back on our tour of the world's most extreme homes.
Our next house is in Sebastopol, California.
For most of us, this is a garden shed,
but for Jay Shafer, it's home.
JAY: I've been building tiny houses for about 15 years now.
This one, for example, I built two years ago,
and I have been inhabiting it ever since.
The dimensions on this are just 7 feet wide by 16 feet long,
including this little porch here.
NARRATOR: The home is simplicity itself.
The walls are cedar.
The roof is metal.
It's only 100 square feet -- less than the average kitchen.
But that doesn't mean that Jay's built a boring box.
We made this nice, little speakeasy.
You know, you can look out
and make sure that people are kosher
before you actually open the door.
Inside, I've got a little kitchen here,
a sink, a refrigerator,
and I even have a little cooktop that hangs up on the wall
that I can take down when I need to do any kind of cooking.
NARRATOR: To freshen up for dinner, just turn around.
JAY: So, the bathtub I think may be
one of the smallest in the world.
It's less than 2 feet wide.
If you've over 6'2", you could get stuck in the bathtub.
NARRATOR: To get into this slimline tub,
you'll need to be a contortionist;
to get out, Houdini.
You pull out this little step and step on that.
You step on the step inside the tub,
which is also the seat inside the tub.
And now, well, if I had my clothes off,
I would be ready for my shower and/or bath.
That's the shower.
And, of course, once you get the water up here, it's a bath.
If you suddenly get cramped in this bathtub, I guess,
you can always just evacuate by standing up quickly
and getting out.
NARRATOR: Everywhere in this home, space is tight.
Lot of floor-to-ceiling storage,
because I want to make the most of every inch,
vertically as well as horizontally.
Behind this pinking thing I did, I store a lot of my work
so that I don't have to sprawl all over the floor all the time.
So, I've got a little cathedral ceiling here,
couple of cozy chairs.
Most of my time is spent at the desk,
so the desk is huge compared to everything else.
Yeah, I like this little propane stove,
because, you know, on the low setting,
it really keeps the whole place very toasty
during the entire winter.
And for that matter, at night, it makes the whole place glow.
So it makes it very cozy.
It's almost like my little altar here.
NARRATOR: Surprisingly, for such a tiny home,
it doesn't feel too cramped.
Large windows let in lots of light,
but you wouldn't want too many people over for dinner.
Sleeping here is warm and cozy.
There's a double bed tucked away in the loft space,
under the skylights.
For Jay, downsized living is more than choosing a home.
It's choosing a lifestyle.
JAY: Getting rid of your stuff, editing,
is really the key to living small,
and so I've gotten rid of everything
except for my favorite stuff.
It makes sure that your life is very high-quality.
There's no room for anything extra.
NARRATOR: And if Jay gets tired with his neighbors,
he can take his house to a new neighborhood.
If I do want to move it, take it somewhere else, it's very easy.
I just come in, pick it up,
and take it away on a flatbed trailer.
NARRATOR: In this cold, snowy woodland near Brussels, Belgium,
there's a house which appears
far more suited to a warmer climate.
It's called the Bamboo House.
Normally, you see it in Asia or in Thailand
or something like that, but we use it here in Belgium
because we think it's a very nice integration
of the bamboo,
at the trees who are standing here in the forest.
NARRATOR: Bamboo is a good material because it's cheap,
it's durable, and it needs hardly any maintenance.
In fact, it has the enviable quality
of looking better as it ages.
PETER: It gives a really nice texture
and, also, it will be changing color,
like you see over here.
It's being gray.
After a few years, all the building will be gray.
NARRATOR: So bamboo seems to be the perfect date --
good-looking and inexpensive.
But bamboo in Belgium?
Sounds cold.
Not at all.
The house has a timber frame.
It was covered in thick insulating material
and finished with a layer of breathable, waterproof fabric.
Then, the bamboo canes could simply slide
into an outer black-steel framework.
They look good, and that's what's important.
It not only makes for an interesting pattern,
but also complements the large, steel-framed windows.
The house is built on a slope,
so the rooms are spread over different levels.
The entrance opens into the hub of the house --
a large, open kitchen.
Here we are, in the center of the house, and it's the kitchen.
The kitchen has an overview of all the spaces.
The clients asked really to have
a big, central place of living together here as a family.
NARRATOR: Step down and there's a dining room,
which flows into the living room.
Step up from the kitchen, and there's the study.
Look up, and you can see to the next level,
where the four bedrooms are -- or, rather, will be,
once the decorating's finished.
The bamboo house had to be constructed in a hurry,
because a change to Belgium's law
was about to slap a big tax rise on building.
Once the exterior was done and the downstairs completed,
the family moved in.
Now they're finishing the rest themselves.
There's no tax on do-it-yourself.
It just takes time.
Actually, the unfinished industrial look
is beginning to grow on Peter.
PETER: I like this very much,
this kind of texture and this kind of color,
but the owners want it finished in white,
so it has more light here in the summertime.
NARRATOR: And maybe white with fun accents of forest green
does work rather well,
but whatever the architect may think,
the customer is always right.
Now we're heading to London, England,
where a city slicker has got the ultimate bachelor pad.
NARRATOR: We've explored a shack that thinks it's a house,
a home for eggheads,
and another that's brought the jungle to a Belgian forest.
Now we're heading to London, England,
to check out a luxury penthouse right on the River Thames.
This client -- he wanted a calm retreat
after the stress and strain of work,
but he also wanted somewhere fun to entertain.
NARRATOR: First, the original apartment was ripped out.
30 tons of destruction later,
all that was left was a 3,600-square-foot shell.
Then, the fun began, building a bachelor pad fit for a prince.
And what a pad it is.
A huge, 23-foot picture window dominates the giant living room,
providing an impressive river view.
But there's an equally exciting view inside.
Just look up.
At first, it looks like a giant Art Deco lamp
suspended from the ceiling,
but then you notice the DNA helix of the stairs.
Walk up and you enter a plush, intimate den.
It's like the VIP lounge in an exclusive nightclub.
The curved banquette resembles
something from the stern of a Venetian speedboat,
and the rich, red furnishings and lamps
are straight out of Marrakech.
There's a cedar-lined humidor within an easy reach
and, at the touch of a button,
a state-of-the-art entertainment system.
This inner sanctum is cleverly and securely suspended
by eight rigid steel rods designed to allow the owner
to rise above it all.
You can sit here with your gin and tonic,
have a chat with your friends, and admire the view.
♪ Come on! ♪
♪ This is London ♪
♪ Hey! ♪
♪ Comin' at ya ♪
♪ Come on! ♪
NARRATOR: The entire apartment is designed to both relax and entertain.
Next to the living room with a view is the kitchen,
with its sleek, clean, functional lines.
The island unit itself
is a combination of satin stainless steel
and highly mirrored, polished stainless steel.
This isn't like the normal steel fabrication.
You'll notice it has square edges.
To do that takes laser-precision manufacturing
to give this sharpness.
NARRATOR: Just off the kitchen is an intimate dining room.
And like the private rooms in five-star restaurants,
it can be closed off.
The table --
it's a sprayed-bronze paint with a clear lacquer
to reflect the chandelier.
The chandelier are individual, handmade pieces of glass
that are hung on their own wire.
NARRATOR: Head toward the living quarters,
and you'll walk into an intriguing bit of architectural design.
This we call the antechamber --
all the apartment's corridors crammed into one circular space.
It's the hub of the apartment.
You're walking into a piece of conceptual art
on the way to bed.
NARRATOR: Through one of the doors off that piece of conceptual art
is the master bedroom,
and just off that is the marble-lined bathroom,
complete with a Spanish marble tub for that luxurious soak.
There's even a marble-lined walk-in shower.
WILLIAM: The client wanted glamour, so we gave them glamour.
The shower is a beautiful marble interior,
which frames a view of London.
So when you're having that shower in the morning,
you get to see London with the sun streaming in.
NARRATOR: Whether London wants to see you in the shower
is another question.
It's all very open,
but there are certain things that demand a bit of privacy.
The reflective surfaces, polished chrome,
fake crocodile skin to give a sense of glamour.
It all makes it feel like a warm, comforting place
for that private moment.
NARRATOR: But if fake crocodile skin is not for you,
you can always try the kidney-shaped guest bathroom
lined with coin-sized gold tiles.
This Thames-side apartment
is the perfect place to unwind and have fun --
exactly what the client wanted.
Now we head to the Netherlands and check out
an apartment building with a real twist.
NARRATOR: We're back, checking out some of the most extreme homes
in the world.
This is Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Urban developers in the harbor area asked several architects
to come up with plans for a new housing project.
And this is it -- the car-free, family-friendly Funenpark,
a collection of different-style buildings,
with Block K in the center.
But the name Block K doesn't do it justice.
It was one of the last buildings to go up.
The design called for a shorter structure
than the surrounding apartment buildings,
so architect Kamiel Klaasse began to think about the view
from the neighbors.
The neighbors were actually six stories --
they're six to eight -- so that evoked the idea
that maybe the roof actually becomes an important facade.
NARRATOR: So he designed a wavy roof,
which gives the surrounding residents
something much more interesting to look at.
But it does more than just humor the neighbors.
The unusual roof gives the Block K residents
some extra space
and a little bit of the outdoors in the center of the city.
KAMIEL: You see there's 10 patios.
They will let in daylight, but they also create terraces
where you can have barbecues and have a kind of outdoor life
that is kind of not the typical thing in the city.
We were very delighted, as was the urban planner,
with the effect it had.
NARRATOR: And though it currently looks like a ski slope,
under all that snow is a green roof of sedum plants.
The original lot was 20,000 square feet,
so it would have been easy for Kamiel to simply design
a square cube with 10 identical apartments.
But instead, he decided to give it a twist, literally.
He designed every apartment with an outward-facing view.
An alley-like central pathway
cuts through the middle of the building,
and all the front doors open onto it.
That means the residents often run into each other and chat.
Kamiel also decided
that though all the apartments are exactly the same volume,
each one should have a completely different layout.
KAMIEL: You could say that the design is a kind of mathematical game.
Most economically viable plans,
they're based on a kind of repetition,
and in this case, all of the units are unique
and different and had to be all designed specifically.
NARRATOR: So some apartments are two floors, some three.
Some are tall and narrow, and others are low and long.
Maybe not the most economical of designs,
but certainly an interesting place to live.
The interiors were mostly left to the residents
to design themselves, which everyone likes.
RUBEN: Welcome to our apartment.
I live here together with my wife and three kids.
This is also a unique apartment in the whole block.
I designed the interior myself, like the closets, the kitchen.
As you can see, we are here underneath the curved roof.
Over here is the children's bedroom.
And it's very high, also.
Over here is a small patio, which leads to the roof terrace.
Especially in the summer,
we have barbecues and so on, friends.
And finally, we get into the master bedroom,
and here you can see the high ceiling again.
NARRATOR: Allowing the residents to design their own interiors was risky,
but it's gone well.
KAMIEL: One of the reasons could be
that it requires a kind of enthusiasm,
and it needs perhaps a more active role
from the people that live there.
So we're incredibly happy that it turned out so nice.
NARRATOR: Funenpark Block K may not have the most exciting name,
but for the residents, it's a perfect combination
of urban living, outdoor space, and fun design ideas.
Now we're off to France, where one homeowner
has converted a World War II bunker
into a beach house.
NARRATOR: We're on a tour of the world's most extreme homes.
Our next house is just five miles south of Biarritz,
on the French Atlantic coast.
Today, it's a popular resort for sunbathers and surfers.
But back in 1942, this area was literally a war zone.
And for Marie-France and Louis Maury,
the history was part of the appeal.
INTERPRETER: Why this house?
It was the view, the mountains over into Spain.
INTERPRETER: And on a coast full of history.
We found pieces of artillery shrapnel in the garden --
a real souvenir, a little piece of history.
NARRATOR: This reinforced-concrete bunker was one of over 10,000
built by the Germans during World War II
as part of their Atlantic Wall defense.
They weren't designed for the long term,
so most of them have shifted on their sand foundations,
but a few, like this one, are still upright.
Because most of the bunkers on the Atlantic coast
have sunk into the sand,
I've reinforced it with 10 stakes
that I've driven down into the hard rock.
That means the bunker should never tip over.
I did it because the bunkers don't have
any solid foundations at all.
Even though there are thousands of bunkers
on the Atlantic coast, only very few have survived
and haven't fallen down on the beach
and washed away by the sea.
But this one will always be here.
[ Laughs ]
Once the bunker was structurally safe,
Marie-France turned her attention to the inside.
We initially wanted to disguise it a bit,
but it's against the law.
You have to leave it as it is.
It's part of the historical heritage of France and the war.
Marie-France might not have been able to decorate
or alter the concrete exterior,
but inside, she was given carte blanche.
Out went the thick concrete and steel doorway,
and in came a less bombproof and more accessible
wood-and-glass entrance.
With walls a foot and a half thick,
this bunker was designed to withstand naval bombardment,
but nowadays, the thick concrete simply helps keep the bunker
warm in winter and cool in summer.
Inside, the military gray has been replaced
with clean, white walls and teakwood floors.
And where once an antitank gun was positioned,
now Louis sits admiring the view
with nothing more deadly than a pair of binoculars.
So though the bunker was originally designed
to fight off Allied invaders,
today Bunker Beach House is infinitely more welcoming.
Everyone, all my friends, love spending the night in a bunker.
I find it very funny.
NARRATOR: Our next house is in Melbourne, Australia.
From the street, the house looks like
the typical early Edwardian Australian home
with the usual corrugated-tin roof and stained glass.
STEVEN: We fell in love with the house.
It's a 120-year-old house at the front,
and we love that aspect of it, so we've maintained all of that.
NARRATOR: As you walk inside, nothing seems too out of the ordinary.
There's a living room
with the characteristic high ceilings and fireplace.
Despite the modern accessories,
even the bedrooms are typical of that age.
But head further into the house,
and you get a hint that things have been fooled with...
...because where there was once a sun-blocking rear wall,
there now stands an ultramodern, two-story glass addition.
STEVEN: One of the things I love about this design, as well,
is that it's so open at the back here.
In order to get that feeling of lightness and airiness,
it was designed so that there was no corner post,
and the whole roof was cantilevered
back towards this side of the house
in order to make sure this was completely open,
and that's just a great feature of the design.
NARRATOR: Downstairs, it's all open plan,
with a nice, bright kitchen at one end.
According to the architect, red is the color of hunger.
And you'll notice that one end
of the white Caesarstone work top
is the landing for the stairs.
You don't see that every day.
STEVEN: Well, my favorite feature is the stairs, by far.
I think it's the quirky nature of them.
They just, you know, walk up over the bench.
And I love seeing people's reactions
when they come over to the house,
and they're quite freaked out by the fact
that you actually walk on your kitchen bench to get upstairs.
NARRATOR: The stairs look as light as a feather,
but they're made from bent steel and very strong.
And as long as there's no dirty dishes in the way,
they're a lot of fun.
But the real eye-catcher in the new addition
is the 20-foot-high trees on the glass walls.
Well, this house is known as the Tattoo House
because of the UV-stable stickers
that have been put onto the back
so that you can't see into other people's back gardens.
The architect had the idea to have some UV-stable stickers
which satisfied the council's overlooking provisions,
and the unique solution that he came up with
was to take some photos of some trees at the local park
and turn them into the stickers
and then put them across the glass at the back.
NARRATOR: The stick-on trees satisfy
the building council's light and privacy regulations
and add some magic to all the glass.
Well, the tattoos really make it feel
a bit like you're sitting in a forest.
And when people are walking in through the front of the house,
they don't expect to see what is at the back here,
and it is quite exciting to see people's faces as they walk in.
NARRATOR: Is it a bird?
Is it an insect?
Is it an alien?
No. It's our next extreme home.
NARRATOR: We're back with some of the most extreme homes in the world.
Our next home is in San Francisco Bay, California.
It's a beautiful place to live, but earthquakes are a worry,
particularly for architect Eugene Tssui's elderly parents.
San Francisco Bay area of California
is very prone to earthquakes,
and so they wanted an absolutely safe house.
NARRATOR: So Eugene turned to nature for inspiration,
and he discovered the tardigrade.
EUGENE: The tardigrade is a very tiny, little creature
that is the most indestructible living organism on the planet.
It can withstand 270 degrees Celsius,
freezing, toxic gas, boiling.
It survived for 10 days in outer space --
the first animal in the world that could do that.
So I looked at this indestructible creature,
and it gave me many hints about how to design for disaster.
NARRATOR: The first thing he noticed was the tardigrade's oval shape.
So by curving the outline of his house design, he windproofed it.
All floors, walls, and ceilings were built as one unit
from blocks of recycled-Styrofoam cups
strengthened with concrete and steel rods.
This kind of continuous construction
dissipates the force of earthquake tremors on the house.
If some other kind of disaster strikes,
the Styrofoam blocks are so packed together
that no air can get through, making them fireproof.
Their plastic coating ensures they're also waterproof.
Two massive, convex windows act like magnifying glasses
and flood the central atrium with natural sunlight.
The I-shaped lens on the south side is angled low
to catch the light and heat of the dim winter sun,
but not the hot summer sun.
The round windows may look a little odd,
but there's a very good, practical reason to use them.
The domical window lets in 30% more light,
and it's 200 times stronger than a flat window.
NARRATOR: Inside, a user-friendly ramp
leads up to his parents' bedrooms.
One thing they wanted was no stairs.
They knew as you aged
that stairs would be hard to negotiate,
so everything in this house is ramps.
NARRATOR: And because this is an earthquake-proof house,
the ramps and just about everything else are curved.
So, in an earthquake, sometimes,
you get jolted around, and you hit things.
Now, in a typical house, you would hit the edge of tables.
You'd hit bookshelves.
You'd hit all kinds of straight-angled objects,
and that can hurt.
But I knew that if things were curved,
then you would glance away.
There's a tendency to ricochet off these surfaces.
So everything here is curvilinear.
NARRATOR: The effort and detail Eugene put into the design
for his parents' indestructible house
are impressive.
But like a lot of parents, they didn't quite get
the lengths their son had gone to.
The first question was how many bedrooms, where are they,
which way to the kitchen -- you know, things like that,
very, very matter-of-fact kinds of questions,
and surprisingly matter-of-fact about the shape
and the form of the house.
NARRATOR: As it happens, the neighbors were more impressed.
The new neighbors have actually told me
that they're moving into the neighborhood
because of the house,
and they're actually very proud
to be in the neighborhood of this house.
This house has become kind of a beacon
or a symbol of the neighborhood.
NARRATOR: Our next house is just outside Santiago, Chile.
This area was left alone for over 20 years
and never developed, even though it's near the capital.
Surrounded by lush, green trees,
it has a great view of the mountains.
The new landowner and architect saw the potential immediately
and grabbed the chance to build a perfect home for the setting.
[ Speaking Spanish ]
INTERPRETER: For us, what's really important
is the relationship between the house, the family, and nature.
And as there was a canal running through the site,
we decided to include it in the design
and have it run through the house.
NARRATOR: The canal was originally for land irrigation,
so Schmidt's team cleared it and put it back to work.
Then, adjacent to the canal,
they built a 60-foot long, canal-like swimming pool.
It complements the man-made channel
and reflects the natural surroundings.
As for the house itself,
Schmidt thought it should connect with the woodland,
so he wrapped the house in large glass windows,
which let in the light but not the cold.
When you look out from inside,
it's as though it's through a picture frame.
That's really important,
because it makes you feel as if you're in the garden,
even on a cold winter's day.
NARRATOR: Built on a single story, the layout is spacious and open,
with Chilean coigue wood beams, stone walls, and clean lines,
all inspired by a similar region half a world away.
Our brief was to design a modern house, but a cozy one.
And that's very significant, because in Chile,
when people think of modern, they think of Le Corbusier,
a cold, white house, and what they really wanted
was something a bit more Scandinavian.
NARRATOR: If you want to watch TV,
you have to cross a glass bridge over flowing water
to get to the media room.
At the other end of the house,
the master bedroom was deliberately set
among 30-year-old eucalyptus trees.
What makes the house very interesting
is that it seems enclosed by the trees.
NARRATOR: The wonderful thing about Casa Lo Curro
is it manages to look like
it's always been part of this beautiful woodland.
INTERPRETER: I think one of the things that makes this house so special
is that it's sensual.
It engages all your senses.
It's not just visual.
It uses texture, sound, water, birdsong,
different dimensions that are all really important.
An English architect friend even described it as a sexy house.
NARRATOR: Now we're off to Seattle
to check out a putting green with a view.
Oh, and the house attached is pretty cool, too.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to "Extreme Homes."
The city of Seattle, Washington,
is more or less surrounded by ocean.
Even the lakes are salty.
Water lovers Mike Villiott and his wife
were looking to downsize,
so when a rare slip on the east side of Lake Union
came up for sale, they snapped it up.
Then they gave local architect Dan Nelson free rein
to design a brand-new
2,400-square-foot floating home for them --
well, almost free rein.
There was just one demand.
It had to stand out.
As we're meeting with them, I'm thinking,
"Well, let's try to do something a little different.
"Let's try to think about what's been going on on the waterfront
"in terms of having the sort of industrial aesthetic,
the wharf buildings, the cargo containers."
So the building itself reflects that idea.
NARRATOR: To make the house float,
it's built on top of a 7-foot-deep foam block
encased in concrete.
Once that floating foundation was towed into place,
the main construction began.
For the exterior,
Dan chose a combination of western red cedar and steel
to give it that rusty, industrial look.
There's a lot of stainless steel.
There's a lot of powder-coated steel.
The railings are powder-coated, the gangplank,
the mesh around the spiral stairs,
so we used a lot of different types of exposed steel.
NARRATOR: There's a 2-foot wide gangway
which snakes around the entire house
and a 25-foot steel spiral staircase
leading up to the roof deck.
The spiral stair is attached to the exterior
because we really didn't have enough room inside the house
to get a stair to the top of the house.
And the deck was designed
to take advantage of the views of Lake Union
and the skyline of Seattle beyond.
We got the Space Needle, and in the summertime,
you know, the lake is full of activity.
There's sailboat races.
There's crew races.
And so it's just a fantastic place to come and sit.
The other really cool feature
that was incorporated into the rooftop deck
is the putting green.
NARRATOR: It's there so Mike can keep his short game tuned up.
DAN: You know, the owner likes to come up
and putt a few balls after work, and so that's pretty unique.
NARRATOR: And once you've won the Masters,
head inside and check out the clubhouse.
DAN: The entire first floor is dedicated to public spaces --
kitchen, dining, living, study area.
And the second level, we have two bedrooms.
We have a laundry room and then another little sitting area
for watching TV and looking out to the view,
and there's a little deck off of the bedroom here.
NARRATOR: It's all very comfortable,
and the designer-warehouse look is good-looking, too.
DAN: The cabinets are zebrawood.
We have granite countertops.
We also tried to incorporate the mill-finished steel
into the detail of the countertops.
We're taking that hard-edged, industrial aesthetic,
and we're refining it,
and so that's a real key to the entire house
is tying everything together from exterior to interior.
NARRATOR: And like all our extreme homes, expect the unexpected.
One of the cool features of the master bath is the soaking tub.
It has a little *** right here, and we turn that ***,
and their water comes down from the ceiling and fills the tub.
And this is just kind of a nice -- nice feature.
NARRATOR: And if you've got two rooms
but space for only one fireplace, no problem.
One of the nice features is the fireplace,
which is a see-through fireplace
to the sitting area on the other side.
NARRATOR: But perhaps the most exciting thing
about the house is the location.
DAN: We designed the seating area to have the corner glass,
take advantage of the views.
We have used a commercial-grade window.
You can see the frames are really heavy-duty.
Because we're so exposed to the weather,
they're really watertight.
NARRATOR: So if there's a storm, waves may come aboard,
but they won't get in.
Of course, the sun is welcome.
The doors are all on automatic garage-door openers,
and they roll up, and the entire wall opens up to the water.
And so when the client has friends
who want to come by in a kayak,
or they can paddle up, and they can have a cocktail.
NARRATOR: So, with its rugged good looks and designer comfort,
the floating warehouse is a great introduction
to life on the lake.
We've seen homes of all shapes and sizes
in locations everywhere,
from a World War II bunker beach house in France
to an indestructible home in San Francisco
to a bamboo house in Belgium.
Each one is unique, but they all have one thing in common.
To their owners, they're simply home, sweet home.
Thanks for watching "Extreme Homes."