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NARRATOR: What makes a home an extreme home?
We're about to find out.
From the dazzling to the daring to the down-right bizarre,
get ready to go inside
some of the world's most innovative spaces
and meet the homeowners
who dared to make their dreams come true.
This home looks like a future factory,
and this one looks a giraffe in the eye.
We have a Russian house built like a mini airship,
and an Aussie home that's a lesson in geometry.
From construction to completion,
we're heading out of the ordinary
and into the world of extreme homes.
-- Captions by VITAC --
In the Arizona desert,
the landscape takes your breath away.
And this curvy home is uniquely poised to take it all in.
Not only does it have 360-degree views...
it's actually a 360-degree house.
What stands out most about this house is the fact that
there is almost not one straight wall in the entire house.
NARRATOR: And when Jack says "not one," he means not one.
From the curving kitchen to the sweeping living space
to a very well-rounded office,
everything in this home is round.
The upper level features five spacious
and curvaceous bedrooms.
They have their own private patio
and there's an infinity bathtub -- round, of course.
Even the fiberglass staircase snakes its way
to a basement which is -- What else? -- semi-circular.
But it's not just about circles.
This house is really about a flow of movement
and the flow of light and the flow of view.
NARRATOR: This remarkable house belongs to Adam Draizin.
He built it for three reasons --
To show off his great taste in design,
to serve as a very personal art museum,
and to enjoy the spectacular view.
So, he tore down the original 70s-style ranch house
and began building his own vision.
ADAM: The concept was to bring you down that original driveway
and create a special canyon
to give you a compressed entry into this house.
And once you're inside,
then the reveal of the beautiful view beyond.
NARRATOR: The view outside is amazing, but so are the details of the house.
The garage door is an automated semi-circle
of bright green fiberglass.
Decorative red glass bricks punctuate the patio wall.
And whimsical touches are all around.
These giant, clear discs may look avant-garde,
but they serve a practical purpose.
They are speakers --
Built to blast without blocking the view.
In order to integrate audio-visual or television
in the space
without having a large television monitor always there,
we came up with the idea to drop a projector from the ceiling,
so that when the owner wants to watch television,
he can, at the push of a button, have it.
And when he wants it put away,
it all goes away and disappears, and he can enjoy the view.
NARRATOR: Central to Jack's brief for the new house
was to display Adam's collection of art.
One of the pieces is a slice of history.
This is one small piece of a very large exhibit
that was hanging in the JFK terminal in 1964.
The owner grew up in the New York area
and going with his family to the airport,
and would literally see this wall of glass --
of stained glass.
Just a beautiful, kind of graphic memory in his mind.
And so, when this became available
because they were renovating the airport, the JFK terminal,
it was just a wonderful opportunity to take something
that was actually a piece
of a significant piece of architecture.
And now, just through a slight transformation,
turn it into a piece of art.
NARRATOR: Brining art and design together
makes this home more than a gallery.
It wasn't easy -- it's a work of art in itself.
So, I wouldn't say this house is like a museum,
where it's a neutral box,
but it is a really challenging space to hang art in.
NARRATOR: But even with a space this cool,
life in the desert is notoriously hot.
Temperatures here can reach 125 degrees,
which is why this house is specifically designed
to beat the heat.
JACK: These are materials that are known to be used in the desert
because they weather with integrity,
and they're not required to be covered up.
So, galvanized metal is just a wonderful material that,
actually, as it gets older, it gets richer.
Even fiberglass,
a material that's used uniquely in this house --
it offers color.
NARRATOR: Dramatic.
Modern.
Beautiful and smart.
That's what we call a well-rounded home.
Denmark has lots of old, traditional landmarks.
This is not one of them.
What it is is a one-of-a-kind apartment building,
built to look like two giant waves.
It was commissioned by the city of Vejle,
which invited architects to compete for the project.
The goal? To create something iconic and explicitly Danish.
It was part of the competition,
and we knew that for winning the scheme
it was really necessary to have a strong, basic, headline.
NARRATOR: And so, Soren and his team
looked no further than the nearby Vejler Fjord,
where they literally found a wave of inspiration.
SOREN: Creating a wave shape,
that's really something spectacular, of course.
NARRATOR: His vision won out,
and they created this extraordinary structure.
The white-tile roof is supported by a steel frame,
and rides more than 120 feet high --
an architectural wave nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty.
A penthouse rides the top of each wave --
magnificent living spaces that occupy the two top floors.
The profile of the wave is present in the apartments
as the sloping wall.
It gives the apartments a special character.
NARRATOR: The penthouse is a duplex.
On the bottom floor is the kids' domain,
a bedroom and a bathroom.
'Round the corner,
light floods into the 23-foot-high kitchen window.
Here, we are seeing the double-high kitchen space
with the customized kitchen for the wave.
We were trying to take the idea of the wave
by introducing curves.
The kitchen is directly linked to the big balcony area, here,
where you can relax with your friends.
Everything is clean, everything is white.
NARRATOR: It's as bright as the white water at the crest of a wave.
Even this interior hallway glows.
Down the end is the adults' bedroom and bathroom.
The living room is on the top level,
right under the peak of the roof.
SOREN: We got a great view up here.
The idea of being on top of the city and being high up,
that's not really common.
Denmark is pretty flat.
NARRATOR: The high-end design and custom wood floors
glow under the rectangular skylights.
And it's all designed for modern life.
You can have your big TV screen here,
you can have your grand piano here.
From here, you can see everything.
NARRATOR: Down a few steps is a formal dining room --
a grand space with yet another grand view.
The entire concept is so popular,
three more of these buildings are in the works.
But perhaps the most striking feature
of this piece of architecture is what happens at night.
The wave becomes a view in itself --
a sculpture of light on the edge of the fjord,
pushing this design toward a truly new wave
in modern architecture.
Down under, in Sydney, Australia,
there's a puzzle of a house
that proves geometry can be cool, after all.
CONRAD: The shape of the house was determined, in a lot of ways,
due to the strange shape of the block.
NARRATOR: We're back on the track of the world's most extreme homes.
We're in Sydney, Australia.
Here's a home that looks nothing like its neighbors --
a two-story, modern home in the back
connected to a traditional Aussie cottage in the front.
It's called Balmain House,
and it's architectural proof
that necessity really is the mother of invention.
Architect and owner Conrad Johnston wanted more space,
but it was not a straightforward calculation.
The shape of the house was determined, in a lot of ways,
due to the strange shape of the block, which is quite triangular
and sort of opens up towards the city.
NARRATOR: Conrad's first challenge was those math problems --
small lot, irregularly shaped.
But there's also a history problem --
the original house is listed as national heritage.
That means the exterior cannot change,
and neighbors had to approve any new construction.
His solution was as radical as the challenge he faced.
We built to the boundary on three sides,
and the top of the house was designed
like a sculptural expression
of all the different constraints on the property,
where we were trying to preserve neighbors' views and sunlight.
So, the shape was pushed and pulled to create what we needed.
NARRATOR: The original, 120-year-old cottage
was built on a sloping, pentagonal lot.
Conrad designed an underground garage downslope
and the new extension at the back.
With the build approved,
the final challenge was somehow marrying
the old house with the new addition.
We've created the modern feel
by simply painting the cottage black,
which is different to what it was
and it allows it to happily co-exist
in a modern context with the other house.
NARRATOR: The home's entrance is in the original cottage,
but inside, it's completely redone.
A hallway leads from the old to the new part.
And the difference is drastic.
The new addition has a modern, open plan with a dining space,
a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows,
and a kitchen flooded in light thanks to skylights above.
Surprising angles make a feature of complicated geometry,
but natural materials keep the design surprisingly simple.
CONRAD: The bench top is made of European white oak,
and the shape of it relates directly to the skylight above.
It's a small house.
We wanted not to make it too detailed.
And so, we wanted consistent spaces so that the whole place
sort of tied together.
And the natural oak has a beautiful grain structure
and a warmth and a beautiful color
that sort of compliments the light in the house.
NARRATOR: The living room opens on to the back yard.
The kids like that.
But there's not much room for a flower garden,
except this little space between the old house and the new.
Upstairs, there's a library and a very modern bathroom.
More angles, more geometry.
There's an impressive walk-in closet in the master bedroom,
and a balcony overlooking the back yard.
The block is elevated,
and it allows you to feel like you're in the city,
but you're looking on people's roofs rather than
into people's houses and them looking in to you.
So, it enabled us to have a bedroom
with a big picture window
that looks over the rooves of Balmain over onto the city,
and over onto the ridge and a little snippet harbor view.
So, it created a room
that we were able to open up but still keep private.
NARRATOR: Conrad took all the negatives --
difficult lot, tough regulations --
and turned them into positives.
And he definitely paid attention in geometry class.
At Boconnoc in Cornwall, England,
this stately pile has a secret history.
It's a hideout of sorts --
a base for American war heroes in the UK.
NARRATOR: We've curled up in the Arizona heat,
surfed the top of a Danish wave,
and done the math in Sydney.
Now, we're at Boconnoc,
a stately 750-year-old manor house in Cornwall, England.
And it's been through the wars -- many wars, in fact.
In World War II, American soldiers stayed here.
And in 1645, it was a headquarters for King Charles I.
But by the late 1990s, the house had been empty for 35 years
and was beginning to fall apart.
So, Anthony and Elizabeth Fortescue
began to restore the old place to its former glory.
After all, it had been in their family since 1834.
It was always a dream to try and get this house going again.
Didn't know how 40 years ago,
but we managed to get the show back on the road.
In 1944, Boconnoc was turned into a barracks
for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe --
D-Day.
After the war, the British economy was devastated,
and the big house cost a lot to run.
Anthony's aunt lived in just three rooms until 1969.
Then it was left empty.
Just the water damage alone almost ruined the place.
It got worse before it got better --
the library roof caved in.
The library was in a pretty bad state.
There was a huge hole. Water had been pouring in.
There was a question mark, really,
whether the house would go on or not.
There was the thought we might pull the whole thing down
and simply live in the stable yard.
But the Fortescue's felt a responsibility to history.
The property, with it's fine view of the surround country,
dates back to Norman times.
The current house was built in the 1660s.
In 1717, merchant Thomas Pitt sold a famous diamond
and bought the house.
The diamond went into Napoleon's sword.
But King Charles I is the most famous resident.
Soon after the house was built, the English Civil War began,
and the king set up camp here.
Anthony wanted to protect all this history,
so they rolled up their sleeves and started restoration,
beginning with the centuries-old,
hand-painted murals.
Twice during the restoration, working on the staircase,
they had to stop, because in November the light changes,
and when they were trying to match the color of the grays,
they couldn't get the exact color.
They rebuilt the roof
and replaced all the lead sheathing and slate tiles.
Walk through the immaculate hall and into the drawing room,
with it's intricate-patterned cornices
sitting above modern art.
Look at the inside now -- clean and perfect.
It's hard to imagine what it was like before.
Some of the old Georgian furniture had to be saved, too.
But it's not all original.
Anthony's furniture company came in handy --
some of the pieces are excellent replicas.
The place is grand.
For all the neoclassical style, it's open and light.
Some of the interior is from an older renovation,
done in the 1780s by architect John Soane,
the man who designed the Bank of England.
He was way ahead of his time.
He was a minimalist.
He loved light, he loved space, he loved distant views,
and there are examples of all that in this house.
It was a very big influence in his life,
and we were one of his earliest commissions, at Boconnoc.
Upstairs, the design of the bedrooms is custom-made,
from the cupboards to the four-poster bed.
The wallpaper is French.
The printed patterns are in the bathrooms, too.
And the dining room is also on this floor.
Next, to the gorgeous, restored library.
The views out the windows
are something out of an English novel.
History is everywhere at Boconnoc.
This 123-foot-high obelisk is 16th-century.
There's an 18th-century stable yard and a 15th-century church.
Four generations of Fortescues are even buried here.
Now, thanks to Anthony and Elizabeth,
they will rest in peace,
and the glorious past of Boconnoc has a future.
No, this is not Buck Rogers' airship.
Though, it does appear to be floating in the air.
This red, Russian house is actually post-Soviet jet set,
and stands in the exclusive Pirogovo Resort
just outside Moscow.
Architect Totan Kuzembaev designed the home,
and several like it nearby,
during the paper architecture period in the 1990s.
"Paper" because most plants never went any further.
INTERPRETER: It was one of the first houses for people like sportsman
and their assistants.
NARRATOR: Putting it up on stilts meant less expense --
the builders didn't have to dig a basement.
And, if there's a flood, it stands tall.
Great view of Klyazminskoe Lake, too.
The home was built as a kit,
then shipped to the resort and painted red,
because red's a big color in Russia.
Totan's design is utilitarian,
with some verve, pinache, and a bit of flair.
INTERPRETER: The stairs remind me of steps up to the side of a plane.
I used wooden strips on the edge
to offer protection from the sun.
NARRATOR: Inside, it's more like a ship,
with portal lights and wooden cupboards.
It's simple, lakeside living.
Totan left the seams visible and used plywood throughout.
There's a tiled bathroom
and an efficiency kitchen just steps away
from a single sleeping, dining, and living room.
INTERPRETER: It turns out that a human doesn't need a big house.
The most important thing is to be near nature.
NARRATOR: The observation deck is for just that --
an outside space that's nearly
1/3 as big as the entire interior.
The Pirogovo Resort may be a playground for the rich,
but the natural setting -- the forest and the lake --
are the real celebrities here.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico
stands a typical, Santa Fe ranch-style home.
Except, this home is hiding a big secret.
NARRATOR: We're back on the track of the world's most extreme homes.
Santa Fe, New Mexico --
a town known for traditional adobe and ranch-style homes.
From the outside,
this home is just another well-cared-for ranch house,
with it's northern New Mexico pitched roof and emerald lawn.
But don't be fooled --
this home is also proof that you can't judge a book by its cover.
Forget New Mexico rustic --
this home is opulent, medieval Europe.
This house didn't need New Mexico-style interiors.
It needed, really, European style --
wonderful colors and fabrics and European antiques.
Because this property does not seem like a Santa Fe property.
NARRATOR: And so, Jobeth gave it a medieval makeover.
Inside the front door, there's a long hall with old timbers above
and French paving stones on the floor.
It leads into an enormous living room like a medieval great hall.
The French chandelier in the living room was a reproduction
of an authentic French chandelier
that we had in a previous home,
and I asked my designer to re-create it for me
in the living room.
NARRATOR: At the other end of the great hall is the dining room,
and then a manor-house kitchen
with a big, country table for informal meals.
Jobeth transformed what was here before.
The cabinetry was really sad and 1980s-style,
so I just gutted it all and put in either really big,
re-claimed beams, shelves, and just used a lot of old beams
and a lot of re-claimed wood from Mexico.
NARRATOR: It all feels like another world in time.
Like these old, weathered doors to the bedroom.
JOBETH: When we purchased the property,
it had very plain doors throughout the house.
And I felt like it needed really old doors all on the interior.
NARRATOR: The old, stressed, and antiqued wood in the house
adds to the feel of antiquity.
And where the house is a little more modern,
like the master bedroom and the en-suite bathroom,
there are still reminders of the medieval theme.
When we bought the house,
we knew we wanted a skylight in the master bath,
and I knew I needed two vanities.
And when we started lifting up the ceiling,
that's when we found the exposed beams.
And we left those and added the skylight.
NARRATOR: Outside, the medieval tradition continues in the large garden --
something every castle had.
And it's not just for show.
JOBETH: I was raised on a farm,
and my husband spent his summers on his grandfather's farm,
so we always had a little dream of having enough acreage
where we could have our vegetable gardens.
And I never dreamed we'd have chickens, but we do.
We have eight lovely chickens who all have wonderful names
and they create wonderful eggs.
We are very self-sufficient.
We really don't have to go to the grocery much,
especially in the summer.
NARRATOR: With orchards and herb gardens,
there's plenty outside for a banquet.
And the flowers look like a typical English country garden,
next to a home that's brought the Middle Ages to New Mexico.
In Fukui, Japan, stands a low-slung, 40-foot-wide home.
But it's not just one home.
It's two -- each space a mirror image of the other.
They're side-by-side and share a common entrance in the middle.
Owner Mitsuhiro Masuda built it this way
to create a home for his own family
and another for his mother.
INTERPRETER: We expected to have two houses, but actually it turned out to be
this 120-foot-long rectangular house.
NARRATOR: It's 1½ tennis courts long.
On one end of the house is Mitsuhiro and his young family.
The dominant color is the green of the lawn outside.
There's no clutter. Everything is neat.
Even the cupboards are out of sight.
INTERPRETER: This is the dining area, where we have our meals.
Behind this, we have electric switches,
air-conditioning, and some storage.
NARRATOR: A long kitchen counter sits facing the very green lawn,
and a very neat and clean Japanese bathroom
is just off the hallway.
INTERPRETER: This way to the sleeping area, please.
NARRATOR: Clearly, Mitsuhiro's son has been urged to organize his toys.
Mom and dad's bedroom is just as organized.
And, if Mitsuhiro wants to see Grandma, she's just a door away.
His mother's place is identical --
same white, same green,
same long kitchen counter, same everything.
INTERPRETER: We feel reassured having my mother next door,
and my son sometimes chats to her across our shared garden.
We can watch him play while we cook.
It's working very well.
NARRATOR: This plot of land
has been in Mitsuhiro's family for a century,
and he inherited it from his father.
INTERPRETER: We thought of selling this big piece of land,
passed down through generations,
but decided to use it in a better way.
We wanted a modern, clutter-free house
that went well with the surroundings.
NARRATOR: The huge lawn is very unusual in land-starved Japan,
but Mitsuhiro decided to keep his ancestral plot
as open and tidy as his house.
It also has its own history --
a kimono factory used to stand here.
Japan is the land of the setting sun,
but the houses light up at night.
The clean, minimal lines are somehow perfectly Japanese.
In South Africa, giraffe aren't the only ones standing tall.
This home is taller than any of them,
and it's been built that way because it needs to be.
NARRATOR: We've spanned the globe, walked through a royal hideaway,
blocked out everything in Japan, and gone medieval in New Mexico.
Now, we're off to the South-African bush.
Out here, the neighbors are wild.
And a home, first and foremost, needs to keep occupants safe.
This 53-foot tower does the job.
It looks out over 3,000 acres of untamed country.
And there's plenty of wildlife to watch --
giraffe, wildebeest, cape foxes.
No wonder retired airline pilot Tom Laas wanted to live here.
It was initially started purely as a lookout tower,
so you could sit here and watch the game.
But we just thought that it was underutilized,
and therefore we had to do something more about it.
This is our R and R position, now --
Rest and recuperation area from all the days of the city work
and the things that you do in town.
It gives you a time to get your batteries all charged up again
and by seeing animals --
wild animals in their natural state --
really is a boost to anybody who comes up here.
NARRATOR: In the bottom of the tower is the kitchen,
for eating, sitting around, relaxing.
No hard walls, but plenty of netting and heavy canvas
to keep the animals and mosquitos out.
This is a game farm, so Tom uses whatever he picks up.
We utilize everything on the farm.
As you can see, the tusks of the warthogs are being used
as handles on these cupboards, and these are ostrich eggs
that got kicked out of the nest.
And we pick them up and clean them out
and use them as ornaments like this.
NARRATOR: The beds are on the middle level, up off the ground.
It's warmer and more peaceful up here.
Animals get spooked by noise, so there's rubber around
the edge of the top viewing platform,
to keep it really quiet.
If you don't see them, more often, you don't hear them.
And, therefore,
you've got to look and keep as quiet as possible to see them.
This platform is mainly used
just to sit, read, meditate, watch.
NARRATOR: Tom bought the farm from a man who had lived here
for 70 years as a hermit.
The lookout tower was too good to pass up,
so he turned it into a real place to live.
Then he wrapped the legs of the tower in canvas,
which enclosed it and made it more of a home,
and added some modern conveniences.
TOM: Well, this is a 500-liter tank.
It's filled by the windmill from over there.
It gives us water for the shower, for the bathroom,
as well as drinking water
and drinking water for the game down at the bottom.
NARRATOR: And this fireplace is the hot-water heater.
TOM: What I like most about the shower
is that I can shower under the stars --
the stars can see me, but nobody else can.
And I can see the game outside, walking past us here.
And that's most enjoyable.
I've seen some giraffe,
and followed on by zebra just shortly after that.
NARRATOR: The idea here is to bring some of the comforts of civilization
into the bush, but not to let them take over.
All of us like the tranquility, the wistfulness.
And no telephones, no radio, no television whatsoever.
NARRATOR: When it's time for supper,
Tom goes outside to fire up the brai --
that's South African for "have a cookout."
And when he goes walking, he can always see the way back
to his 53-foot-tall landmark home.
NARRATOR: Macerata, Italy, is the ideal place
to build a traditional villa.
Or not.
Casa Authentica sits on a tree-grown slope
outside the town.
It's an exact, contemporary,
re-imagining version of the owners' old barn.
It was created by architect Lorena Luccioni.
INTERPRETER: We re-interpreted the entire structure
using contemporary materials, but with a hint of irony --
thinking about what it looked like before.
NARRATOR: The new old home is nothing if not robust.
It has a reinforced concrete base and steel frame
covered with Tuscan stone and a titanium-zinc top.
Even so, they stayed deliberately faithful
to the old barn --
same dimensions, many of the same materials --
because the old place contained many memories
for its owner, Anna Cipriani.
INTERPRETER: It's very special to us
because we had our marriage supper in this space.
We had the lunch for our children's First Communion.
NARRATOR: Inside, this new old barn has an airy interior
with plenty of contemporary conveniences,
including the latest word in Italian kitchen design.
There's even an elevator to the underground garage,
and a computer built into a wall.
Like any Italian home,
Casa Authentica is built for family life and entertaining.
So there's a large, open kitchen/dining area.
INTERPRETER: This is the area and space I love the best of all,
because I can be in the kitchen and see the other rooms.
It's great for my grandchildren,
who I can keep an eye on while they play in the house.
NARRATOR: This is a perfect family house.
Downstairs, there's even a convenient, little retiring room
for the elderly relative.
Head upstairs and the bedrooms are small,
but the architecture is bright and light.
The master bedroom has a big closet,
and the bathroom is painted red for a very good reason.
INTERPRETER: I chose this strong color so that, in the morning,
as soon as I get up, it wakes me up
and brings me to life right away.
House guests, however, can wake up more gently
and enjoy the company of angels.
Next to the upstairs hallway, there's a study area,
and a perfect view of the Italian countryside.
INTERPRETER: The thing that's special about this house
is that there aren't two windows that are alike.
All of them have different dimensions,
and that's because each of them allows you to look out
onto something really special.
What I really love about this house is the light --
the light through these enormous, glazed openings.
It almost lets me feel like I'm outside in the countryside,
and I'm able to enjoy a stupendous panorama.
NARRATOR: Looking out or staying in to entertain,
this reborn home is a new version
of a generations-old Italian way of life.
In France, the 18th century
has been turned into a scene of 21st-century chaos.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to "Extreme Homes."
NARRATOR: This isn't a junk yard.
Or a movie set. It's actually someone's home.
It's a collection of destroyed buildings, crashed plane parts,
nuclear bunkers, big, silver skulls,
and a swimming pool full of blood-red water.
What some would describe as a nightmare,
homeowner Thierry Ehrmann calls home, sweet home.
It's really a kind of personal art gallery --
a statement of how he sees the world right now.
He calls it his "Abode of Chaos."
INTERPRETER: It is a sort of monastery for the 21st century,
with a range of underground machines, helicopters,
and hundreds of thousands of manuscripts stored away.
At the same time,
on the outside walls is a whole vision of the outside world.
NARRATOR: The perimeter wall is a long gallery
of political statements about world events.
All of it is on the edge of the old, traditional French village
of Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or.
Thierry chose the quiet, little village
because of the extreme contrast with his world vision.
The original house on his property
was from the 18th century,
but that is no longer recognizable.
INTERPRETER: The house, measuring several thousand square feet
with all its reception rooms, has been totally deconstructed,
and then put back together and rebuilt.
NARRATOR: Inside the open gate to the home, there's a courtyard
strewn with hundreds of nihilistic works of art.
This is a sculpture garden with a bit of an edge.
Inside is the family home.
The artwork doesn't let up, and it's purposefully dark.
Thierry deliberately closed up
many of the rooms in this 200-year-old home.
He says he did it to block out the memories
of the bourgeois elite that used to live here.
INTERPRETER: Here was a grand room to hold parties for hundreds of guests
who used to assemble for mundane cocktail evenings.
I have had it walled up.
I believe the artistic act here
consisted of depriving oneself of all luxury
and avoiding a certain way of life.
NARRATOR: Heavy cables twist in and out of the walls.
It all feels out of order.
The dark look flows down what Thierry calls
"strange corridors"
and into the dining room, which now has another name.
INTERPRETER: Here we have the "cult" table,
where we can eat, talk, and think.
And if you live inside art and eat with art,
you start to live and breathe it.
That's very important.
NARRATOR: There's almost nothing that Thierry's art doesn't include.
INTERPRETER: I've introduced meteorites covering the whole area,
creating quite an extraordinary universe.
That is the essence of art.
NARRATOR: Some of the walls are like great clouds of gray matter --
not really what you'd call a typical family home.
INTERPRETER: It's true that, once you start thinking about it,
this house has revolutionized my whole family.
This immense home
has been deconstructed and de-formed completely,
so that has been *** the family.
But, still, everyone dives straight into it.
NARRATOR: It makes for an unusual home life,
and also an unusual office.
Millionaire Thierry runs a database company from here
that manages art-auction quotes.
But his circular desk looks like something
from a Klingon starship.
Thierry is also a believer in alchemy --
a medieval philosophy about turning lead into gold.
And the number 999 is everywhere,
because it's supposed to boost spiritual powers.
Outside, some of the art looks like it was in a crash.
These are metaphors for memories.
INTERPRETER: So, "The Abode of Chaos" is also a history of my personal life.
For example, if you look at this helicopter,
it's a reminder of an accident I was in many years ago.
NARRATOR: The silver-colored skulls around the grounds
represent the issue of life versus death.
It's a popular theme throughout this house,
which has been given a new life thanks to complete chaos.
This is New York state.
But this art-deco-looking building is a bit of a mystery.
Is it a factory?
Is it an office complex?
Is it a shopping mall?
Can it possibly be someone's home?
NARRATOR: We're back on the track of the world's most extreme homes.
This country home stands in Pound Ridge, New York.
And may look, at first sight,
more like an art-deco factory than a home.
In fact, it's a truly remarkable piece of house design,
because, get close up and step inside,
and it seems there's hardly a right angle anywhere.
The major features of this house
are the cylinders and triangles.
You have a kitchen that's triangular,
a family room that's cylindrical.
The dining room is triangular.
The living room is covered with a dome.
Originally an architect's family home,
the ground floor's layout works with the upstairs
to create some big, beautiful spaces.
Although it was only built 20 years ago,
it has a very geometric, art-deco look.
Before they lived here, Maurie and Frank lived in
Victorian- and Georgian-period homes.
But when they discovered this house, they couldn't resist.
When I first saw the house,
I wasn't expecting to see what I saw.
It was just like nothing I'd ever seen.
Cylinder House is a tour de force
in architectural art and engineering skill.
Through the door is a lofty corridor,
a light-filled and mirrored gallery.
A marbled hallway leads to a square room,
divided, of course,
into triangles to make a dining room and a sitting room.
Across the way is a kitchen that's an architect's equation
of shapes and angles that all work together.
Now, add art-deco furniture to all the beautiful architecture.
Walk down to the other end of the hallway,
and there are even a few right angles in the lounge.
But also more period pieces, to soften them.
When I was wanting to furnish the house,
I wanted to warm it up some.
I didn't want cold, modern, angular furniture.
We love antiques,
so we were attracted to the art-deco furnishings,
which were, first of all, warmer wood, warmer colors.
Which actually have a lot cylinders,
but triangles i n the textile patterns.
Characterful angles liven up every corner.
Downstairs is a triangular bedroom
with a curved, outdoor terrace.
But the real eye-catcher is upstairs -- the domed roof.
It looks like something from the Paris Worlds' Fair in 1900.
Under the dome is a space so magical
that Maurie and Frank saved it for a special purpose.
We didn't know what to call it, exactly.
It's not really exactly a room.
So, Frank and I were very excited when we first moved in,
and every night after work, we used to dance on the ramp.
And so, we decided to call it the dance ramp.
NARRATOR: Dining, dancing, and a good sleep --
that's what homes are for.
Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, all en-suite.
Also, Maurie's office, which is ideal for her work.
Professionally, I'm a colorist.
I design interior products and do color lines,
and I develop colors with manufacturers, chemists,
so I have to have perfect light.
And, when work is done,
it's a few rounded steps down into a cool, rounded pool.
Perfect light, perfect proportions,
a skillful puzzle of angle and cylinders --
this home is a quietly modern tour de force.
We've raced around the world, been inside extreme homes,
and seen what dreams are made of.
We've seen a home that curled up in the heat.
One made of organized chaos.
A house giving history a new future.
And a Danish penthouse that's surfing a wave.
Dream spaces that have become reality
for the creators of these extreme homes.
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.