This One-of-a-Kind House Is Inside an Airplane Hangar

Architect Adam Kalkin decided to enclose his cottage in an airplane hangar.

ByABC News
August 26, 2016, 8:36 AM

— -- When it came to his home, architect and artist Adam Kalkin wasn't thinking of a white picket fence. Instead, he thought outside the box -- way outside the box.

Kalkin's one-of-a-kind home is essentially two in one, consisting of a small cottage from the late 1800s nested within a 1900s-inspired airplane hangar.

The dynamic home is far from traditional, with a wide variety of high and low ceilings, dark and light rooms, and small and large spaces. There's even a rope for climbing in the center of the home, which he sometimes refers to as a "playhouse."

"It always creates interesting perspectives in there that you don't get from other traditional houses," Kalkin told ABC News of the unusual layout.

For his business, Industrial Zombie, Kalkin frequently works with unique building designs. After leaving New York City for the suburbs, he was certain he didn't want just another suburban home.

PHOTO: Architect Adam Kalkin and his family live in a cottage that's nested inside of an airplane hangar in the suburbs of New Jersey.
Architect Adam Kalkin and his family live in a cottage that's nested inside of an airplane hangar in the suburbs of New Jersey.

Kalkin bought a cottage in Somerset County, New Jersey, but, knowing it was too small for his family, he began thinking of creative ways to expand it. He soon added the Butler Warehouse around it.

"I was interested in creating a conversation between these different pieces," he said.

A decade after its construction, Kalkin's hope is that the look of his dynamic home continues to stay fresh, "like a Ferrari from the '50s," he said. "It’s a little bit of a Frankensteinian thing."

"I think it’s pretty great, and I think it’s inspired a lot of people from what I hear," the architect said of his work. "I think it opens possibilities in any person that comes and sees it."