Courtesy Design Koen Olthuis – Waterstudio.NL
  • Inside a Basement Transformed Into the USS Enterprise

    Inside a Basement Transformed Into the USS Enterprise
    Anthony Sforza with his wife, Annette, and their children, Michael and Daniel, sit in a replica of Star Trek's USS Enterprise at their home in Long Island, N.Y. It took almost three years to transform the basement into the ship and it cost Sforza $500,000 for the project, he told Barcroft TV.  "Fortunately, I was able to purchase a piece of the original set, which I pulled apart to find out the exact paint and materials that were used," Sforza told Barcroft. 
    Ruaridh Connellan/Barcroft Media/Landov
  • 'Best Tall Building in Europe'

    'Best Tall Building in Europe'
    De Rotterdam in the Netherlands has been awarded Best Tall Building in Europe by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The building, by OMA architecture firm, has been nominated by CTBUH for Best Tall Building Worldwide for the November competition in Chicago. OMA's CCTV Headquarters in Beijing was awarded 2013 Best Tall Building Worldwide.
    Ossip van Duivenbode
  • A Treehouse Man-Cave in Dallas

    A Treehouse Man-Cave in Dallas
    An exterior view of the treehouse built by Pete Nelson for Bobby and Marty Page in Malakoff, Texas, March 14, 2014. The home was featured in Animal Planet’s "Treehouse Masters." Page, who has three daughters with his wife, Marty, told <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/home-and-gardening/headlines/20140521-dallas-man-gets-a-texas-sized-treehouse-man-cave-take-a-look-inside.ece"target="external"rel="nofollow">The Dallas Morning News</a>, “I’d been surrounded by women my whole life, and needed a man cave."
    Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News
  • A Treehouse Man-Cave in Dallas

    A Treehouse Man-Cave in Dallas
    A view inside a treehouse built by Pete Nelson for Bobby and Marty Page in Malakoff, Texas, March 14, 2014.
    Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News
  • 'Star Trek' Mansion For Sale

    'Star Trek' Mansion For Sale
    This 34,548-sq. ft. mansion in Boca Raton, Florida, is the most expensive ever listed in the city at $35 million. The eight-bedroom home features a giant arcade room and a replica of "Star Trek's" Starship Enterprise bridge.
    Courtesy Andy Frame/Douglas Elliman Real Estate
  • 'Star Trek' Mansion For Sale

    'Star Trek' Mansion For Sale
    The expansive estate has a state-of-the-art home theater, which is a replica of the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise, complete with original series sound effects for the doors and hundreds of thousands of "stars" built into the ceiling. The mansion belongs to Marc Bell, the former CEO of networking site FriendFinder. Also on the property are a "Call of Duty" video game room and an outdoor basketball court.
    Courtesy Andy Frame/Douglas Elliman Real Estate
  • 'Railway Resort' On Sale

    'Railway Resort' On Sale
    A "railway resort" with a model train museum and "personal world-class railway" in Sherwood, Ore., 17 miles southwest of Portland, is listed for $3.5 million. The property has 19.67 acres of land, with a three-level Cape Cod-style home that spans 4,908 sq. ft.
    Jason Gardner/Hasson Company Realtors
  • 'Railway Resort' On Sale

    'Railway Resort' On Sale
    The home has four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms. The property also has a barn, a large shop, and a fenced pasture. The listing states: "The estimated cost to recreate this extravagant estate and monumental railroad haven in today's market comes in at upwards of $7,000,000. This is the first time this legendary estate has been offered to the market."
    Jason Gardner/Hasson Company Realtors
  • Under Cave Cathedrals On Sale

    Under Cave Cathedrals On Sale
    Unique rock formations were carved out of sandstone in two large underground Cathedrals under the desert in Northern New Mexico. "The more intimate one features smooth walls and sensual sweeping lines," the listing states. "The much larger one is called the Tree of Human Loving is a massive, intricately carved tree located in the Garden of Eden. Either half for $550,000."
  • Spaceship Arcade Home

    Spaceship Arcade Home
    This &quot;interactive space ship arcade for playing video games&quot; is in a whimsical seven-bedroom home on sale in Weston, Mass., outside Boston, for $17 million. An entertainer's dream, the home also has a pool and pool house, in-home half basketball court, media room with seating for 16, billiards and ping pong room, and a wine cellar. The next photo shows the expansive grounds.
  • Spaceship Arcade in Mass. Home

    Spaceship Arcade in Mass. Home
    Not only does this seven-bedroom, 8.5-bathroom home in Weston, Mass., have an &quot;interactive space ship arcade for playing video games,&quot; the property has 7.52 acres of &quot;expansive groomed emerald lawns within minutes from downtown Boston,&quot; and 19,000 sq. ft. of living space.
  • 'The Taj' Home in Calif. Looks Like Taj Mahal

    'The Taj' Home in Calif. Looks Like Taj Mahal
    Like the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, this 5-bed in La Jolla, Calif., is listed for $2.8 million. Designed by Herbert Palmer and called "Casa de Las Joyas" (House of Jewels): "Treasured as 'The Taj, ' by locals," it has "three graceful domes, pillars and archways reminiscent of eastern architecture and complemented by pebbles and stones carefully collected at local beaches."
  • Street Cars Create Home

    Street Cars Create Home
    This detached tree house in Santa Cruz, Calif., is part of a property that uses two historic street cars as main home. According to <a href="http://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Cruz/203-Blackburn-St-95060/home/2144931"rel="nofollow">Redfin.com,</a> the property includes its "own treehouse, a pond, clucking chickens, fruit trees galore, gardens, sauna, fire ring, cob oven."
    Redfin.com
  • Mansion with Moat on Market for $10.9 Million

    Mansion with Moat on Market for $10.9 Million
    Always wanted a moat around your home? The Chateau Artisan in Miami, Florida sits on 14 acres is on the market for $10.9 million according to <a href="http://www.redfin.com/FL/Homestead/25791-SW-167th-Ave-33031/home/43236397">Redfin.com.</a> the home features a private lake, koi pond and boat house.
    Redfin.com
  • 'Petal House' For Sale

    'Petal House' For Sale
    Known as "The Petal House," this four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in L.A. is on sale for $1,199,000. Designed by Eric Owen Moss, it received the 25-Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in Los Angeles, which recognizes buildings that have embodied architectural excellence for 25 to 35 years. The roof was designed to open like the petals of a flower, hence the nickname, Redfin notes.
    Redfin.com
  • Cave-Like Home in Alpine, Calif. For Sale

    Cave-Like Home in Alpine, Calif. For Sale
    This two-bedroom home, created by artist Jim Hubbell in 1972 and similar in style to the Gaudi House in Barcelona, is on sale for $385,000. Outside San Diego, it's described as a "half acre+ parcel is next to a seasonal stream surrounded by California Live Oaks" in the "idyllic community of Alpine." The listing states, "less then a handful of homes were personally designed and built by Hubbell."
    Courtesy Redfin.com
  • 'Floating Homes' Future Up in the Air

    'Floating Homes' Future Up in the Air
    "Floating homes" are seen here at Docktown Marina in Redwood City, June 10, 2013. The future of about 60 live-abord vessels, which include some boats and a few "floating homes", may be in the hands of a city task force, amid talk of developing the marina, according to the Palo Alto Daily News.
    Kirstina Sangsahachart/ Daily News
  • Future of 'Floating Homes' Uncertain

    Future of 'Floating Homes' Uncertain
    Orelene Chartain and her husband have lived in Docktown for four years in a two-story "floating home" with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The home has electricity, a sewage system, dishwasher, washer and dryer.
    Orlene Chartain
  • Home Built Out of Missile Silo

    Home Built Out of Missile Silo
    A future homeowner can live inside a converted launch control center of a Cold War nuclear missile silo, or facility, in Lewis, N.Y. in the Adirondack Mountains. According to the Realtor.com listing, this 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom home spans 3,200 sq. feet and is listed for $750,000. The homeowners can live under "blast doors", 185-feet deep in the ground.
    Realtor.com
  • Home Sits on Rock

    Home Sits on Rock
    A man rows a boat near a house built on a rock on the river Drina near the western Serbian town of Bajina Basta, May 22, 2013. The house was built in 1968 by a group of young men who decided that the rock on the river was an ideal place for a tiny shelter, according to the house's co-owner, who was among those involved in its construction.
    Marko Djurica/Reuters
  • Kan. Couple Live in Former Nuke Base

    Kan. Couple Live in Former Nuke Base
    Ed and Diana Peden converted a nuclear missile base outside Topeka into a mostly underground mansion. They bought it for $40,000 in the 1980s -- it was built in 1960 for $3.3 million. It held a four-megaton nuclear warhead in what is now the garage. Others are for sale: Click <a href="http://bit.ly/9oHnRk" target="external">here</a>.
    ABC News
  • Cemetery Home

    Cemetery Home
    Jayne Stead and Mike Blatchford's home in Southampton Old Cemetery, UK. They bought the mid-19th century keeper's lodge and mortuary chapel in 2006 and spent $150,000 renovating it. The mortuary became the living room, and the chapel is now the dining room. "I think where we eat is exactly where the bodies would've lain," said Stead.
    ABC News
  • Replica Disney Haunted Mansion Home for Sale

    Replica Disney Haunted Mansion Home for Sale
    A firm known for buying and selling rare Disney items is offering a replica Disneyland Haunted Mansion for an asking price of $873,000. The more than 10,000 sq.-ft. home is in a gated community in Duluth, Ga. Mark Hurt built the replica in 1996 and is the owner of the firm, Constructioneer. Disney, which is the parent company of ABC News, is not associated with the sale through eBay.
    Marc Pianko/Theme Park Connection
  • Volcano House

    Volcano House
    The "Volcano House" in Valley Springs, Calif. sits on a "small volcanic cone in the high desert" midway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, according to the real estate brokerage firm, Deasy/Penner & Partners. The 60-acre retreat features 360 degrees of an "almost lunar landscape," two bedrooms, two baths and a guest house.
    deasy/penner&partners
  • World's Scariest Toilet: Hangs Over 15-Story Elevator Shaft

    World's Scariest Toilet: Hangs Over 15-Story Elevator Shaft
    You will need a tolerance for heights when visiting this toilet. Otherwise it might leave you feeling a little flush. That's because it is suspended on a glass floor above a 15-story unused elevator shaft. The luxury penthouse is built on top of an old colonial style building in Guadalajara, Mexico.
    Rex Features via AP Images
  • Cottage Hangs Off 7-Floor Building

    Cottage Hangs Off 7-Floor Building
    A cottage hanging off a seven-floor building at the University of California, San Diego opened to the public on June 7, 2012. Do Ho Suh created the artwork, called "Fallen Star" which sits on the roof of the university's engineering building, Jacobs Hall. The permanent installation is a three-quarter-sized version of a home in Providence, R.I., not far from where the artist studied painting.
    Philipp Scholz Rittermann, Courtesy Do Ho Suh and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
  • Upside Down House in Borneo

    Upside Down House in Borneo
    Rumah Terbalik, which loosely means &quot;reversed home&quot;, opened Feb. 2012 as Malaysia's first upside down house. Builder Alexander Yee told reporters, &quot;If we keep exploiting our natural resources at the rate we are going, sooner or later we will find our world upside down.&quot; Visitors pay a fee and see upside-down light fixtures in Sabah, the country's easternmost state.
    upsidedownhouse.com.my
  • House With a 'Batman Pool'

    House With a 'Batman Pool'
    An English-style mansion in Hinsdale, Ill., with a Batman-themed backyard swimming pool, was listed for $2.7 million in mid-February 2012. The 1.67-acre property owned by an executive and his wife, includes an enormous Batman logo in the bottom of its swimming pool, the Chicago Tribune reported.
    Google
  • Wacky but Wonderful Homes

    Wacky but Wonderful Homes
    There's a science behind the unconventional design, neon colors, sharp angles and crater-like floor at the "Bioscleave House Life Extending Villa." The house, in East Hampton, N.Y., was designed by artists and architects Arakawa and Madeline Gins, based on 40 years of scientific and philosophical investigation into how to use architecture to help people reverse destiny and live longer lives. The house is meant to throw its residents and visitors off balance, so that their bodies work to maintain equilibrium. Despite the design, Arakawa died in May 2010 and the three-bedroom house is on the market for $4 million.
    Dimitris Yeros
  • 'Most Interesting Home in the World'

    'Most Interesting Home in the World'
    Called "the most interesting home in the world" by Robin Leach, this Las Vegas home belongs to Lonnie Hammargren, former Nevada Lieutenant Governor and Honorary Consul to Belize. Three homes form one compound. The first is a planetarium and celestial observatory. The second replicates "House of the Governor" at a Mayan site at Uxmal. The third is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollywood designs.
    roadsidepictures/flickr.com
  • Grass-Covered House

    Grass-Covered House
    Designed by architect William Morgan in 1975, the "Dune House" was built into a sand dune on Atlantic Beach, Fla., using swimming pool technology, anchoring the structure's shell to a cast concrete floor. With a roof covered in grass, this weird but wonderful home is 1,500 square ft. and costs $1.4 million.
    Tansy Moon / Prudential Network Realty
  • Wacky but Wonderful Homes

    Wacky but Wonderful Homes
    After he was left by his fiance the night before their wedding, Ed Leedskalnin spent 28 years constructing the Coral Castle in secrecy, mostly at night, as a monument to his bride no more. He managed to move 1,100 tons of coral with nothing more than hand tools. The Coral Castle is so weird and wonderful that Billy Idol wrote his 1986 hit "Sweet Sixteen" as a tribute to it. In 1984, the castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Located in Miami, it is now a museum listed under its original name, "Rock Gate Park."
    www.coralcastle.com
  • Strange and Bizarre Structures

    Strange and Bizarre Structures
    It's known as "the littlest house" in Toronto. At just 312 square feet, the nearly 100-year-old house is for sale for about $179,000. "It's a great condo alternative for someone who's never owned anything," real estate agent Antonio Nardi told the National Post. "Instead of buying a space in a building, they can actually own real property, a piece of land even though it's smaller."
    Courtesy The Little House
  • Seed Cathedral

    Seed Cathedral
    The Seed Cathedral, the centerpiece of the United Kingdom Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, is shown under construction, Feb. 21, 2010. The 20-meter-high building will be covered by 60,000 slim, transparent acrylic rods. Inside the pavilion, visitors will be able to view tens of thousands seeds. The cathedral will show how biological diversity has improved peoples' lives, the pavilion's designer said in a statement on the expo's Web site. The expo will open in Shanghai, China, on May 1.
    AFP/Getty Images
  • Ice House Exemplifies Housing Crisis

    Ice House Exemplifies Housing Crisis
    An abandoned house is shown covered in ice in Detroit, Jan. 27, 2010. The two artists who are encasing the home in ice are hoping their effort inspires and helps draw attention to the housing crisis that has battered the nation. Photographer Gregory Holm and architect Matthew Radune spent weeks spraying water on the home for the Ice House Detroit project.
    Paul Sancya//AP Photo
  • Pushing the Bounds of Sanity

    Pushing the Bounds of Sanity
    The Citadel, the world's first floating apartment complex, gives a new meaning to waterfront property. The Netherlands, which is mostly wetlands, faces the issue of pumping out water to protect tracts of land below sea level, known as polders. The Citadel was designed by Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio in the Netherlands as part of the New Water development, an urban development built on a former polder in the city of Westland. Construction for the Citadel will begin in March 2010. When completed, the building will include 60 luxury apartments, a car park and a floating road. The complex will utilize greenhouses and water-cooling techniques to promote environmental sustainability.
    Courtesy Design Koen Olthuis – Waterstudio.NL
  • Strange and Bizarre Structures Palais Bulles

    Strange and Bizarre Structures Palais Bulles
    Architecture is meant to inspire, mesmerize and ometimes even shock. But some buildings go even further and challenge our conceptions about straight lines, size and any idea of what a building should be. <p> A vacation to the French Riviera calls for a visit to the summer home of designer Pierre Cardin. Aptly named <a href="http://www.pierrecardin.fr/Dculture/palais_bulles.html" target="external">Palais Bulles</a>, or "Palace of Bubbles," Cardin's home is located in the town of Théoule-sur-Mer, near Cannes. The home was designed in the mid-1970s by architect Antti Lovag, who built his first bubble house for Pierre Bernard in 1971. The building's curved walls and domed structures resemble the figure of a woman.
    Courtesy Pierre Cardin
  • Strange Buildings/Longaberger Building

    Strange Buildings/Longaberger Building
    In October 1995, construction began on the Longaberger Co.'s seven-story home office. The building was designed to replicate the company's signature product: a medium-size handmade basket, and was a dream of company founder Dave Longaberger. Construction was completed in December 1997. The Newark, Ohio, building's design stays true to the original basket design, and includes a 30,000 square-foot atrium filled with natural light from a skylight that rests beneath the two 150-ton basket handles.
    Courtesy Longaberger Company