It's like weird Anyone home?
8. 222 House, Wales
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When millionaire Bob Marshall wanted to turn his old army barracks holiday home into a permanent crib he encountered a major problem. It was set on a cliff in a National Park, protected land where any alterations were strictly prohibited. So he contacted architectural aces Future Systems who designed Birmingham’s Selfridges building. Ingeniously they swerved local authorities by sinking the new house into the ground. Having excavated, they erected a concrete slab and a retaining wall on which a stressed-skin plywood aerofoil roof was laid, and built in steel beams to support the roof nixing the need for internal columns.
Cleverly, the walls of overlapping layers of soil and turf work as geo-thermal insulation, shielding it from wind and cutting energy consumption. With its turf-covered roof 222 is perfectly camouflaged, the only giveaway is huge glazed panels opening towards the sea.
