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Would you live in a house clinging to a cliff? | Would you live in a house clinging to a cliff? |
(35 minutes later) | |
A design for a home anchored to a sheer cliff face offers a striking vista. But what would it take to live in such a place, asks Jon Kelly. | A design for a home anchored to a sheer cliff face offers a striking vista. But what would it take to live in such a place, asks Jon Kelly. |
For sale: distinctive seaside property with spectacular coastal views. Would suit high-value buyer untroubled by vertigo. | For sale: distinctive seaside property with spectacular coastal views. Would suit high-value buyer untroubled by vertigo. |
So far it only exists on as a concept, but the design for the Cliff House by Modscape, an Australian firm that designs and builds prefabricated homes, is enough to give a lurch to the stomach of anyone uneasy with heights. | So far it only exists on as a concept, but the design for the Cliff House by Modscape, an Australian firm that designs and builds prefabricated homes, is enough to give a lurch to the stomach of anyone uneasy with heights. |
Here's the pitch - it features three bedrooms (two doubles, the other en-suite), a stylish living space, a carport, separate bathroom and (tantalisingly or nausea-inducingly, depending on your tolerance of sheer drops) an open-air spa and barbecue area on the bottom floor. Artfully minimalist interior décor focuses visitors' attention on "transcendent views of the ocean". | Here's the pitch - it features three bedrooms (two doubles, the other en-suite), a stylish living space, a carport, separate bathroom and (tantalisingly or nausea-inducingly, depending on your tolerance of sheer drops) an open-air spa and barbecue area on the bottom floor. Artfully minimalist interior décor focuses visitors' attention on "transcendent views of the ocean". |
According to the company's website, the plans were drawn up after a couple approached the firm asking its designers to explore how to build a holiday home along "extreme parcels" of coast in Victoria. | According to the company's website, the plans were drawn up after a couple approached the firm asking its designers to explore how to build a holiday home along "extreme parcels" of coast in Victoria. |
Inspired by the way barnacles cling to a ship's hull, the design envisages that the house would be made up of five modules connected by a lift and secured to the cliff face using engineered steel pins. | Inspired by the way barnacles cling to a ship's hull, the design envisages that the house would be made up of five modules connected by a lift and secured to the cliff face using engineered steel pins. |
It might look precarious - and a hostage to coastal erosion - but there's no reason why the design shouldn't be structurally sound, says Maxwell Hutchinson, a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Cantilever beams drilled into the rock could support the building just as crampons support a climber. | It might look precarious - and a hostage to coastal erosion - but there's no reason why the design shouldn't be structurally sound, says Maxwell Hutchinson, a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Cantilever beams drilled into the rock could support the building just as crampons support a climber. |
While people assume homes must be built upwards from foundations in the ground, it's equally possibly in theory for them to be suspended or hung, says Hutchinson. There's a tradition of unconventional properties around the world including floating homes, underwater homes and even ice hotels. | While people assume homes must be built upwards from foundations in the ground, it's equally possibly in theory for them to be suspended or hung, says Hutchinson. There's a tradition of unconventional properties around the world including floating homes, underwater homes and even ice hotels. |
But, he warns, "all of these things are expensive because the construction industry hates anything expensive". Any prospective owner of the Cliff House would need very deep pockets. | |
And that wouldn't be the only thing required of them, Hutchinson says. "It would have to be someone with a very, very strong stomach." | And that wouldn't be the only thing required of them, Hutchinson says. "It would have to be someone with a very, very strong stomach." |
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