Architecture and construction are technical skills that require lots of training, and it’s important to remember this when choosing a commercial or residential general contractor. It takes experience and a true familiarity with the business to take the homeowner’s requests and translate them into a beautiful house. There are over 760,000 people employed by construction general contractors, and they can do some pretty incredible things. These super cool and modern homes were featured in Business Insider — they were built by expert residential general contractors and each outcome was beautiful.
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1. The dome houses
These houses are built to withstand severe weather, and they look cool too. They are made out of concrete and steel and are constructed in the shape of a dome. These homes are fire resistant and aren’t susceptible to damage by hurricanes or tornadoes because their shape makes it impossible for wind to knock them down. They are also cheaper than traditional homes — all of the materials to make a dome house cost about half of that required to build another house of comparable size. Another bonus? They don’t let insects in, so people who live in dome houses are protected from pretty much anything that comes their way.
2. Homes using a cliff as the canvas
There is a small town in Utah where a strip of homes is built inside a cliff, meaning the residential general contractors hollowed out a space in the bottom of a cliff and that was the building site. They were originally intended to be extremely safe homes that could withstand any possible outcome, and today they stand strong and are resistant to extreme weather.
3. The rotating house
Perhaps the most interesting home on this list, this home turns 360 degrees and moves up and down. Why does it have this strange feature? The owner, a resident of Prague, Czech Republic, wanted to have the best view at all times. The home is rotated by manually pushing it (they have to use a lot of muscle to do this!) and it rises up and down with a built in motor. There’s a swimming pool on the bottom level that’s only exposed when the home rises.
4. The tiniest (or at least skinniest) home
This home in Warsaw, Poland is only five feet wide. It is several stories tall, however, so it’s not necessarily lacking in space. It was built like this to take advantage of the small space in between two buildings, space that otherwise would have gone unused.
5. Functional treehouses
These modest homes are small and don’t require much upkeep. Their defining feature is that they are located in the trees. They were originally built here because environmentalists were protesting destruction of a forest, and when the protesters were successful, they never moved out. Now there’s a community there based on the unique concept of living in the trees.
Have you encountered any strange or wonderful homes built in your area? With over 31,000 commercial building construction companies in the United States, there are sure to be some unique homes built every year. If you have any tips on finding reliable residential construction companies, leave a comment below. Read more here.
