The Upside Down House

When we think of home, the word that usually springs to mind is "cozy." But when we caught a glimpse of this one, all we could manage was "disorienting." Nonetheless, the upside down house, which opened last week, is definitely worth a visit. We'll take you inside, below the jump...

9-16-08 upside down 3.jpg Located on the northern German island of Usedom, the family-sized house was designed by Klausdiusz Golos and Sebastian Mikiciuk for the Edutainment exhibition company.

The interior plays out like a practical joke, with chairs, tables and carpets stuck to the ceiling, and although the house is safe, visitors have reported feeling dizzy.

9-16-08 upside down 1.jpg
Mikiciuk said nobody would inhabit it permanently and it was meant purely as an exhibit. "We didn't do it for a reason. We just wanted to do something different."

This isn't the first time we've spotted upside down design -- check out Viktor & Rolf's Milan boutique for more inspiration.

Images: AP Photo/Frank Hormann

Comments (20)

Didn't Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle live in an upside-down house?

Joan A.--

I was going to say the same thing. I loved those books.

seriously? what a waste...and it makes me want to vomit.

This would be cooler if the inside was "normal" (well, usable) and it was an actual house...

Was the inspiration for this an episode of My name is Earl when they turn a trailer upside down?

when I see stuff like this I think, Huh, interesting to actually execute the idea. And then I think, Huh, once executed, it's clearly not all that great... and I wonder how many teachers could have been employeed, nurses paid, or children immunized for the cost of executing on that concept.

Yeah, okay kimg. What about design? Ever spent two grand on a sofa? Or on art? I often think that some things linked here are far, far too expensive, yet you don't see me whinging about using that money differently.
(Besides, it's not like it was a government-funded exhibit. If some exhibition company wants to spend twenty thousand or whatever building an upside down house, let'em. I hardly think they would have routed the money to charity otherwise.)

No...

This is one of those things that is theoretical and should remain so. How many rooms do you go in before the joke is old?

OK,OK---but is it GREEN? A waste of material just to be different and cool I guess.

I think it would have been crazier if the interior wasn't upside down. It looks pretty trippy from the outside.

There are so many upside-down houses as museums or "art" pieces in the whole world, it's not special anymore.

what a waste of money! I dont care if was government money or not...it could have had a much better use along with those materials. They better be reused and/or donated after!

I dont really see what the wow factor is besides the outside. I mean, is it really that impressive to stick stuff to the ceiling? I can imagine that just fine.

And it reminds me of that horrible room Hildi did on Trading Spaces when she stuck everything on the homeowners' ceiling and a wine glass crashed down during the reveal. At least no one has to live here.

Hasn't there been one of these at Cedar Point for 40 or 50 years? I wonder if that old lady is still in her rocking chair hanging from the ceiling.

yeah i'm pretty annoyed with everyone getting all upset about the wasted materials and funds. like it or not, this is art and for the most part - artists' contemporaries DO hate their art. but it is IMPERATIVE that they make it just the same.

you all probably at some point bought a stupid monet journal or a print of a van gogh or pretended to be gahgah over some 250 yr old piece of dusty material with dried up egg juice all over it hanging on the wall in the Met... just because "its art"

all of that stuff that was created 100 years ago, so we can appreciate it now because it informs SO MUCH about the people, the times, the technology, the history, the philosophy, the EVERYTHING about that moment in time. Art tells us more about ourselves than any history book could ever do.

ever think that maybe this totally nonfunctional upsidedown house is actually critiquing YOU!? you think sitting on your bum in your suburban house, munching on processed and packaged chips while you browse the internet for fun is maybe a huge ass waste of resources?!

if you want to play the green card and get all in a huff about wasted time, money and materials - get off your asses, stop buying manufactured junk, vote for obama and starting doing something instead of just sitting there and whining.

meh.

Meg---you are sitting on your ass and at the computor whinning about other peoples view points and surfing the net and I'll bet eating or drinking something you should not.
Why not just give your opinion (good or bad) on the house and leave the rest of use to our own view point.
That is what makes the world go round---should we also not have our opinion about this the war for oil we all seem to be paying dearly for.

I hope they did not spend too much on this!

There was a time several years back that I thought an upside down Xmas tree would be fun, but it's been done too many times for it to be interesting anymore. Except in this house, where it could be upside down, and then you would see it as right side up and there would be a lot of whimsical irony, and...

and...

zzz

;^)

ps...some of you folks need to lighten up.