Living in Nautilus

The ever-clever Raincoaster brought an utterly wonderful Mexico City abode to my attention via e-mail yesterday. Looking for a home design that would bring the organic and the inorganic together, a family commissioned Arquitectura Organica to create a house in tune with Momma Nature’s curves.

Curvaceous!

I’d say they succeeded in spades. From Arquitectura Organica: “Here the plant is the spiral, which was molded to the topography for which outline was sketched the logarithmic spiral.” Spirals and gentle curves draw visitors into the structure like a current.


Lovely, no?

Is that grass and other foliage? Talk about bringing the outside in!

The bedrooms are in the inner circle

The bedrooms and other private places — as I’ve been led to understand — are located in the inner part of the spiral so the family can have some privacy.

I like it, though I can image that fitting angular furniture among all those curves might prove an interesting diversion. How about you?

(via World Architecture News)

6 Responses to “Living in Nautilus”

  1. Evie February 21, 2008 at 8:46 pm #

    Can’t say I’m a fan of the super minimalist style of the bedroom, but that foyer/living room/indoor garden is incredible!

  2. Nariya February 21, 2008 at 8:47 pm #

    You know, I think it’s interesting as an experiment. It doesn’t look like a place I’d be comfortable in, though. It’s a little too alien for me. Maybe if I had been brought up in seashell-shaped buildings I’d like it more!

  3. Twistie February 22, 2008 at 10:54 am #

    I love looking at this house. It’s fascinating, and I’ve always had a bit of a thing for nautilus shells. OTOH, I think I’d be very uncomfortable trying to live in it. After all, when I was a little girl I would watch The Addams Family and dream of living in their mansion. Mostly I think I wanted the mounted swordfish with the leg sticking out of its mouth and I wanted to sharpen the fence with Gomez every day.

    What? Doesn’t every little girl dream of that?

    I don’t do minimal at all well. I’m a maximalist kind of girl.

  4. JaneC February 23, 2008 at 12:46 pm #

    Twistie, I’m with you. I wanted to live in the Addams Family mansion too, although I would have fit in about as well as Marilyn Munster did with her own ghoulish relatives.

    As for the nautilus shell…pretty, and fun to stay in for a vacation, but probably not great for living in. It would be neat as a guest house for a mansion or small hotel.

  5. Zaftig February 24, 2008 at 1:26 am #

    I don’t know… seems really really creepy to me, there is something a little too biology-experiment-gone-wrong-and-the-secretly-alive-and-carnivorous-bed-comes-and-swallows-you-up-while-you-are-sleeping about it..

  6. raincoaster February 27, 2008 at 7:26 am #

    But biology-experiment-gone-wrong is exactly the look I’m going for!