Live in a Giant Sea Shell with the Breathtaking Nautilus House

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants!

Yep. That’s pretty weird, but it’s what you’d expect from a children’s cartoon. I always thought it was strange that SpongeBob lived in a pineapple, of all things. Why would he live in something that’s from dry land when he’s at the bottom of the ocean?

Who knows — maybe he’s onto something. Under that logic, maybe we humans should try building homes out of things from the bottom of the ocean. I can’t attest as to whether or not SpongeBob SquarePants was the inspiration, but that’s exactly what Javier Senosiain of Arquitectura Organica did with his Nautilus House.

The house mimics the flowing shapes of the nautilus, with its inward spiral and white-brown color scheme. The designers created these odd shapes with a technique called ferrocement constructio. The builders used steel-reinforced chicken wire to create the desired shape, and then they covered the wire in a two-inch-thick layer of concrete. Whammo blammo — concrete walls in whatever shape you want. Walls made this technique have the added benefits of being maintenance-free and earthquake-proof — a handy feature considering that the home is built in Mexico City.

The description on the website reads (after being filtered through Google Translate), “When entering from the outside, go up a staircase and into the Nautilus passed through a large stained glass window. There is generated a spatial experience living a journey sequence, wherein neither the walls or floor or ceiling are parallel. It is a three-dimensional fluid space where you can feel the continuous dynamic of the fourth dimension, spiral walking on the steps, with the sensation of floating on vegetation.”

Floating on vegetation? Is that a terrible mistranslation? Nope — once inside, you’ll find a series of stone pathways flanked by a grass carpet. Skylights dot the home to provide all of the natural light that the inhabitants and the carpet could ever need. Altogether, it gives the home a beautifully organic feel. You’re living inside of a massive shell, the floor itself is alive, and you can eschew electronic lights in favor of natural sunlight. Even the furniture replicates the curving shapes of biological organisms!

Hopefully, the Nautilus House will show you just how flexible aquatic architecture can truly be. There are many different ways to bring the beauty of an ocean or a lake into your home. You could do it with a waterfall, an aquarium, a pond, or simply by designing a home that replicates the shapes of the deep blue sea.