Designed by Jennifer Post, New York

Designed by Kelly Hoppen, London

Designed by Pip Cheshire & Terry Hunziker, Auckland

Designed by Richard Landry, California

Designed by Norman Foster

Designed by Donna Livingston, Indian Wells – California.

Designed by architect couple Pieter Peerlings & Silvia Mertenand, it was built in no more than 3 weeks apparently! But that’s not the only crazy thing about it… The plot measures just 2.40m wide and 5.50m deep!!!!!! I mean, really, how is that possible?

Both the front and back of the house are made of glass, making it totally transparent from the street… The building, measuring a total of 60 sqm has 4 floors, with each floor containing only one room (obviously!).

The ground floor is the couple’s office, the 1st floor the kitchen cum dining room, the 2nd floor the living room and the 3rd floor the bedroom/ bathroom!

I must say all the rooms look quite comfortable actually, although there’s way not enough storage space… A hoarder would most definitely not be happy there! Another issue must be privacy. I get the lots of glass, lots of light thing, but surely they don’t want all the neighbours peering in 24/7 and they don’t even have blinds or curtains (from what i can see in the pictures at least).

The icing on the cake is the stunning roof top, which has a built-in bath tub, although this must be only for show, unless they bathe with their swimming suits on!

and how cool is this front door?

via Style-Files and Archinect.

Singel 166 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
This teeny house, with its rich red brick facade and impressive entrance door, is super cute even if it is a bit on the narrow side!

Kanonia – Warsaw, Poland
Before you start thinking, what is she talking about, these houses aren’t narrow at all, look closer to between the two rows of houses, to the seriously narrow yellow building…  It’s practically as narrow as its door and windows! It was built during the 17th century, when apparently there was a property tax in Poland that ws based on the width of the street-facing façade and the number of windows. That would explain a lot!

Sliver House – London, England
Wedged between two traditional British brick-built houses, this building, with its glass facade and modern architecture, looks a bit out of place and quite stark. Its width is merely 3m (10 feet), hence its name is quite fitting, but its depth at the back, at 6m, is substantially more.

Skinny House – Boston, Massachusetts

La Casa Estrecha (The Narrow House) – Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
This is also a very cute one. It’s such a good idea to paint the exterior of these narrow buildings in bright colours, otherwise they’d just disappear along the long line of buildings. I really  like the way the trees have been planted on either side of the door, giving it great kurb appeal! It is currently being turned into an art gallery apparently.

1-Meter Marvel – Madre de Deus, Brazil
With a width of less than 1 metre (91cm specifically), the Marvel wins the prize for the narrowest building in the world, if not also the ugliest (sorry…). I wonder if anyone actually lives there? It must feel so claustrophobic… and how does a bed even fit inside?

via Pointclickhome.com

Wonderworks – Florida, United States

Ripley’s Building – Ontario, Canada

Shoe House – Pennsylvania, United States

The Basket Building – Ohio, United States

Stone House – Guimarães, Portugal

Kansas City Public Library – Missouri, United States

The Crooked House – Sopot, Poland

Hang Nga Guesthouse a.k.a Crazy House – Vietnam

Cubic Houses – Rotterdam, Netherlands

Mammy’s Cupboard – Natchez, MS, United States

In fact, the Mirror summed it up quite nicely: “There are hotels, there are palaces… and then there is the Atlantis”… and it really is a masterpiece.

So here is a glimpse of the mighty £800mn Atlantis!

Situated on the largest man-made island in the world, the Atlantis is spread over 113 acres (four times the size of Hyde Park), has 1530 rooms and suites, 17 restaurants, a huge water park and an aquarium that houses not only twice the number of fish than the London Aquarium, but also dolphins especially flown in from the South Pacific.

I personally really like the exterior architecture of this building, it’s kind of out of this world, a Disneyland type of place and its colours blend in perfectly with the turquoise of the sea…

But  the lobby, lavish and expensive as it may be, leaves nothing to be desired… and it’s not as much bling as it is mismatched, with too many different styles, clashing colours and strange sculptures. Where’s the identity of Dubai in this?

I think they’ve done a great job in the bedrooms though – simple and relaxing, not over the top, yet still exotic. Can you imagine waking up to a view of so many fish? I’d actually be scared that the glass broke during the night…

The water cascading down to the bath from the ceiling is a brilliant idea and must be so so soothing and that huge round bath, made from what looks like stone is absolutely gorgeous…

Yesterday’s opening, which saw the most expensive private party ever, cost £16 million and had seven times the number of fireworks than at the Beijing Olympics! And apparently, they were visible from space…

If you’re feeling curious, you can watch the opening ceremony (sounds like the Olympics!) here and if you have some spare cash lying around, check out their website www.atlantisthepalm.com, although I think you’d probably be more comfortable visiting it than actually staying there…

Not only does each floor spin independently of the rest so that you can change the view from your window whenever you want, but it will also have big enough lifts to allow residents to park their cars right in their apartments!!!

Thankfully, the engineers have thought about all the energy required to power such a project and will be installing 48 wind turbines between every floor, enough energy to power not only this building but also neighbouring ones. As you might imagine, 360 degree views don’t come cheap of course with prices starting at $30,000 per sqm…