Of the architects not busy drafting plans for dog houses, condos torn asunder, or McMansions on shopping malls, the most brazen occupied their time designing the planet's most extreme spaces, from Earth's thinnest abode in Poland to the longest home in the forests of Thailand. Perhaps the craziest of the crazy—or the coolest of the cool, however you please—is Sky City Tower (above), the 2,749-foot skyscraper which stands to be the tallest on earth, beating out Dubai's Burj Khalifa by a scant 30 feet. What's even more extreme? The developers, Broad Sustainable Building, announced—then recanted, then affirmed again—that the world's future tallest tower would take just 90 days to build, more than 20 times speedier than the construction of the Burj. Work began in November, technically, so we'll just see what happens. Below, find four more superlative structures.
? Polish architect Jakub Szczesny designed the much-anticipated Keret House, the thinnest home in the world, which measures four feet at its widest point and 28 inches at its narrowest. Szczesny's creation, a steel frame sandwiched between two buildings in Warsaw, Poland, contains the necessary amenities—a kitchen, bathroom, sleeping space, and office—stacked on top of each other, accessible via ladder.
? The sort-of inversion of Keret House? The self-professed "world's longest home," which measures 492 feet long and 36 feet wide. The 150M Weekend House, designed by Shinichi Ogawa & Associates, crests a hill in the forest of Khao Yai, Thailand, and has a lap pool on the roof—just as obvious as it is genius.
? The world's smallest house—uh, provided the definition of the word "house" is up for debate—is this abode by Berlin-based architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel. One-Sqm-House, which measures, uh, one square meter, was at one point rentable for €1 ($1.30) a night on Airbnb.
? Timeshare baron (and mild nutcase) David Siegel started—and, when the real estate market imploded in 2007, ultimately had to abandon—construction on this 90,000-square-foot mansion in Windermere, Fla., now the largest private residence in the country. (North Carolina's Biltmore is larger, though it's no longer a single-family residence.) Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield chronicled the saga of Siegel, his wife Jackie, and the palatial estate that never was in a boom-and-bust documentary titled, oh-so-appropriately, The Queen of Versailles.
· All Sky City Tower coverage [Curbed National]
· All Keret House coverage [Curbed National]
· A Look at the 'World's Longest House,' Measuring 492 Feet [Curbed National]
· Behold the World's Smallest House, Totaling One Square Meter [Curbed National]
· All The Queen of Versailles coverage [Curbed National]
· All Year in Curbed 2012 posts [Curbed National]
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