25 Unbelievable Homes Built In The World’s Most Hair-Raising Locations

Do you want to live in something that looks like a sci-fi spaceship that’s crash-landed on a steep hillside overlooking Los Angeles? Then the Chemosphere House would suit you perfectly! But if you suffer from vertigo, then it might not be your ideal home. That’s because it’s precariously cantilevered from a slope that has an angle of around 45 degrees.

Architect John Lautner built the uncompromisingly modernist property in 1960. Lautner, who died in 1994, was, “one of the most important American architects of the 20th century, and perhaps one of the most misunderstood,” according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the man who commissioned the home, Leonard Malin, was an aerospace engineer.

The Solvay Hut is a flimsy-looking timber structure perched on a ledge on the sheer face of the famous Matterhorn in Switzerland. Built in 1915, it’s the highest structure on the mountain. At an altitude of about 13,000 feet, the Solvay Hut is some 1,500 feet below the Matterhorn summit. The shack is an emergency refuge for mountaineers and can accommodate up to 10 people at a pinch.

Born in 1838, Ernest Solvay was a Belgian industrialist who was also a keen climber. He donated the money to build the Matterhorn’s Hörnli Hut, 2,400 feet below the one named after him. In 1976 the Solvay Hut was updated with the addition of an emergency telephone. But as you’ll find if you ever spend a night there after getting into difficulties on the Matterhorn, there’s little else in the way of facilities.