Thursday design appreciation -- See rule #10 😎
An OG anti-McMansion! This is the Kellogg Doolittle house in Joshua Tree, CA, a posterchild for organic architecture. This structure is allergic to right angles, and all the furniture was handmade for this home. It looks like they give occasional tours, and it's on, or was on, Airbnb as a $6,500/night rental. Make sure to check out the world's largest Hastens bed in the master. That alone probably costs more than the average American home.
I'd like it if it was filled with thousands of plants
human-eating plants!
my autocorrect kicked in and I typed "hummus eating plants" and I thought: .....that would be cannibalism
I'm probably too high
Plants growing in compost is like someone living off the bodily fluids seeping out of a pile of corpses.
The Matrix: For Plants
If by plants you mean mushrooms and by mushrooms you mean psilocybin then yeah, would love to eat plants in this house!
Now THAT is how you splash out with wealth.
I feel like I walked into star trek! Love it. Good use of money for sure!
My husband and I both said that it looks like it belongs on Vulcan. 🖖
Logical.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it either had been used as Vulcan in the last or will be some time in the future.
I thought of Riven from the Myst series. It definitely has an adventure game vibe.
I saw this one on Zillow gone wild last year. If you go on youtube, there's a really good video tour.
edit: I see now it’s in California
You know how to find it? Was it in phoenix Arizona area?
There was a cool house the guy who patented something like the pull-top built.
I think it sounded like this design and that bed.
Exterior could be straight out of Dune tbh
The first few pics of the interior too
Interior could be starfleet 29th century
I was thinking Lost in Space house
If anyone is interested in seeing more of this house in HD, there is a movie out there my husband worked on called "Divinity" staring Scott Bakula, Bella Thorne and Stephen Dorff. Produced by Steven Soderberg. Its currently sitting at 57% on RottenTomatoes. Lol
Its a trip of a movie and not for the faint of heart.
Edited to add: The movie is in black and white and the house looks stunning in the night shadows. Truly.
Yeah feels very house arrakis
The spice must flow
Well, this is fucking rad. It’s not my aesthetic, but I respect the hell out of the vision.
Is not my aesthetic either, but I am willing to be face hugged by this thing if I can live there. That way, the aesthetic will become one with me.
you shall be known as "Rock Face" hence forward
If Luke had chosen to be an entrepreneurial moisture farmer instead of going on some some damn fool ideological crusade.
The future if Luke went to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters
Right?
No crispy bodies by the door here
....49 times....it, was, 49 times, and now it might be waiting for you...could be hidin' behind that scrap pile
That's just a big cow.
I want the giant round bed. So much room for activities! And dogs
Omg, that bed's cost is probably at least 6 digits...
And I imagine you have to get all custom sheets, comforters, etc
Right. When's the last time you saw round sheets anywhere!
$150 from the best sweat shops in Bangladesh.
Easily. Mine were half-priced at 40k€ each for pretty standard double beds. A bespoke piece like that would be $500k easily. Probably a lot more. They'd have to make a new jig just for this bed to be able to reach all parts, as they are really made by hand.
But they are extremely comfy, to the point that you never want to sleep in other beds after trying one. Hästens is the best of the best.
I hope those windows are IR and UV-protected, or you'll have a desiccated corpse in a (very expensive) yellowed bed very soon.
You must construct additional pylons
Damn that one took me back
I was about to be outraged but realized it’s Thursday. Carry on. 😓
I want to run through this property with a billowy dress and holding some extravagant flowers
I think you’d be great in a perfume advert
I've seen a doc on this house. It's actually pretty cool. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but I do respect the innovation and construction.
This is the only way I know it's Thursday. I was ready to throw hands, LOL
How many snakes in the rocks in the desert though?
Spiders too, maybe scorpions. House looks cool as hell, but I wonder how they’d handle that.
All the desert SW and California is snake country. This area has few scorpions plenty of black widows but they all leave you alone. Just don’t run into the them.
Imagine all the spiders and scorpions that’ll slip in. But cool home otherwise
My first thought. They must have 6-10 rattlesnakes in there and more waiting to get in.
Have you ever wanted to live within the hollow carapace of a giant, ancient scarab? Look no further.
Kind of reminded me of Morrowind
Feels like the set of a sci-fi or fantasy movie.
Reminds me of a dishonored 2 mission
The Dukes grand palace? First thing I thought was they must have gotten some inspiration from this place for that level design.
Ill take it!
excuse me, that’s a Golgi apparatus lol
That’s so neat. I love that and I’m not usually a modern house style fan.
That driveway is both badass and insane.
Looks a bit like a dragon motif to me.
Yah, I see that too but the corner turn around boulders feels completely unnecessary.
I kinda dig it, but I fear I would slowly morph into a mid tier Bond villain.
Oh Thursday Design Appreciation, you always catch me off guard.
This rules, looks like something out of Star Wars. The bedroom is crazy, imagine waking up with that view and that architecture. The kitchen is so beautiful too.
What kind of mansion do you want?
"Hitman level"
Say no more
When your house has more architecture than actual house
Which Bond villain lives there?
The pool and the bed are sick af though
The answer is yes. I want to live in a spaceship in the desert!
How do you change the sheets on that bed?
[deleted]
You call your sheets guy
If you have to ask you can't afford it.
Anyone who owns this isn't changing their own sheets.
I am not elegant and cool enough to step foot in that house.
Where is the nearest grocery?
With that kind of money it's one call away
This looks like it belongs on Vulcan or something.
I feel like there’d be alot of scorpions
I would love to rent a place like this out but I think it would almost be dissociating to live here, haha.
Wait did they film a movie here?! A really strange, niche, obscure movie about naked aliens and stuff?
Is there a lift included from the garage downhill? Walking up to that door every day would be exhausting.
Cool view from overhead, but living under that roof would be a nightmare. I would totally take that pool though.
How close is the nearest hardware store?
Two miles past the cactus and take a right.
One 6 min heli ride away
It just took the top spot on my 'if I win a billion dollar powerball im buying that' list.
It’s incredibly cool but it doesn’t seem like a place humans would actually live. Like I can’t picture someone eating a bag of chips and watching Netflix with a fuzzy throw blanket in that place.
It looks cool in a photo, but the impracticality of this just stresses me out so much. Everything looks impossible to clean, and so many opportunities for leaks during the sudden thunderstorms the desert gets. The inefficiency of space is just not my cup of tea.
Not my favorite style, but obviously well-designed and executed. Until I got to the last pic, with the pool and the view. Worth the money just for that.
That place was made for hippie flipping
That’s a McLair
You couldn’t pay me enough to own that home but I desperately want to tour it.
I want this enough to do unspeakable things.
This house is the main set for the sci fi movie Divinity that came out in 2023. I can’t say I recommend the movie but it does show off how neat the house is.
More like, how many people want to live in the middle of the no where dessert. The heat, the unbearable sun, the bugs, the sand itself, the sand storms, the isolation of no one to meet or nothing to do. However, if the world were to fall apart this would be the place to be until the looters discover it.
The design language is mostly really cool and consistent... but I gotta admit the blue-and-white gingham on the bed is throwing me. Doesn't seem to fit the rest of the vibe.
NGL…I high key love this!
I am rock hard right now
That is sooooo badass!
but never mind the light pollution.
Seriously though, this is crazy and beautiful.
I was about to question why this was posted in this subreddit, thank god I took a second to actually read
It's giving me vertigo! Very interesting and kind of cool but, vertigo!
How much is rent
Oh Geez. It's the home of the lizard people!
It feels like something Frank Lloyd Wright would design if he lived another 200 years (that's not an insult).
I fuck with this HEAVY.
What I wouldn't give to have a wardrobe full of haute couture here in order to fully live my Bene Gesserit dreams.
What in the world is black and white plaid doing in that house?
This house is like a fever dream. I don’t really mean that in a bad way.
Holy s**t! This house is incredible. Just other worldly.
I somehow just pictured getting driven up that windy driveway to careless whisper lmao
I don’t even know what I’m looking at in half of these pictures and I love it.
I love it. I wouldn’t want to spend my own money on it or even live there. But it has a certain beauty to it.
Are all the utilities buried under the access road? If not, I'd love to know how they did them.
I love it. I feel the frank Lloyd wright influence.
From the outside, absolutely. But that interior layout and textures are beyond fucked. Houses look the way they do inside for a reason, keep it within reason
lol McMansion this is not
This is where I would move if a zombpocalypse goes down.
I may be an introvert, but even I would get lonely there if I didn't have someone with me. Add about three or four beautiful single women without a criminal history, with whom I've also never met before, and we might have a deal.
How does someone get this far and then say, “give me buffalo check for the round bed”
Where else are your giant Space Dogs supposed to sleep if there is not a giant dog bed? I’ve passed on so many otherwise great spaceship houses because of this dealbreaker 😂
All I can think about is how much dust would accrue everywhere...
It looks so cold 🥶🥶🥶
I love everything except the hole pulls in the kitchen cabinets. But it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make to live here. Do they allow plants?
Could be good for a movie set. Like how they used the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Ennis House in Blade Runner.
https://preview.redd.it/kkjj2tj13p6g1.jpeg?width=1320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92f2603b4f05eb121f448df5f8b1f9e1930cdcf9
This is definitely my aesthetic! Just downsize it to 2,000 sq. ft. please!
Jackie Tteehorn’s place in Joshua Tree.
Very unique, designed by an architect, not a mcMansion.
Nah… no desert for me.
Love it - a "bit" out of my price range. Owner will need rattlesnake proof leggings when going outside! :)
I don’t even think I could afford to replace that custom mattress.
Question, how do you change the sheets on a circular bed?
Genuinely scared that one of the furnitures will kill me while I sleep
I dig it.
Damn I’ve always wanted to live in an endoplasmatic reticulum
Cave dwelling 3.0
That roof is massive, to keep the temperature nice and even in the hot days and cold nights of the desert. And the building sits on massive rock, so it's probably nice and cool without any air-conditioning.
Look at all those surfaces that will get dusty...
Its the most Arrakis thing I've seen. I can't wait to up my water discipline game.
How do you drive a pollock crazy? Take um to this house and tell them there’s a penny in the corner.
Frank Lloyd Wright on meth.
The Fremen may take exception to this one.
I respect this very much. But it triggers my phobias of insects and spiders. Looks like a giant trilobite, and one of the tables looks like a centipede. Could easily have been inspiration. very cool, but 😬
I equally love it and hate it and I can't exactly pinpoint why.
I’d live in this house in a heartbeat 😯
This was only on sale for $3M in 2014?!! What a steal.
I wonder where you get round sheets for that bed.
comes with cobwebs, everywhere
Seems like if something happen, no one will come to save you.
Argh, I am imagining all the snakes - probably mostly rattle snakes -that live in the surrounding rocks and can slither right into that house.
There are tours of this house on YouTube. Super cool. Shades of Calatrava.
Gives off strong Bond Villain vibes.
How close is the supermarket?
TIL Hastens makes mattresses that range in price from $7k - $600k. I can’t find the price for that huge round one, but it appears to be over $1M. WTF?? Has anyone tried one of these?
it looks insanely cool but i wonder how practical it is. like - do you have to walk that entire switchback crazy path and then a giant flight of stone stairs to get inside the house? if yes - can you imagine having to carry groceries all that way? and who cleans the million windows? and does it get really hot in that house in the blazing desert? i have questions. but it looks so cool. like you're living in a futuristic sci-fi mansion on some weird planet.
Tell me I can AirBnB it
There is nothing McMansion about this.
A fascinating design exercise, but I see nothing here that says "home".
I don’t thinly this qualifies
Are there any blinds in those rooms? If not, damn that’s awful!
You gotta wake up at the crack of dawn to make your millions
Not like you have immediate neighbors. I imagine a sunrise over Joshua Tree might not be the worst thing to wake up to
You couldn't pay me $6500 to put the sheets on that bed.
I do
Not my aesthetic (though lovely) but I absolutely want that bed.
Very Dune like
I guess I’ll take one for the team and stay there.
I pass by this house all the time. I never thought to look up how it looked up close. Thanks for sharing
An absolute nightmare to dust but, hey, at least it looks cool.
If you can afford the hose, somebody else is doing the dusting.
Idk I kinda love this 🤷🏻♀️
Kinda cool!
It would be great to go to a cocktail party in, but it has too much character to be any one persons' house unless that person was the one that specifically designed it.
Is build a lazy river around it and done!
Great find!
Love the exterior. Hate the interior.
Rose House!
I’ve always wondered what Professor X‘s mansion would look like in the Dune universe.
Absolutely love it
Me. I do.
I love this one too! What a cool house
Must love rocks.
This would be awesome as an AirB&B, but I’m sure the novelty would wear off after a while.
Looks like the house in Divinity.
Straight out of the Stargate movie
Looks like it was built to be in a sci-fi movie. Cool!
Definite Bond-Villain vibes with this one, and I Love It!
Serious vision..I live it
Reminds me of flinstones for some reason
That's a Bond villain's lair.
Of course it would be in Joshua Tree. Those rocks are emblematic of the area, and the culture/ethos there welcomes exactly these sorts of energetic designs
Does a Bond villain live there?
Doesn’t seem like hell to me
I must have the wrong definition of “McMansion”.
Edit - my mistake. Just saw the tag.
Interior reminds me of Markarth
How close to the nearest hospital?
I like the very normal microwave amongst all of the odd shit
Wow! Yes please!
I'd love a place like this
I actually freaking love this
The one thing I remember being a huge turnoff about this property: it's almost entirely indoor-outdoor.
Joshua Tree generally has better weather than the surrounding deserts, and it better if you want to live here.
This is a beautiful building, and it actually fits pretty well with the surrounding rock formations.
That being said, the rock formations were perfect before the house.