Skip to main content

Cool Invisible Houses You’ll Wish You Could Disappear To

Like a secret hatch in nature, invisible houses allow residents to perform a disappearing act with architecture that hides its roof, walls, and doors. Not only that, but these houses are often built with an environmentally sustainable lynchpin, either tapping solar energy, minimizing the structure’s construction footprint, maintaining the pure aesthetic of nature, and even helping to rebuild formerly destroyed land. We rounded up a few of our favorite invisible houses from around the world for your viewing (or lack thereof) pleasure.

Come on in … if you can find the door.

Edgeland House

A protruding knoll of grass in Austin, Texas, holds more than vegetation and a rabbit’s den. Commissioned by a science fiction writer obsessed with 21st century human habitation in urban frontiers and abandoned industrial zones, Edgeland is the site of a previous excavation to remove an old Chevron pipeline. The “scar” left on the bluff becomes the two roofed wings, both converting the earlier disturbance to the land and minimizing further destruction. In fact, the shape of the roof shelters each side from the sun in an attempt to bring wildlife back to the slope. Underground? Well, it’s as modern and clean as you’d expect a reclusive sci-fi writer to abode in.

Casa Invisibile

Available for purchase, this flexible housing unit can be plopped in any designated site. Imagine a massive invisibility cloak on a (giant) modern mobile home. That’s Casa Invisibile. Inside, the open layout is quite big, with three spatial units dotted with domestic woods. This intentional architecture means the modular home can be completely disassembled, minimizing its environmental footprint. Designers at Delugan Meissl Associated Architects say the structure is for those aren’t looking for the “bureaucratic construction of a conventional house.” Count us in.

Invisible Barn

We get the sense that STPMJ designers wanted you to play “I Spy” with their Invisible Barn. See it yet? Hint: Look for the square openings. Invisible Barn is a site-specific design that pushes to “re-contextualizes the landscape of the Sagehen Screek Field Station in Truckee, California, by projecting the landscape on the structural proposition.” The wooden barn structure is sheathed in reflective film with a mirror-finish reflecting back the pastoral grove. Due to its size and placement within the trees, the mirrored outside reflects almost perfectly what people would see without the structure existing. After all, the point was to eliminate the man-made element of design while still allowing for the experience of being in a place. The budget was only $10,000, so it’s doable.

Wishanger Estate Eco Home

Those aren’t crop circles, but the concrete walkways in this “country house of the future,” otherwise hidden in the rich landscape of East Hampshire, England. The family home is a low-energy design inspired by the surrounding lakelands and consists of two segments connected by a bridge that acts as a living roof. Inside, natural light pours into the open plan, with a terrace and pool facing southwest to take advantage of sunlight and solar gain.

The Mirror Houses

Watching the dramatic clouds pass over the South Tyrolean Dolomites in Bolzano, Italy, you won’t have your view impeded by either of the two Mirror Houses, a pair of holiday homes using contemporary architecture to enhance the surroundings of the landscape via mirrored glass windows that act as a huge reflection of the mountains. Rented out by the permanent tenant, these vacation rental units float on a base above the ground, summoning the feeling of lightness, floating over the garden and a panorama of the mountains. The mirrored windows are set with a UV coating (that way birds don’t fly into the illusion wall). We’ve never wanted to stare at a house for so long …

Los Terrenos

Have you ever wanted to live in a greenhouse atrium? Los Terrenos by notorious Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao is your dream come true. This modest casa is located in the residential zone of forested Monterrey. From the outside, it appears as a reflective glass box. Bilbao’s strategy was to design a house that mimicked the existing flora and fauna, letting in the lush surroundings to each room. For instance, the main room overlooks the treetops while the other bedrooms are underground, built with clay to mirror the earthen topography.

Editors' Recommendations

How Far Will $5 Take You? 10 Things You’ll Want Under $5
how far will five dollars take you innout

When day-to-day life is all about the cash in your pocket, sometimes you have to know how to stretch the dollar or five. And when you have just $5, you have to ask, "What can I buy that I actually want?" Sure, you can run to the Dollar Store and pick up a nice bouquet of plastic or some choice never-expiring food. And there is always the late-night fast food run to spend every last cent of that $5 on the value menu.

But still, with $5 to your name, what do you have to have?
Tallboy

Read more
Jason Statham Lives in a Surprisingly Low-Key House and Now It Could Be Yours
jason statham black house for sale 7

There aren’t many Hollywood stars as badass as Jason Statham. The action movie actor has made a name for himself by being tough and kicking bad guys’ butts over a career that has spanned nearly three decades. With the Machiavellian attitude typical of the characters he plays on screen, you would expect his house to be a brooding brutalist man cave with knives and guns hanging on the walls in place of artwork. But the down-to-earth actor actually calls an oceanside, zenful retreat home -- and now it could be yours.

Dubbed Black House, Statham’s home is currently up for sale and asking just under $20 million. It’s been his place to unwind after a day on set since 2009. Decked out in a stylish combo of mid-century modern meets cool California vibes, Black House is surprisingly bright and airy on the inside. It’s the outside that gives the home its name. 

Read more
You’ll Soon Be Able to See a Rare Frank Lloyd Wright Home
kalil house usonian automatic frank lloyd wright currier museum of art 1

There’s been a sharp increase in Frank Lloyd Wright homes coming up for sale recently. Some sell lightning fast while others linger on the market for years before finding the right buyer. Luckily for one rare Wright home, the perfect buyer came along just in time, ensuring it will forever be preserved for all to enjoy.

Hitting the market in October, Kalil House sold in just 13 days. There was plenty of buzz around this home not just because it is a Wright design, but because it is one of the most rare types: a Usonian Automatic. While the famed architect designed many Usonian homes during the latter part of his career, the Usonian Automatic was something a bit different. Only seven of these homes were ever built and Kalil House was one of the last projects Wright personally oversaw before his death in 1959.

Read more