NASA-inspired Bubble House goes on the market
“In what may well be one of the weirdest homes you’ll ever find in Australia, architect owner Graham Birchall took almost a decade to complete the construction – a true labour of love that’s part NASA space base and part-Queensland engineering genius,” writes RealEstate.com.au of the one-of-a-kind property in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.
Having gone on sale for the first time, interest in the incredibly fascinating Bubble House has been pouring in from all corners of the globe.
"Sometimes people don't believe it when I tell them where I live," Mr Birchall told the ABC. "There are 11 domes in all ranging from four metres in diameter to eight metres in diameter, it has 16 rooms over three levels so it's rather large.
"It's got two libraries, a movie theatre, and circular windows that open and close with an iris.
"I love it because it is so spacious. You don't even notice the ceiling and the spaces just flow on from one to the other."
The Ipswich architect built the astonishing property in Karalee, west of Brisbane, in the 1980s after an idea he had during his final university thesis. "It took 10 years to build,” he said. “We built on weekends from Father's Day 1983 to Father's Day 1993.
"There were a lot of challenges – we had to invent a lot of tools like a curved ladder to build it.
"It was a lot of fun to do.
"Half of it is the Flintstones and the other half looks more like the Jetsons."
After contacting NASA for some design tips, Mr Birchall was pleased to actually hear back from them.
"I knew they had something like it on their mars rover and they sent the drawings to me, I was surprised they answered the phone call," he said.
Mr Birchall said the decision to put the quirky property up for sale after decades of living and working there was a tough one – but he was excited to be moving closer to his grandchildren.
IMAGES: RealEstate.com.au