Crazy House

This house in Vietnam is officially called Hang Nga Guesthouse. However all locals refer to this architecture masterpiece as Dalat crazy house. Well, this house is indeed strange because it doesn’t compile to any building conventions. All these unusual turns and twists make Dalat house look like a fairy tale castle. By the way, tourists enjoy visiting this misshapen concrete structure with unexpected things like spider webs, animal figures and mysterious creatures inside. It looks like a fairy tale castle, it has enormous “animals” like a giraffe and a spider, no window is rectangular or round, and it can be visited like a museum.

Crazy House rises about five storey above its suburban neighbors, rattling and squirming its entrails and bones into the skyline, great sweeps of black and yellow concrete, bizarrely shaped glass openings, beautifully peach-colored walkways that are a cross between a tunnel and cave, and sculptured rooftops that appear menacing. Between this cacophony of free form is a noisy collection of animals in wire cages – doves, hens, guinea fowl and colorful singing birds – and with them is a group of tropical trees with works of art suspended on them.   Unique architectural design As the intention of the architect is to make a fairy tale house, the “crazy house” resembles a tree with uneven windows, tunnel-shaped stairways, etc.  Both the exterior and the interior of the guesthouse are created and decorated with twisting organic forms and very few right angles.

The hollow “tree” extends in many directions, rising above to reach to the sky of the amazing Dalat. Walking along the cave-shape hallways inside the house is not simply a visit but an exhilarating experience, a departure from the norm; wild mushrooms and spider webs popping up on your way is not unusual.  Besides, the guesthouse is really a spectacular construction with ten themed guest rooms such as the tiger room, the eagle room, the ant room and the kangaroo room…, with decorations and handcrafted furniture matching the theme. According to Viet Nga, each room has its own meaning: the tiger room refers to the Chinese; the eagle room describes the American; and the ant room represents the Vietnamese, etc. Even though it is theoretically a hotel, Hang Nga Guesthouse is today regarded as a “museum” of dream, childhood, abnormality, etc. Everyone has their own interpretation of the house, as well as their own experience but all of them agree on one thing: the guesthouse is so pure and natural that they were once again lost in their childhood dream.