14 DAY TRIAL // Octavio Mendoza, a 64-year-old architect from Colombia, has created a beautiful and inspiring house made out entirely from clay. He literally cooked up the house he currently lives in and calls it “the biggest piece of pottery in the world.”
The 5,400 square feet (502 square meters) house has been called Casa Terracota and is located in Villa de Leyva, a small mountain village 95 miles (152 km) north of Bogota. Due to the material used to build it and to its form, the unusual construction has been dubbed by locals the “Flintstone House.”
Mendoza, an artist and environmental activist who spent most of his career designing homes, commercial buildings and churches, put a lot of time and effort into this project. He spent no less than 14 years working on the clay house.
“This is a project for life,” he said. “My life is my work.”
He didn’t use any type of conventional building materials, like cement or steel, in the construction in a bid to show that soil can be transformed into durable and habitable architecture simply using the natural resources that are readily available.
The house was built exclusively by hand using clay baked in the sun. This basically made the structure resistant to damages, impervious to water, and comfortably cool during hot days.
“Think of it this way. In desert places (which exist all across the planet), soil is perfect for this type of architecture. This means that for all those regions, a system like this could bring housing to millions of families,” he said, according to Oddity Central.
When it comes to the design, the shape of the home is fluid, loosely fashioned to resemble a cottage. Where needed, the clay is embedded with mosaic tiles and round windows. Inside, the rooms flow into each other as if the house was sculpted into a single brick.
Although it may seem rather rustic, Casa Terracota does offer modern conveniences, as it includes a fully equipped kitchen, two floors with lounge and sleeping areas, while solar panels provide hot water for showers. The furniture inside the house is also made from clay, while the lighting fixtures were made using scrap metal. Some beer mugs made of recycled glass can also be seen in the kitchen, but all the utensils are obviously fashioned out of clay.
Interested tourists can visit the house for only $3.50 (€2.53).