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Stupid Headline: The House With Balls

By Just Stupid on Aug 24, 2010 in Stupid Signs

Dezeen Design Magazine is not a stupid website. In fact, they feature some really cool design stuff that is a pleasure to look at. So why did they have to come up with such a stupid title for their recent blog post about a gorgeous home that was built in India?

The title of their post was:

The House With Balls by Matharoo Associates

This title is just crass. Technically it does tell you about one key feature of the home – round concrete balls that are an intricate part of the final design of the space. However it reduces this really cool design feature to a bad headline joke.

So what are these balls of which the headline speaks? They are concrete balls that are linked to the shutters of the home. The home’s main room is lined with shutters. On one side, the shutters open on to huge tanks for breeding fish. When the shutters are opened, these concrete balls dip into the tanks so that you can’t see them. When the shutters are closed, these balls move around lightly in the breeze. The visual effect is very intriguing especially when some of the shutters are open and some are left closed.

There are also many other cool things about this house. For example, each window has a concrete frame built around it that serves as a window seat, a counter bar, a weather-protection device, a deterrent to snakes and rats and a set of steps to the garden area. Even if the house didn’t have these detailed features, it is a neat space just in the fact that it serves as both a summer retreat and a huge aquarium with an observation area.

It is unfortunate that the intricate details of such a cool building are reduced to a bad joke with the headline of this post. In fairness, it’s not really Dezeen’s fault since “House with Balls” is the actual name that the project developers gave to this project.

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