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Spherical houses weren't a great idea.

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  • Опубліковано 24 вер 2023
  • The Bolwoningen, in Den Bosch, in the Netherlands, are experimental architecture: the surprising part is that people still live there.
    Local producer: Jasper Deelen
    Camera: Jeroen Simons
    Thanks to @NotJustBikes for the Rotterdam cube house footage
    A lot of my history research from video is based on 2019 book "Experimentele Woningbouw in Nederland 1968-1980: 64 Gerealiseerde Woonbeloften", by Barzilay, Ferwerda and Blom: experimentelewoningbouw.nl/
    🟥 MORE FROM TOM: www.tomscott.com/
    (you can find contact details and social links there too)
    📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
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    👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: / techdif

КОМЕНТАРІ • 4,1 тис.

  • Tom Scott
    Tom Scott  2 місяці тому +16070

    Thanks to Jeroen for letting us film inside his home: and please remember, if you're ever nearby, that these are homes and not a tourist attraction!

    • H0shidont
      H0shidont 2 місяці тому +227

      O R B House

    • Dolph
      Dolph 2 місяці тому +110

      O R B House

    • Cuzwhynot
      Cuzwhynot 2 місяці тому +90

      O R B House

    • IceBot
      IceBot 2 місяці тому +83

      O R B House

    • Agent 042
      Agent 042 2 місяці тому +354

      ALL PRAISE THE O R B HOUSE! (respectfully and from a distance)

  • hebneh
    hebneh Місяць тому +1538

    Now that I’m older I see that stairs are increasingly problematic. Having to go up and down multiple odd-shaped stairs to go from room to room would be a problem.

    • Pork Cutlet
      Pork Cutlet Місяць тому +74

      Nah, the stairs ensure you're getting a minimal amount of workout. A large majority of the elderly are getting far too little exercise to stay healthy.

    • Amoureux
      Amoureux Місяць тому +216

      ​@Pork Cutletodd-shaped stairs present a balance problem, it's very easy for elderly people to fall and rather dangerous when they do

    • soriba
      soriba Місяць тому +22

      @Amoureux cause they don't work out enough (just joking)

    • Anni
      Anni Місяць тому +7

      Those stairs are all houses in the entire netherlands. It's 1 floor apartments that not have them

    • Skippity-bap!
      Skippity-bap! Місяць тому +25

      @Pork Cutlet I tried the strengthening my legs walking, climbing. Doesn't work with every old person.

  • Hatsuharu Sohma
    Hatsuharu Sohma Місяць тому +838

    Several cultures used to have round houses, but they have a fatal flaw. If you need to expand the house for some reason, it too much of a hassle with round shapes... while with a square house it is simple to build another square besides it and put a door between the two...

    • Dragonball Z Time
      Dragonball Z Time Місяць тому +22

      You could connect one house to another with a round tunnel bridge and then you wouldn't need a door, but it already looks quite tight for expansion.

    • Sakabula
      Sakabula Місяць тому +4

      ​@Dragonball Z Timemaybe if you have the space

    • Lord Bob
      Lord Bob Місяць тому +4

      European logic vs african logic.

    • Liam Collins
      Liam Collins Місяць тому +20

      @XmrcaptainbobX African logic is having the largest non-natural structure on the continent being a termite mound until colonisation

    • Sakabula
      Sakabula Місяць тому +67

      @Liam Collins ever heard of the pyramids

  • PardonMe ImDrunk
    PardonMe ImDrunk Місяць тому +696

    I always thought round houses would be good, but I envisioned them to look and be built like the ones you see in Dragon Ball. Half sphere in the ground, not a ball in a stand.

    • Robert Mercer
      Robert Mercer Місяць тому +27

      lmao me too, but apparently there is houses like that irl, just rarer I guess :/

    • Romiman
      Romiman Місяць тому +51

      Dome-house. In Japan, they also have created these. I like that special feeling in a round room and not happy about living in boxes since decades now.

    • Andre Artus
      Andre Artus Місяць тому +19

      You can find IRL examples by looking for Dymaxion houses or geodesic dome houses. There is almost always some issues with laying out and furnishing the interior.

    • mindstalk
      mindstalk Місяць тому +16

      I think the more common 'round house' is a cylinder section. Walls straight up and down, but following a circle on the ground rather than a rectangle. Sut seen in the remains of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNB went to rectangles). Crannogs, rondavels, Atlantic roundhouses, pallozas, African round huts. Typically with a conical roof.
      Plus tents like teepees or yurts.

    • Gaelle
      Gaelle Місяць тому +7

      @Andre Artus Actually one of the ways to handle the space is to put up a wall across about a third in and put wardrobe behind that and bed in front and same thing for a living room with a kitchen behind a bar kitchen that acts as a room divider.

  • Mrapplespiceman
    Mrapplespiceman Місяць тому +735

    i think part of the claustrophobia in these is how acutely aware of your confines the rounded walls could make you. if you live in a small, square house like everyone else, its a little easier to trick yourself into believing your space isnt as small as it is. but once you see a rounded wall, you know exactly where the limits of your space are. also, having a rounded wall intrude into your air space where a straight wall wouldnt is definitely a factor

    • Roland
      Roland Місяць тому +35

      It is also a lot harder to put in a big window. Not impossible but very expensive, even more back than.
      So you just have few of these round windows, they don't give you the amount of light that you need to make it feel spacious.

    • Cory Myers
      Cory Myers Місяць тому +24

      @Roland If you look at the rooms again...they are tiny. No amount of window or light is going to change how tiny that is. The bedrooms are also in the bottom half of the ball. So there is less floor space but more space by your head, which means less storage and less room to move, that ultimately also hurts a feeling of space.
      The only shape humans have adjusted well too other than a square box, is a triangle one as we just use the low roofed areas for beds and storage where someone wouldn't need to stand anyway. Pyramids also are easily lived in. Hex domes can work but they are almost always waterproofing nightmares. Smooth domes ARE complete nightmares for waterproofing.

    • Roland
      Roland Місяць тому +3

      @Cory Myers Yes I'm not denying any of that. I just mean that the small round windows are making it even worse.

    • Eh_I
      Eh_I Місяць тому +2

      @Cory Myers Pyramids sound like an excellent idea! Very stable structure and easily lit with one overhead light. Storage around in the inside perimeter and instead of siding; shingles.

    • Florida man
      Florida man Місяць тому +6

      @Eh_I pyramids are also small on the inside, tent-like beach house are nice thou, A frame two flat walls

  • Peter Anon
    Peter Anon Місяць тому +195

    I love the concept of building these to see if we were, in fact, simply all missing out.

    • I. Ivanovich
      I. Ivanovich Місяць тому +2

      It's close to living a round house like a windmill

    • Benjamin Lewis
      Benjamin Lewis Місяць тому +2

      ​@I. Ivanovich
      I'm sure he means arranging furniture

  • Ciara Turner
    Ciara Turner 2 місяці тому +5550

    The architects dream is the engineers nightmare, but once in a while the artists win

    • Voltaic Fire
      Voltaic Fire 2 місяці тому +134

      Making them as two half spheres out of liquid materials then joining them together actually seems quite efficient though that is from a modern perspective, it would have been a lot harder in the 1980s, especially from a small temporary factory. I reckon we could do them well and cheap today and I would like to see someone make the attempt.

    • Andrew Gorrie
      Andrew Gorrie 2 місяці тому +29

      ​@Voltaic Fire at 1:04 he states they were the last houses to get the subsidy in 1984 so the tech won't have been too outdated

    • Byle
      Byle 2 місяці тому +4

      Finally a house made for mums

    • moonlite x
      moonlite x 2 місяці тому +10

      this scenario became true in helsinki, "kiasma"
      became 3 times as expensive after they built it. just to fix all the flaws.

    • bertjesklotepino
      bertjesklotepino 2 місяці тому +63

      my nephew lives in one.
      Believe me, you do not want to live in one.
      a waste of space.
      You have to take into account that the walls are not flat, square. So if you put a couch against the wall, you loose a lot of space. And you aint got much.
      These ridiculous contraptions thought up by a lunatic are a waste of space.
      You may not change the exterior much, so drilling more holes to get more ventilation. Forget about it.
      These are like the LEM on the moon's surface.
      If they are blasted by the sun, just imagine....

  • Ezra Kirkpatrick
    Ezra Kirkpatrick Місяць тому +241

    The neat thing is that spheres have the largest volume to surface area ratio possible of any shape, so I’m not surprised at how warm it is inside.

    • mechwarreir2
      mechwarreir2 Місяць тому +7

      That would imply it would be colder. Q = hA(T-T0) where h is convection coefficient, T-T0 is temperature difference, A is area, and Q is heat. As area goes down, Q goes down.

    • green orange
      green orange Місяць тому +23

      @mechwarreir2 You have misunderstood the formula. The Q there would be heat flow out of the object (the house in this case), not the temperature inside the house. So Q denotes the rate of thermal energy lost to the environment. As A goes down, Q goes down, which means it's easier to keep the house at a higher temperature than some other house with a higher surface area.

    • Jacques Gauthier
      Jacques Gauthier Місяць тому

      @green orange if the house is underground then it has more insulation around it so it would be easier to keep warm than one above ground that has a smaller surface area. The material it is made of is important too, a sphere made of steel won't be as warm as a well insulated wooden house with foam insulation.

  • Guile Smart
    Guile Smart Місяць тому +468

    Hi Tom, in Curitiba - Brazil there's a rotating building. Ten floors. Each floor rotates individually. But the building was never inhabited. It's an interesting story worth exploring

    • stardustandstripes
      stardustandstripes Місяць тому +8

      Como chama esse prédio?

    • Guile Smart
      Guile Smart Місяць тому +23

      @stardustandstripes Edifício Suíte Vollard

    • Jacob Garland
      Jacob Garland Місяць тому +18

      What an fascinating folly. I would be interested to see a video on said tower.

    • Борис Васильев
      Борис Васильев Місяць тому +24

      How does plumbing work with this design? I cant imagine pressurised pipes or sewage collector rotating with the floors.

  • Cam
    Cam Місяць тому +60

    I love how Tom's videos are so short and to the point. Lays out an interesting topic in only 4 or 5 minutes. No huge 30 minute long mini-documentary.

  • westzed
    westzed Місяць тому +81

    With experimental architecture for homes, schools, and churches in my area, they all seem to have problems with roofs and windows. A school that was built by an inovative architect had to have the roof replaced with a more standard flat roof. This was after a couple of decades of patching the problems. The architect was very upset, but a school needs to be functional without costing so much money from institution funds.

    • Jacques Tuber
      Jacques Tuber Місяць тому +14

      That's because the old ways of the good ways, experimentation is nice but there's a reason why over the course of Ten Thousand Years the same designs keep popping up in every culture

    • Pazza
      Pazza 21 день тому +1

      This is true for museums, government buildings, concert halls and most anything else experimental. Frank Lloyd Wright's homes have problems. Frank Gehry's buildings have practical problems too, like a building in Los Angeles that reflected the sun into a neighboring building, making that building awful to be in.

  • Richard Bloemenkamp
    Richard Bloemenkamp Місяць тому +29

    I'm happy that this experiment took place. I think, that some people are really happy to live in such a non-conventional house. Also I think if you could rent such a house for a vacation, then there would be quite a few people interested.

    • Merijn
      Merijn Місяць тому +9

      Which is exactly why I'm happy that they're still inhabited by our locals. Too many interesting sites have been turned into AirBnB's

  • Haggislord52
    Haggislord52 2 місяці тому +14123

    Imagine Tom Scott just randomly showing up at your house and he starts explaining it

    • Douglas
      Douglas 2 місяці тому +899

      That would make for a fun comedy skit. A family living in a unique home who constantly bothered by UAclipsrs and documentarians in their yard filming. Tom Scott getting chased out of there with a garden hose.

    • Perry Pereyra
      Perry Pereyra 2 місяці тому +44

      LMFAOOO

    • Vitor de Lima
      Vitor de Lima 2 місяці тому +270

      @Douglas"Go be a UAclipsr somewhere else" - the house owner screamed.

    • MoreRobotWarsContent
      MoreRobotWarsContent 2 місяці тому +127

      ​@Douglasgo watch unfinished London with Jay Forman. He does the Tom Scott thing but he puts in jokes like that

    • OG_ ROWIE_1
      OG_ ROWIE_1 2 місяці тому +5

      😂

  • Reaperman4711
    Reaperman4711 Місяць тому +32

    Space on the ground floor is uniquely valuable compared to upper floors, but these sit on tiny stands like gumball machines. They went through a lot of design effort just to steal that ordinarily free space from the residents for style points.

  • Gerjan
    Gerjan Місяць тому +13

    Seeing as I regularly drive or bike by these houses to visit friends that live nearby it's so weird seeing Tom Scott walking through these neighbourhoods

  • Vine Cat
    Vine Cat Місяць тому +7

    I freaking love seeing a video about these houses. I actually live just down the street and tried applying to love in one of them myself!

  • Charlie Fox
    Charlie Fox Місяць тому +18

    Interesting. I used to like small multistory homes but after a knee issue I became a believer in single story living. I can definitely see this idea, with all the trees grown in, being more one with the surroundings.

    • Raichu
      Raichu Місяць тому +2

      No stairs to fall down either...

    • Bob
      Bob Місяць тому +1

      Stairs are the worst, even if you don’t have bad knees

    • Rebecca Hicks
      Rebecca Hicks Місяць тому +3

      A small traditional shaped house can be surrounded by as many trees.

    • Charlie Fox
      Charlie Fox Місяць тому

      @Rebecca Hicks Agree, but these seem more grounded in their environment than a box, IMO.

  • Xiamara Spyker
    Xiamara Spyker Місяць тому +2

    Thanks for making this! I super regret not going there to see these houses while I was there. Thanks, Jeroen, for letting us see the interior.

  • Madjenta
    Madjenta 2 місяці тому +4996

    Love that you included the local term "bolbewoner". Fun fact: this term is a pun on the word "holbewoner" which is dutch for caveman.

    • Ael Olul
      Ael Olul 2 місяці тому +1258

      Might possibly work in English as "concaveman"

    • Dante
      Dante 2 місяці тому +160

      ​@Ael Olulahhhhh that's such a good word!

    • jlammetje
      jlammetje 2 місяці тому +156

      @Ael Olulnice, hahahaha. That certainly captures the Dutch word play!

    • muurrarium
      muurrarium 2 місяці тому +51

      @Ael Olul Genius!

    • Madjenta
      Madjenta 2 місяці тому +25

      @Ael Olul lmao that's exactly what I was thinking.

  • Joey
    Joey Місяць тому +26

    Now this is why I'm sad that Tom is leaving because who else is gonna make videos like this for us 😭

    • Mazsy
      Mazsy Місяць тому +5

      He's what

  • PTONPC
    PTONPC Місяць тому +11

    At least they tried to make houses that were different, just on the basis of 'Lets see if it works'. Thank you Jeroen for showing us inside.

  • You're worth your weight in avocados
    You're worth your weight in avocados 29 днів тому +4

    I don't have a round house but i have a semi-cylindrical bedroom and while it's harder to furnish, I still love it. There's something about the softening effect the shape gives to the space that makes it feel cosy

  • Corrupted Archangel
    Corrupted Archangel Місяць тому +8

    In southwest Florida they actually built these on the water. They were condos affectionately referred to as the “Dome homes” eventually they were abandoned due to the cost their novelty couldn’t support. I haven’t visited them in a few years but I heard the last standing ones they were finally sunken by the last big hurricane to hit the collier county area. I wonder if the projects were connected at all.

  • Ryan Aun
    Ryan Aun Місяць тому

    I love how you can always be relied upon to find the most neat quirky buildings and cherm your way inside them to share what you've found! I have tremendous respect for how aware you are of the potential impact that you featuring a location in your platform could have, and how you always tell us to be respectful and not to go gawk tastelessly.
    And finally I really appreciate the effort in the captions, not just that they're there and they're correct, but that you also made sure the Dutch names and especially the Dutch sentence were all transcribed and done so with the Dutch spelling intact. It makes it a lot easier for someone like me with a little Dutch from years ago to engage and see how much I can still parse!
    Love your work mate!

  • JoDoFe
    JoDoFe 2 місяці тому +3037

    This gives a whole new meaning to the term 'housing bubble'.

    • Charlie Fox
      Charlie Fox Місяць тому +2

      Very very true. Now we just need new ones built in Phoenix AZ or Florida during future bubble… but we will not keep them in good condition for decades after a bubble. (I always remember driving past a roof failed into a home in West Phoenix in about 2010 in a community finished in about 2009)

    • Troy Allen
      Troy Allen Місяць тому +2

      🤣🥳🥳🥳🥳💥💥💥🎯🤟📢📢📢

    • Friedrich Junzt
      Friedrich Junzt Місяць тому +2

      Haha 🍾

    • Tamas
      Tamas Місяць тому +7

      There's no popping this one

    • Kevin Evans
      Kevin Evans Місяць тому +1

      😂🎈

  • Dawn KindnessCountsMost
    Dawn KindnessCountsMost Місяць тому +1

    An aunt & uncle began construction on their mainly geodesic dome house in the mid-to-late 1980s; the attached garage that was a "regular" square 2-car garage, led to people comparing the house to an ice cream cone (the kind with a flat bottom) laying on its side. It's quite spacious inside, with an interesting layout, and cool storage nooks throughout.

  • jjjakey
    jjjakey Місяць тому +8

    Really would have liked to see more footage of the inside of these

  • JTD472
    JTD472 Місяць тому +12

    “Even if you measure, it’s no guarantee things fit”
    I’m going to use this regularly in life now. Thanks, guy

  • Sir Valdinjo
    Sir Valdinjo Місяць тому +1

    Thanks for that video Tom! I study architecture and find such information naturally intriguing - one thought was that there are definitely some advantages as well, especially since the average living space (at least that's how it's been developing in Vienna/Austria) per capita has been increasing for decades whilst we have a problem with ground sealing. The average living space per capita in these homes is surely rather small - although the fact that they're all detached houses kinda undoes this upside. They're definitely interesting buildings tho!

  • • Opinionated Capybara Citizen 🌌🌟 • 17 yrs ago •

    I absolutely love buckyballs and geodesic domes as a house shape. Had one that made use of three geodesic domes actually in my old neighborhood. It was a cool house and looks great. About 2100 sqft when all said and done.

  • Guy Torie
    Guy Torie 2 місяці тому +1512

    It's charming how one would expect the lasting appeal of these homes to be all about their uniqueness, but in truth some of the appeal comes down to very mundane reasons such as "it's near the shops" and "the community is nice."

    • Pyerack
      Pyerack Місяць тому +67

      It's the simple things in life.

    • CavLo
      CavLo Місяць тому +20

      what is mundane about being near shops and being in a nice community?

    • Dutch Man
      Dutch Man Місяць тому +18

      They are so small that only singles and 'recently living together and looking for something else' are living there. You will not find that in a normal neighborhood. So it's a little bit like student housing. You meet and greet in the outdoor area, because they have no balcony nor garden.
      And yes, they are next to a bus stop, an excellent bicycle route to the center, and all daily shops are just a three minute walk away.
      They are social housing, sophisticated macro-biotical culture can be found in other projects. No handmade furniture that adapts to the uniqueness of the shape, but second hand Ikea.

    • Guy Torie
      Guy Torie Місяць тому +51

      @CavLo I just looked it up, and I remember now that there is more than one definition for "mundane." I meant it as in "commonplace" and not as in "boring." I tend to enjoy mundane things, so I often forget about the negative definition.

    • Laerin
      Laerin Місяць тому +16

      @CavLo Because being near shops and having a nice community has nothing to do with the design of the home itself.

  • FyrexNL
    FyrexNL Місяць тому +1

    Been a very very long time since I've been in one of those houses due to, at the time, a friend of mine living in one of them. Kinda nostalgic seeing it again.

  • drCox12
    drCox12 27 днів тому +64

    I always admired the Dutch for their eagerness to experiment with architecture, city planning and organizing traffic. They came up with some very interesting, innovative and well performing solutions. In these regards the Netherlands are a role model. Although there are also some quirky things like spherical houses: If you don't give unconventional ideas a chance then you'll never make progress.

  • Kim van Teeffelen
    Kim van Teeffelen 5 днів тому

    I grew up in this neighborhood and it's so great to see these houses getting international attention. Also, Jeroen is right: It is a great and friendly neighborhood with everything nearby. It was truly a blast to grow up here as a child.

    • SNOOPY_19881
      SNOOPY_19881 3 дні тому

      aan media aandacht geen gebrek kim 😆 gemiddeld 2-5x per jaar. en dan heb ik de toeristen niet meegerekend die met bussen tegelijk komen aanwaaie haha

  • Marty Moose
    Marty Moose Місяць тому

    I recall in the 90's a new kind of Round houses became very popular in the US. They were really more of Octogonal houses that had all open floor space inside made them feel bigger than they actually were. My Aunt bought one and as a teenager I thought it was the coolest design. They also had some major design issues and they stopped building them altogether after just a couple years.

  • A Dance In Yellow
    A Dance In Yellow Місяць тому +2

    This is very interesting to me. In my hometown (well, village really) of Jockgrim, Germany, there is also a spherical house (Kugelhaus) next to the communal administration buildings. Unused and very small though, I guess it was a kind of prototype for a tiny house. It has a plaque with more info on it.

  • Stuart Duncan
    Stuart Duncan 2 місяці тому +2292

    Imagine how hard it is trying to put furniture in a spherical house

    • robert hamilton
      robert hamilton Місяць тому +48

      I guess you need a bunch of squares

    • DistracticusPrime
      DistracticusPrime Місяць тому +137

      I imagine that's the primary issue, perhaps only second to having four levels and such a large fraction of space spent on stairs. Having briefly visited the 60s and 70s, I remember seeing "natural" soft-side things like bean bag chairs and macrame; maybe the designer assumed these things. "Squares are for squares, man!" One more layer of culture shock.

    • Hans
      Hans Місяць тому +105

      try raising a kid, no corner to place them in when they were naughty

    • Chaotic Good Barbarian
      Chaotic Good Barbarian Місяць тому +35

      In a society that lives in boxes this is a pain in the ass indeed. As someone who doesn't need much furniture having a few custom pieces of furniture wouldn't be too bad

  • MurderChickenXL
    MurderChickenXL Місяць тому +9

    My dad and I always wanted to live in a geodesic dome. I've seen some gorgeous ones.

  • mpetersen6
    mpetersen6 Місяць тому +2

    One thing that always struck me about the domed homes especially if they a single floor is the sheer amount of wasted space. Not that rooms with 90° corners can't have wasted space. Let alone Mcmansions.

  • Dawn KindnessCountsMost
    Dawn KindnessCountsMost Місяць тому

    An aunt & uncle began construction on their mainly geodesic dome house in the mid-to-late 1980s; the attached garage that was a "regular" square 2-car garage, led to people comparing the house to an ice cream cone (the kind with a flat bottom) laying on its side.

  • NICKO
    NICKO Місяць тому +3

    There should be a TomTom Scott navigation app that not only gives perfectly precise directions but the occasional interesting fact about a city or landmark you go by on your journey (hopefully never repeating).

  • T I M
    T I M 27 днів тому +1

    I would never imagine to see my own house and village in a drone shot in a Tom Scott video!

  • Voltaic Fire
    Voltaic Fire 2 місяці тому +5642

    The designers certainly had balls to put them forward as a design.
    _Edit: I am very pleased with the puns and jokes I've inspired here, complete with pun-ctuation._

    • Japie06
      Japie06 2 місяці тому +336

      The engineers must have found a few rounding errors, but once it started rolling there was no stopping it

    • Пётр Бойков
      Пётр Бойков 2 місяці тому +219

      Nah, his creative process was just going in circles.

    • Woland
      Woland 2 місяці тому +147

      Considering the drawbacks of living in these houses, the designers didn't quite manage to square the circle.

    • Koloss
      Koloss 2 місяці тому +21

      Get out 😀

    • Alex .G
      Alex .G 2 місяці тому +9

      I guess you could say circle, circle, circle, sphere, sphere, sphere, ⭕️ 😉

  • CoIdHeat
    CoIdHeat Місяць тому +3

    It’s like living in some Studio Ghibli movie - especially if the living quarters would use a bit more of wood to spread a feeling of warmth. These homes are not economical or luxurious but they sure provide a sense of individualism and community all at once to those who live there, contrary to much more efficient residential complexes. Especially regarding the prefabricated ones from the other side of the iron curtain which attempted to solve the same housing-of-the-future problem at the same age but rather made people feel robbed of their individuality and more part of a hive and not so much a community, as neighbors are often more of a nuisance when you’re living so close to each other.
    It’s apparent that this still isn’t how most people would want to live - but for a college student this could be a dream.

  • Peter
    Peter Місяць тому

    I remember when these were being built and shortly afterwards, they were heralded as revolutionary designed homes of the future.
    Very interesting.

  • Mika Rose
    Mika Rose Місяць тому +1

    Very interesting! Never knew these types of houses existed and are still lived in.

  • Mask Hysteria
    Mask Hysteria Місяць тому

    I like in the U.S. Southwest and there are a number of geodesic spherical homes in my area. I have yet to meet any of my neighbors that live in one but would like to hear their experiences.

  • Liam
    Liam Місяць тому +1

    Would love to have seen a few more of the homes and how people deal with the living space.

  • Boneless Watermelon
    Boneless Watermelon 2 місяці тому +3057

    These are houses from a future. Not THE future, just A future.

    • Obsidian Jane
      Obsidian Jane 2 місяці тому +121

      A past future.

    • randomviewer
      randomviewer 2 місяці тому +59

      I see what you did there

    • James VanLandingham
      James VanLandingham 2 місяці тому +54

      Retrofuturism.

    • Schulhausgarten
      Schulhausgarten 2 місяці тому +54

      @Obsidian Jane The tomorrow that never was.

    • Obsidian Jane
      Obsidian Jane 2 місяці тому +10

      @James VanLandingham Its kind of funny (sad) how we see it like that now, but at the time, it was just considered novel and innovative.

  • Serafin Magic
    Serafin Magic Місяць тому +5

    This shape would be great in tornado alley, or hurricane zones. Round structures can withstand crazy high winds.

  • Testing being a pyro
    Testing being a pyro Місяць тому +49

    My neighbor decided to build a round house. They did, and it is a neat house.
    But it is TERRIBLY hard to use inside!

    • Pinga Pete
      Pinga Pete Місяць тому +2

      Whats hard to use inside?

    • Hayden Jones
      Hayden Jones Місяць тому +10

      @Pinga Pete I can see it. Furniture would always be away from the walls. Space would forever be lost to curve. They also mentioned the leaky windows. I noticed that instantly, being a travel trailer owner. And those stairs... Think of trying to get a couch up them. There is a reason why a living room is immediately at the entrance.

    • Code Tech
      Code Tech 27 днів тому

      @Hayden Jones That depends on how big it is. If it was for example 50 feet (15 meters) in diameter, you would not notice the curved walls.

    • Will3K
      Will3K 27 днів тому

      @Pinga Pete Probably anything that is supposed to sit against the walls.

    • Will3K
      Will3K 27 днів тому +1

      @Hayden Jones God help you if you had a toilet on anything but the house's equator.

  • uPenguin
    uPenguin Місяць тому

    My mum is from den Bosch and I have visited many times and had absolutely no idea these exist! Always trust Tom to find these quirky spots 😂

  • Ty Snow
    Ty Snow Місяць тому

    I feel like the structure as a whole would have benefited from extention above the roof the direct the run off like a conventional house but also to provide shade. As for the houses themselves I wounder if you could implement a moss or ivy you provide a cooling effect on the exterior of the house.

  • A person Like any other
    A person Like any other Місяць тому +4

    I would love to live in a spherical house. Curves are much nicer than straight lines. These are so awesome looking.

    • Alex Perotti
      Alex Perotti Місяць тому +2

      until you have to buy forniture...

  • TheNewNicCage
    TheNewNicCage 2 місяці тому +2231

    One wonders if the sense of neighbourliness that's mentioned is partly fostered by the fact the houses are so weirdly difficult to live in: if you've just moved into a spherical neighbourhood, you probably have a bunch of issues and questions and even in the age of instant online searches, your neighbours are still going to be the only real place you can get answers.

    • Longtoothsaber
      Longtoothsaber 2 місяці тому +317

      It's as if you suddenly developed a very niche interest that's also dominating your everyday life.

    • asdf1234
      asdf1234 2 місяці тому +181

      Shared adversity fosters friendships.

    • Jim Crelm
      Jim Crelm 2 місяці тому +116

      Almost as if humans evolved to live in small groups all facing the same adversities.

    • Jim
      Jim 2 місяці тому +84

      It looked like the kind of walkable space that would foster community.

    • LD Cent
      LD Cent 2 місяці тому +90

      @Jim Crelm Sphere houses this street, cube houses the next street, pyramid houses the next street, then repeat. World Peace Achieved1!!

  • Bolo
    Bolo Місяць тому

    Those sphere homes look awesome. I'm going to have to look into them further, for sure

  • Karim
    Karim Місяць тому

    I think with the footprint it takes and the size of it, it really does save alot of space and also creates a sense of community with walking paths and such.

    • Charlie Dillon
      Charlie Dillon Місяць тому +1

      Yes, but you give up a lot of useable space on the inside, where you live. Ever seen spherical containers on a cargo ship? Makes no sense, whatsoever.

  • Johnny Georgopoulos
    Johnny Georgopoulos Місяць тому

    I dig them, I've always loved interesting shaped homes.... Yurts, cave houses, stuff like that.... I'd definitely take one 😅

  • Nutt Bustington
    Nutt Bustington Місяць тому

    It would probably be cool to stay in one of these for vacation or something but I couldn’t imagine living in one all the time

  • StuntDummy
    StuntDummy Місяць тому +2

    Id love to live in one of those cube houses.

  • LPM Supporter
    LPM Supporter 2 місяці тому +2597

    My parent's house has a rounded staircase, resulting in the surronding rooms having one rounded wall. I can only image how difficult it is to find fitting furniture with spherical walls

    • SergioEduP
      SergioEduP 2 місяці тому +129

      Nothing off the shelf will fit nicely in those rooms, you would either have to make it yourself or hire someone to make it for you.

    • Douglas Danke
      Douglas Danke 2 місяці тому +112

      Beanbag Chairs mostly.

    • Pointless username
      Pointless username 2 місяці тому +68

      One of the reasons the sphere houses don’t work is that you still have to use furniture designed for squares. If there was furniture for circle rooms it could work

    • J Modified
      J Modified 2 місяці тому +147

      @Pointless username For every possible radius?

    • George Lionon
      George Lionon 2 місяці тому +59

      @Pointless username would have to have for standard radius.. and that would work for cylinder shapes only too, this are spheres, on different heights you have different a vertical radius... but beside the furniture issue, what I read this houses also often have weird ways light falls and sound propagates.

  • Mike Hicks
    Mike Hicks Місяць тому

    I swear my family stayed in a somewhat similar place for the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, where I have faint memories of circular (maybe octagonal?) experimental homes lifted up on stilts, but I've never found any images or documents to back up that recollection

    • Will3K
      Will3K 27 днів тому

      The Sun Sphere still stands in Knoxville.

  • LinkEX
    LinkEX Місяць тому +2

    As someone that flirts with the idea of getting a tiny house _or_ living in a small sub-community, these little space capsules are just up my alley.

  • Bonnie Merchant
    Bonnie Merchant Місяць тому

    I’ve lived in a geodesic dome for 40 years. I love it. It’s not hard to furnish,use your imagination

  • Chaotic Good Barbarian
    Chaotic Good Barbarian Місяць тому +1

    Tbh I don't see where this was a bad idea. Sure, the ideal house would probably be a cylindrical design for however many stories you'd like with a geodesic dome (half sphere) on top, and it's stronger than a blocky house too, but this is cool too at least to have around as a cool aesthetic house and indeed I'd pick this over my boring blocky one.

  • Joseph Steele
    Joseph Steele Місяць тому

    I love how all of your videos have some kind of intense urgency to them

  • Nick
    Nick 2 місяці тому +1605

    Architect: Humans were not meant to live in a box, they shall live in spheres.
    Humans: I have claustrophobia

    • LordDragox412
      LordDragox412 2 місяці тому +146

      The housing bubble: You shall live in a tiny box, because you can't afford anything more
      The bubble house: You shall live in a tiny sphere, because why not.

    • jimbob3332
      jimbob3332 2 місяці тому +57

      What is a sphere, but an edgeless safety box?

    • Robert McDaniel
      Robert McDaniel 2 місяці тому +46

      @jimbob3332A miserable pile of secrets.

    • Orsolya Fekete
      Orsolya Fekete 2 місяці тому +22

      @Robert McDaniel Enough talk, have at you!

    • Nothern Star
      Nothern Star 2 місяці тому +4

      ​@jimbob3332a fish bowl

  • Kevinskie
    Kevinskie Місяць тому +1

    Super cool video! I actually signed up to live in one of these houses, but so did 425 others, and I didn't get randomly chosen unfortunately.

    • SNOOPY_19881
      SNOOPY_19881 Місяць тому +1

      keep on trying,you might have some luck eventually :)

  • Dylan Darnell
    Dylan Darnell Місяць тому +2

    I imagine it's also a lot harder to scale up - building bigger spheres is hard, and there's no convenient place to stick an addition on. If you're living in a box, you can just stick another box on one side.

    • Zanziebar
      Zanziebar Місяць тому

      You just have to build a vine, or a jar. Balls will be together

  • helojoe92
    helojoe92 Місяць тому

    Yes, the houses have issues, especially the inflexible interior design, where it's almost impossible to generate more room. All of the other cited problems however, could be easily remedied with modern construction techniques for a V2.
    It seems like a cool community neighbourhood though, with a lot of green around. Now imagine this bigger, with community centers, playgrounds, essential shopping and culture venues dispersed in between. But maybe just make them box shaped instead.
    Also would be cool to see these white balls covered in colorful art!

  • T_Dot
    T_Dot Місяць тому

    Imagine that being a little student village where college students live together. Seems like it would be a vibe

  • WesTern
    WesTern 2 місяці тому +1379

    That pronunciation was actually quite well done Tom, groetjes vanuit Nederland ❤

    • Daylen
      Daylen 2 місяці тому +77

      Quite sad they let him get away with using Den Bosch, instead of 's Hertogenbosch, because that probably would have gone much worse

    • Cas
      Cas 2 місяці тому +23

      @Daylen Doesn't even go well off for plenty of native Dutch speakers either to be honest. 😅"Schet hoge bos"

    • Tal Lin
      Tal Lin 2 місяці тому +21

      The Dutch guy sounded almost Australian to me.

    • Thurgosh
      Thurgosh 2 місяці тому +23

      @Tal Lin His English sounded quite South East England, to me. Perhaps he spent time there for a few years picking up the language as he went along.

    • ZZubZZero
      ZZubZZero 2 місяці тому +14

      @Thurgosh It's not quite like the typical accent Dutch people have when speaking English, true.

  • Davett53
    Davett53 Місяць тому +9

    In the mid 1960s America was enjoying a Geodesic Dome house craze. Almost all them were built on private property out in the country. People built them, themselves, from kits or from instructions. Inspired by the designer Buckminster Fuller, who invented them. The American counter culture embraced them,....so called Hippies, often were involved. I have a friend who built his in 1970. They were a real challenge since most houses are built in squares and rectangles, with right angles. They are fun but there is a lot of wasted space, and conventional things like windows and furnishings have to be adjusted to fit within the interior. I was in college at the time, and anyone taking art & architecture at the time collaborated in building them, most for fun spaces to meditate within. Some became greenhouses, & other uses. Residential zoning prevented them from being built in conventional neighborhoods. They were perfect in rural settings, or out on private lands in the country.

    • Will3K
      Will3K 27 днів тому +3

      "Enjoying" is a generous term. More like the buyers sobered up and thought: "That was a bad trip."
      Meanwhile, those single-story ranch-style homes built in the Depression Era are worth their weight in gold nowadays.

    • Davett53
      Davett53 27 днів тому

      @Will3K Good point. In the very beginning, before the reality of dome home life was fully understood, it was exciting to live in, and own a dome. After a year or two, the reality of a dome home, became less appealing. Since everything had to be custom fitted, raising the cost of everything.

    • Will3K
      Will3K 27 днів тому

      My question is: do you put the kitty litter box on the ground floor, or somewhere in the sphere?

  • NATO Sucks
    NATO Sucks Місяць тому +9

    I could imagine space being tough without straight walls.

    • Code Tech
      Code Tech 27 днів тому

      It depends how big it is.

    • NATO Sucks
      NATO Sucks 27 днів тому

      @Code Tech true but good space is next to a wall not a curve

    • Code Tech
      Code Tech 27 днів тому

      @NATO Sucks If it's big enough the curved walls are almost straight compared to a sofa, table, bookcase, etc,

    • NATO Sucks
      NATO Sucks 27 днів тому

      @Code Tech maybe if you scale it up...a lot. Which still wouldn't make it practical for homes because we left the entire home size category.

  • Fomod
    Fomod Місяць тому

    I love how you nailed the pronunciation of "men weet niet wat men mist"
    How many takes did that take?

  • Joppe Min
    Joppe Min Місяць тому

    your "men weet niet wat men mist" was honestly very accurate, especially considering the dutch accent is so hard to figure out

  • winston smees
    winston smees Місяць тому +3

    Tom Scott telling me facts about Dutch things to me, a Dutch being. Hope you enjoyed Rotterdam!

  • Hazy ♥
    Hazy ♥ 2 місяці тому +863

    Thank you camera person for focusing on the cat, your services don't go unnoticed.

  • Lia De Inda Dani
    Lia De Inda Dani Місяць тому

    I'm just going to full on fangirl rn, it's so cool that you're actually in my city, I've been watching you for a long time an wating until you would go to some place I recognize (since England isn't so far from the NL considering). I've always questioned how those houses functioned and looked inside. I don't think I've heared anyone ever speak positively of those houses. I remember when they were being build that people were talking about if "this was going to be the future of housing" or smth.

  • Nathalie
    Nathalie Місяць тому

    Your pronounciation on the Dutch sentence 'men weet niet wat men mist' was really good!

  • seck
    seck Місяць тому

    wait i unironically once had a dream where i was in one of these houses
    it was probably one of the weirdest dreams I've ever had thinking back at it

  • Jordan Taylor
    Jordan Taylor Місяць тому

    Thanks Tom! And I like the pan shot and lighting you are using starting at 3:18, was it green screen or did you have a lighting rig on set?

    • SNOOPY_19881
      SNOOPY_19881 Місяць тому

      no greenscreen has been used during the production of this vid

  • Jim Kozenchik
    Jim Kozenchik Місяць тому

    I think the sphere house would be great if they made them like the Vegas sphere, you could have the coolest looking neighborhood with all the houses lighting up for Christmas.

    • SNOOPY_19881
      SNOOPY_19881 Місяць тому

      we're considering that actually,to span lights from one mushroom to the next,or put a santa on top of it or something :D

  • dinosaurblue
    dinosaurblue 2 місяці тому +1111

    I can understand the common claustrophobia problem. The issue is that the inner walls of the upper floors always lean in - looming over the occupant. The eye follows this up as it constricts further - it's the feeling of falling into a hole and watching the sides cave in on top of yourself.

    • morebirdsandroses
      morebirdsandroses Місяць тому +21

      I almost wish you hadn't described that so well! 🤢

    • Lyri Metacurl
      Lyri Metacurl Місяць тому +12

      🤨
      I was expecting "the houses tended to roll downhill and into rivers."

    • Blue Mountain
      Blue Mountain Місяць тому +9

      Maybe they should have put the living room in the bottom half of the sphere so that the walls lean outwards. The bedrooms and bathroom could go at the top since I think the leaning in walls wouldn't be so much of an issue - they might make the bedrooms feel more cosy

    • DistracticusPrime
      DistracticusPrime Місяць тому +2

      The feeling could have been mitigated by overhead storage bins, like on tubular aircraft cabins.

    • Minh Duc Nguyen
      Minh Duc Nguyen Місяць тому +4

      ​@Blue MountainNah they should have gone with the cylinder shape from the beginning. While on paper it should have less inner volume for the same amount of building materials, it has more usable inner volume. And you can now mount a balcony on the outside thanks to the vertical wall.

  • Monmon
    Monmon 26 днів тому +1

    As someone with claustrophobia, I immediately felt it when it showed the inside 🤣.

  • hydorah
    hydorah Місяць тому +1

    You found a great person to interview. He was like a media pro!

  • Michaël De Bot
    Michaël De Bot Місяць тому

    I remember this from a tv program for children when I was 6 or 7. Really fun to see it again.

  • JayDee
    JayDee Місяць тому +1

    No way, no no no way! You were in Den Bosch? Just five minutes away from where I actually live? Ah man no way, I so wanted to meet up with you! I genuinely have the biggest respect for the way you're producing these video's. At least tell me you stayed to try out a Bossche Bol as well? 😅

  • Nico Dives
    Nico Dives Місяць тому

    Its a good thing to know, do you have a video of the rammed earth domes and such yet? I remember i saw a lady that was living in a dome underground. Guess with the right materials domes are a diferent matter.

  • KingKool2099
    KingKool2099 2 місяці тому +575

    Tom: Check out these spherical houses, an incredibly architectural experiment.
    Me: Kitty!

    • Elisa M.R.
      Elisa M.R. 2 місяці тому +69

      For all we know there are outtakes from this video where Tom is also going, "Cat. Cat. Must film the cat."

    • David Cowie
      David Cowie 2 місяці тому +2

      Timestamp?

    • kibrika
      kibrika 2 місяці тому +18

      @David Cowie 1:39

    • Tobias
      Tobias 2 місяці тому +14

      And 3:47 😺

    • Orsolya Fekete
      Orsolya Fekete 2 місяці тому +20

      Me: that cat is almost as round as the houses

  • bimo sukresno
    bimo sukresno Місяць тому

    in yogyakarta, indonesia, we have almost similar village. instead spheric, we have dome houses. they were built after the quake that devastated jogja region for the victims. i haven't ther although is not too far from my house, and it's used to be some kind tourist destination, but i think its time already worn out.

  • Drew
    Drew Місяць тому

    Being that you damn near can't find a house that you can afford in the US, and when you do it gets snatched up by someone trying to half ass flip it, I would live in one of these in a heartbeat.

  • Outfrost
    Outfrost День тому

    I think it's indeed really important to highlight that these houses are social housing. All too often, we (Europe and NA, broadly) leave both quirky and standard housing to private landlords and corporations to extract as much profit from as possible, but social housing, co-ops, and publicly funded development are so much more efficient at providing affordable, quality homes and letting people thrive.

  • Illium _
    Illium _ Місяць тому

    One thing that stands out to me from the aerial shots is just how much greenery is around them compared to the neighboring square houses. It almost looks like they're living in the middle of a park rather than a neighborhood.

    • SNOOPY_19881
      SNOOPY_19881 Місяць тому

      we indeed life on the edge of the park

  • Cat Daddymane
    Cat Daddymane Місяць тому

    Those houses are now used to film scenes for a lot of movies that are based in the 60's.

  • Apoc2K
    Apoc2K 2 місяці тому +153

    I like that the quiet part of "people weren't meant to live in boxes" was apparently "they're meant to live in spheres".

    • Feynstein 100
      Feynstein 100 Місяць тому +7

      I mean, we all do live on a giant sphere so.........close enough, I guess? 😅

    • Brumel's Parakeet
      Brumel's Parakeet Місяць тому +7

      Style of words over substance gets people in trouble.

    • Benjamin Hershey
      Benjamin Hershey Місяць тому

      ​@Brumel's ParakeetAnd sometimes it gets them grant money.

    • Marcilla Smith
      Marcilla Smith Місяць тому +2

      @Gerald Washington But, in some sense, isn't the idea of a spherical house _less_ edgy?

  • Matt
    Matt Місяць тому

    What insanely weird buildings, and what a great guy to tell you about living there.

    • SNOOPY_19881
      SNOOPY_19881 Місяць тому +1

      it only toke 2 takes 🤣 glad you liked this vid :) ~ jeroen

  • James
    James Місяць тому +1

    Would hate to live in one. I'm not normally very claustrophobic but these did it for me as soon as I saw the inside footage

  • Quinn Dirks
    Quinn Dirks Місяць тому

    That is so cool... I wish we had more of this unique kind of architecture... the government should get involved more often.

  • Officer duh
    Officer duh Місяць тому

    I live in a house were there are two HUGE pillars over the porch, and all the main rooms are up a curved staircase.