The Ugly House

All houses are ugly. Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder, so this statement is subjective, and you are of course free to disagree, but, all houses are ugly! You will no doubt find this statement ironic given that it comes from someone who, among other things, travels the world teaching workshops on how to build your own house.

Beautiful House

Allow me to prove my point. To the right/above is a photo of a house commonly considered very beautiful.  Feel free to substitute in your mind any other house you have ever seen that you think is very beautiful.  On the left/below is a picture of a nice field located on some land I own.

Now, look at the photo of the house (or the one you were picturing in your mind).  Imagine the house without the flowers, greenery, etc., just the man-made structure, and then picture the house in the photo of the field . . . does the field look better? Does it even look as good?

My Field

It has been my experience that the houses which are considered the most beautiful are usually surrounded by flowers, covered with greenery, etc., so is it the house that people find to be beautiful, or all of the plants provided by nature which are partially obscuring it?  In my view, houses are only beautiful when compared with other even uglier houses, nature wins every time!  The important lessons to take away from this are, if you feel you must build a house:

1. Build it small
2. Make it blend in as much as possible
3. Hide it with nature (trees, bushes, flowers, etc.) as much as possible
4. And most importantly, build it in the ugliest place you can find (preferably somewhere that has already been destroyed by man) in order to preserve the most beautiful places.