The official name is Hang Nga Guesthouse and gallery, but all locals refer to it as the crazy house. And when you stand in front of its entrance it is easy to see why: this house is indeed strange. It does not comply with any convention about house building, has unexpected twists and turns, roofs and rooms. 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. In the middle of Vietnam, up in the hills, someone has built a crazy house. - The Age Online ... It's the Crazy House, by architect Hang Nga. Hang Viet Nga is the architect's full name and she ... folklore and free-form. Crazy House is also her home, still under.
Crazy House rises about five storeys 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-coloured 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.
Actually, the architect of this little wonder in Dalat is a woman named Hang Nga (hence the name of the guesthouse). One earlier of her design buildings was torn down because it was considered to be anti-socialist. There must still be party people who do not approve of the lavish style of this house. The one advantage of the architect, though, is a very strong one: her father was formerly president of Vietnam in the 1980s.
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