The Winchester Mystery House San Jose, Calif. Winchester was never a huge fan of blueprints. Instead, she preferred an on-the-fly design strategy, sketching rooms and architectural oddities whenever inspiration struck. Notable features include 40 bedrooms, three elevators, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys and 467 doorways. The house originally had seven levels, but an earthquake in 1906 collapsed three of them. Tourists now flock to the house to see its many quirks, including a staircase that leads straight to the ceiling.

Lake Palace Udaipur, India. The ornate palace sits on a 4-acre slab of land in the middle of Lake Pichola. Its exterior is made from white marble, which architect Peter Koliopoulos says isnt exactly compatible with the natural surroundings. You always want to develop design concepts that leverage, reinforce and highlight the natural features of the area. The scale and form of this building, though, are pretty obtuse, he says. Incorporating the marble just extends the oddity of the design approach."

The Mushroom House Cincinnati. Undulating woodwork, bizarre shapes and an array of materials come together to form a cohesive, albeit zany, structure. This isnt something you draw up and say, Go build it, architect Peter Koliopoulos says. When youre doing something this custom, youre fabricating and designing simultaneously in the field. The fantastical design doesnt stop at the front door. The interior is adorned with angular cabinets and multicolored rock walls. This is highly personal and artistic its just a different way of living and thinking, he says.

The Crooked House of Windsor Windsor, England. Sure its slanted, but what really makes the house stand out is that its basement had a secret passage to Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the U.K.s royal family. The passage was allegedly used for trysts between King Charles and a mistress, as well as for running supplies to the castles kitchen. The passageway has since been sealed off. Through the centuries, the crooked house has been home to various businesses, including a brewery and jewelry shop. It is now a restaurant.

Everingham Rotating House Taree, Australia. A rotating drive consisting of 32 outrigger wheels and powered by two 500-watt electric motors is used to spin the house on demand, a process that can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. Geothermal heating keeps the house at a steady 71.6 degrees, and the electrical wiring and plumbing are centralized so that they dont interfere with the houses ability to move. The entire cost of the project was on par with the cost of a nonrotating house of comparable size.

Bubble Castle Theoule, France. There are no sharp angles or straight lines in this unusual design. Lovag unified the home with its natural surrounding by bringing outdoor elements inside, including palm trees and a waterfall. This home is incorporating these outdoor rock croppings in a way that links them to the overall bubble concept, architect Peter Koliopoulos says. The house has already been deemed a historic monument by Frances Ministry of Culture, despite the fact that its not even 50 years old.

The Nautilus Mexico City. Architect Javier Sensonian practices what he calls bio-architecture, a style that has led him to design buildings shaped like snakes, whales and several other creatures. The Nautilus was created to imitate the cephalopods shell, and its cavernous interior is filled with vegetation and small trees. Its not common that you would see a home of this design ascetic, architect Peter Koliopoulos says. However, its very enlightening and something that we can all learn from.

222 House Pembrokeshire, Wales. With turf-covered roofing and siding, the 222 House fits seamlessly into the surrounding field. This is exemplary sustainable design, where you are integrating the home into the site and minimizing the visual impact," architect Peter Koliopoulos says. The bathroom and kitchen are prefabricated pods that were lifted into the site during construction. An added benefit of the design concept is the geothermal insulation, which shields the home from wind and cuts energy consumption.

Sliding House Suffolk, England. The 20-ton outer shell of this home can be retracted in six minutes, revealing a second, mostly glass, inner shell. Power comes from four 12-volt batteries that run a motor that pulls small wheels, built into the timber shell, along an old set of railroad tracks. This feature gives the owners control over how the house interacts with the surrounding environment, allowing them to make adjustments as seasonal temperatures and light cycles change.

Chameleon House Northport, Mich. The steel frame of this house is wrapped in corrugated, translucent acrylic slats, allowing it to take on and reflect the changing colors of the landscape, like a chameleon blending into its habitat. Because it sits on a steep hill, the entrance of the home leads to the third floor, letting residents descend to the bedrooms or walk up to the living area.

Marathon Coach Custom Motorhome. For starters, each Marathon Coach has a minimum of five high-definition TVs, ranging from 7 to 50 inches in size. A 515-horsepower engine powers this house on wheels, and the stainless-steel chassis is covered under a 1.5 million-mile warranty. Other wild options include pullout barbecues, electric fireplaces, a second bathroom and a wine chiller. The major drawback is that the vehicle gets only about seven miles to eight mpg.

Free Spirit Sphere Qualicum Beach, British Columbia. The Chudleighs have two spheres hanging on their property: the Eve model, which has a diameter of 9 feet, and the Eryn model, which has a diameter of 10.5 feet. The spheres can be ordered fully loaded, equipped with plumbing, electricity and insulation. An average sphere weighs around 1,100 pounds, and it takes a crew of three about a day to install. The Chudleighs say that the structures gently rock in the wind, a nice thought -- depending on just how windy it is.

Steel House Lubbock, Texas. Most homes have an initial skeleton that is built upon throughout the construction process, but Bruno has approached this home like a sculpture, building it on the fly and making constant modifications. Architect Peter Koliopoulos points out that the four legs and cantilevered design minimize the structures impact by not disrupting the earth as much as a typical home design would have. Estimated weight of the structure is 110 tons.

Klein Bottle House Mornington Peninsula, Australia. A Klein Bottle is a complex mathematical concept that involves folding a cylinder into itself in order to create an unusual, spiraling form. This notion was the driving force behind the Klein Bottle House, which appears to bring the interior out to the exterior and vice versa. A steel frame was layered with cement and sheet metal, while the architects created a courtyard at the center of the house to allow wind to pass through easily.

Montesilo Woodland, Utah. This house was created by joining two corrugated grain silos, the largest of which has a diameter of 27 feet. This is an approach that is akin to sustainability, architect Peter Koliopoulos says. This silo home is a lot of fun and is a neat way to look at an existing product in a creative way. With a modest size of 1,800 square feet, the designers saved space by placing the beds in cubbyholes that are cut into walls, each equipped with its own mini entertainment systems.

Leaf House Angra dos Reis, Brazil. Architect firm Mareines Patalano designed the interior of this house to be free of hallways, providing ample space for the beach winds to blow through. The idea of hallways stems from production homebuilding, which has so dominated our environment and marketplace that people see them as a standard," says Peter Koliopoulos, an architect with 26 years of experience and founder of Arizona-based Circle West Architects. That is really unfortunate because great spaces are developed in a way that this home has been developed."

Subterra Castle Central Kansas. Not many homeowners can say their house once stored a four-megaton nuclear warhead. What was once the launch control station, Pedin says, is now a cozy living space. Transforming a nuclear launch pad into a residential castle has lots of benefits, such as an 11,000-square-foot garage and a 1,700-foot-long airstrip, which came in particularly useful when Pedin was experimenting with do-it-yourself ultralight aircraft. Since the completion of Subterra Castle, Pedin has become a mogul of sorts, creating 20th Century Castles LLC, a real-estate firm specializing in converting missile silos.

Amory Lovins House Old Snowmass, Colo. The residential section of the building costs a measly 5 per month to power, thanks to the structures passive solar design, 16-inch-thick walls and krypton-filled windows. Lovins doesnt rely on a boiler or furnace to heat the space instead, two wood-burning stoves take care of the job. But most impressive, perhaps, is the greenhouse, which has churned out nearly 30 crops of bananas, as well as guavas, pineapples and other tropical fruit rarely associated with the Rocky Mountains.