Elliptical House by Mihai Popa
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 01.25.08
Artist Mihai "Nova" Popa built the Elliptical House near Bridgehampton, Long Island, out of wood from a demolished Brooklyn church. It is based on an ecological idea: It's 40-by-40 in the middle and 20-by-40 at the base, "which means we are giving back half of the house to the planet."
According to Carol Polsky in Newsday, Popa also designs models of circular modular cities to float on the ocean, and to launch into space should humans face an exodus from a dying planet in an ecological apocalypse he believes is a possibility.
Polsky continues: There's a rough-hewn, sculptural quality to the entire space, much like Popa's handmade wooden furniture and the elaborately carved and constructed doorways, stairways and kitchen cabinetry.
"Everything is artistic and because of that, you are content in your environment," says [partner] Wolf. "Technology is not allowed to overwhelm. It's there, but we don't let it steamroll us or dictate to us."
Photos by Bill Davis, Newsday
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It's great to see something different being built - I get sick of the boring, character-less, uninspiring houses being built everywhere.
I quite like it although if you want to "give back" some land to the planet then I think you'd be better off putting a green roof on top. A flat rooftop garden would be even better since you can then use it as recreational space. With house and land prices having risen to silly levels in many countries lately, it makes sense to me to get back that space that the house was built on.
Benjamin
Hi, i`m an arquitect
I´m argentine and I like so much sustentable arquitecture,
I would like to be in contact
Bye
Lucas
This reminds me of the Pyramodule http://www.pyramodule.com/
gaining space beyond the footprint. Very nice way to make an interior seem larger without eating up the ground.
I always thought the Quansot House was a design classic. Hardly original. Was the artist/architect an army brat?
Wonderful house, very interesing design in harmony with Nature. We live in the mountains of southern Poland on an organic Homa farm and are forming a kind of eco-village on a small scale. Very inspired by the ideas Mihai Popa has created.