a round house no one wants to visit

The F-House cell block at Stateville Correctional Center, in Illinois, is the last remaining panopticon-style prison building in the United States –

The round plan of a panopticon, as designed by 18th/19th century British philosopher and criminologist Jeremy Bentham, was meant to allow the guards, stationed at the center of the circle, to monitor prisoners without the prisoners themselves knowing whether or not they were being observed. Bentham once described the panopticon as “a mill for grinding rogues honest.” All the flowers in the world cannot disguise the design’s essentially coercive function.

why in the world a round house?

If you’ve always wanted to live in a round house, but have never found the right one, in the right place, for the right price, you could always try building one yourself. That’s what Tomasi and Irene Tukuafu did in 2009, and they seem very happy with the results –

The couple, who live on the banks of the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Illinois, built the house using reclaimed timbers from an old log cabin that had been torn down. During a televised house tour just after the house was finished, Irene Tukuafu explained the couple’s interest in circular design to a skeptical interviewer.

7 hours to build and 6 months to restore

The dome home of Buckminster Fuller and Anne Hewitt Fuller in Carbondale, Illinois, is now being restored. The only dome in which the Fullers actually lived, it took less than a day to build: seven hours from start to finish.

 

“we don’t like your house either”

Designed by maverick American architect Bruce Goff, the Ruth Ford House — known variously as the Round House, Coal House, and Umbrella House — is a creative tour de force.  It could not look less like neighboring houses in suburban Aurora, Illinois, where it was built in 1947-49, and local people took it as an architectural affront. Fortunately, as the photo below attests, the owners of the house were undaunted –

Life Magazine published a several-page spread on the house in 1951, with lovely color photos by Eliot Elisofon of the house’s interior and exterior.

on the market

You can find round and circular-form houses for sale right now in the US, UK, Australia and Canada for prices ranging from $87,500 to $10 million.  On the lavish — and arguably garish — end of the spectrum, there’s this 1980s luxury villa on Hamilton Island, in Australia, and the “Corbetta Estate” in Los Altos Hills, California (which was the cooler and much more fun Corbetta Party House in a former incarnation).

Bringing up the low end of the market, at a modest 696 square feet in size, is one of the many small post-war round houses in Des Moines, Iowa.

A few other houses stand out –

• A 1961 modernist home in Highland Park, Illinois, above, is stunning. Designed by architect George Keck, the house encompasses a pool with a retractable roof.

• This mid-century modern house in Ontario, Canada, has some style. The listing photos are not great, but I can make out a nifty fireplace and a nice curving staircase.

• Everyone wants their own island, right? Especially one that’s only a half hour from Manhattan.

• Possibly designed by Gilbert Spindel, this Arkansas property has lots of potential, and comes with nearly an acre of land. (Advice to the future buyer: replace the garage with something that doesn’t clash with the house, rip out the homey, faux-colonial decor, and take some design tips from Spindel owners.)

You can also find two round houses for sale in the UK, one in Portland, Dorset, selling for £925,000, and the other in Sidmouth, Devon, selling for £849,950.

lost jewel

This cool, curvaceous ’50s beauty in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, was torn down in the 1990s –

Designed by Don Erickson, an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright, it shows Wright’s “Usonian” influence.  In 1958, a few years after it was built, it received the prestigious American Institute of Architects award.