Casa de Retiro Espiritual.

We've seen a couple of strange architectural posts on Neato before, but this takes the cake (so far): the weird yet beautiful Casa de Retiro Espiritual north of Seville, Spain. The "House of Spiritual Retreat," designed by Emilio Ambasz, is literally built into a hill, with the above-ground structure serving as an Escher-like inside-out room.

Neatorama reader Shev wrote:

The house is surrounded by the splendors of the Spanish countryside , perched on a low peak in the lush, green Sierra Morena mountains overlooking a man-made lake and a vast 1,000 Has estate where olive trees, evergreen oaks, and wild flowers grow and fighting bulls, horses and wild boar roam. Its rural setting provides a dramatic contrast to its stark ascetic look.

And of course, they've got a YouTube clip:

Links : YouTube clip | Casa de Retiro Espriritual website - Thanks Shev!

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It's pretty much built for the view and it doesn't interfere with the nature that surrounds it. I wonder how morning coffee tastes at the top?

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3d max? ^g^

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Very cool building. But what I'd like to see is how they got some of the video shots. Some shots look like they're from a helicopter, but about 2:30 into the video there's a shot that starts way above the top of the wall and dives into the lower level... How did they do that?

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Oh, I can see how they deal with the rain, the porch side is well designed for that. And the outside is quite impressive. But what little we got to see of the inside looks like a cleaner-than-average hospital.