That's architect and sculptor Robert Bruno's steel house/sculpture in Lubbock, Texas. Bruno spent 23 years building this strange home that looks like a giant pig out of 110 tons of steel!
Links (lots of pics): Robert's official website [Flash] | Article at Dallas Art Revue, Sociothought, video at Ursi's Blog
P.S.Lubbock as a city is way conservative and full of bigots. Austin is the one and only recommendation in Texas..
Like one of the links says - it's Gaudi without the ornament. But I suspect with the wonderful design of those large windows he has ideas there too.
This structure should be on the cliff edge of the Grand Canyon, rather than the rather bland flat river valley location Bruno has made it in. It must be a wonderful space to be inside.
Shame how some tiny minds chime in the comments here...
An excellent example of form muscling out function. Where does the furniture go?
It's an interesting design, although it doesn't look particularly porcine to me.
That said, the interior doesn't look especially livable. It's evident he likes the aesthetic offered by rusting steel, but this doesn't really make a great surface to live in - brown flecks forever sprinkling over everything and everyone within. Also, something tells me that the steel walls, ceiling, and floors give the interior a wicked acoustic reverberation time. He's gonna need to read up a little on Wallace Sabine's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Clement_Sabine) work on this. I'm not sure how this would get solved w/o destroying the artist's vision, though.
Lubbock, on the other hand, is chock full of people who know how to function in the real world. They are largely self-sufficient, and don't suffer foolish jackasses who think Austinites are the cat's meow. Just sayin'...
Artist - German for "I wish I could find a way to use my talent to make as much money as an architect."
Architecture takes more than just "fake" art skills, as there is a lot of physics, math and engineering involved.
Erto, yes, Lubbock is conservative, but I've run into very few bigots, and my wife is from China. People are real here.
As for the house, I've always been facinated with it, ever since I saw it about 15 years ago. It isn't a place I'd call home, but it is definitely an interesting combination of architecture and art.
yeah, and architects and artists know the material properties of what they are working with far better than any of you, so you could worry a bit less for them and worry more about how much time you waste bitching about other people's productive lives