The Butterfly Roof

How about some butterfly roof houses to brighten your day? Let's start with the dreamy "Madras Oasis" in Palm Springs, California. Palm Springs has the best collection of butterfly roofed architecture (or at least the most posh) in the world. Get this: you can rent this place!!! The cost is $835-1195 per night, but it sleeps six. See more of this dreamy destination and many more at Vacation Villas California.


Little brown brick butterfly in Issaquah, Washington, via Jeff Youngstrom.
Canberra House via flickr (user forgotten, sorry!). I love this little house and its gardens.
I think the next two are in Palm Springs. Via Retro Renovation.

Location unknown, via the now defunct eastsiderealestatebuzz.com.
On the Brazilian rainforest coast, via Home Design Find.
"The architects at TYIN Tegnestue – a non-profit group of student architects – designed these unusual wood prefab houses, Soe Ker Tie Hias, which translates to “Butterfly Houses,” in Noh Bo, Tak, Thailand...Roof design enables effective natural ventilation while collecting rainwater for re-use. These compact wood houses are clad in locally harvested bamboo, and the material is woven using a traditional method on the front and rear facades that appears commonly in other homes and crafts done in the area. The homes are prefabricated and assembled on site, adding to their sustainable appeal. The houses are raised off the ground, set on four foundations cast in old tires, eliminating the problem of excessive moisture and resulting rot..." via Trendir.

Butterfly nestled in the woods, via Sucasa Magazine.
The stunningly beautiful, sustainably built RainShine House in Decatur, Georgia. Via Decor Dir




We almost bought this modest but very cool butterfly-roofed house last year. These are a rare find in my city. The 1950's neighborhood was planned to look like a suburban Florida neighborhood. All of the homes were of modern design with about 1100-1300 square feet, many were painted pastel colors, they had vaulted ceilings, decorative concrete block walls, and each lot was planted with several specimen pines. The neighborhood had seen better days, but it wasn't an unsafe area.




During our home inspection we found major electrical problems and the seller wouldn't reduce price to offset the cost of replacing all of the wiring, so we ended up letting this diamond-in-the-rough go. It all worked out for the best that we didn't purchase the house. About six months ago, right across the street from the butterfly house, a man beat one of his family members to death in the driveway. Tragic. I still hope that the neighborhood turns around one day and that renovators save these hidden gems.