Bubble for a home: Times of India

Rossway, July 25: It looked like the midsection of a giant centipede, or a discreet little spaceship, or possibly the natural habitat of Tinky Winky and his Teletubby pals.

But the thought that consumed my six-year-old daughter, Alice, and me as we prepared to spend the night in the futuristic bubble of a house that loomed in front of us was practical rather than aesthetic. Where would we go to the bathroom?
It turned out that there was indeed a bathroom, complete with tub and sink, although it was for viewing purposes only. The house, designed by Roger Dean, the multitasking painter, graphic designer and architect best known for his exotically surreal album covers for the music groups Yes and Asia in the 1970's and 1980's, is currently a one-of-a-kind nonworking prototype. When it is not on the road, it sits in incongruous splendor in a field on a nature preserve in this Worcestershire hamlet, functioning as a kind of walk-through minimuseum. Our mission was to find out what it would be like to sleep there.

Forget its underlying philosophy, its cunningly-designed environmental friendliness, its development potential.

Would we feel weird and claustrophobic or find ourselves inadvertently humming the Yes anthem "Roundabout"? Would we be able to lie in bed and look out the window, and would Alice get to see any rabbits in the field? Although Dean's houses are meant to be built into the landscape, this one sits on a raised platform so that it can easily be transported, as it often is, to housing and environmental exhibitions. We walked up the curved entrance ramp, looking out for birds' nests, and made our way, like hobbits, into a hobbit house.



Everything was gently curved, without right angles. The house is meant to appeal to children and to adults' childlike need for safety and security.



It has its genesis in work Dean did 40 years ago, while a student at the Royal College of Art in London.