Does life make it feel like you’ve been flipped upside down? I mean outside of a Fresh Prince kinda context?
Do you crave something a little more thought-provoking in your architecture? Or are you looking for a new perspective on life? For some houses, that perspective has become a reality because the house is literally an upside-down house!
There are several homes that have been given this altered perspective around the globe, so let’s explore the top upside-down houses that could change your perception of reality when you pay them a visit!
Table of Contents
Must-See Upside-Down Houses From Around the World
Die Welt Steht Kopf in Trassenheide – Germany
“Die Welt Steht Kopf” by backkratze is marked with CC BY 2.0.
“The house is falling! The house is falling!”
If Chicken Little saw this house, that would probably be his first reaction. Who’s worried about the sky falling when a house is falling on top of your head anyway?
It’s also a common reaction that people have when they first see this upside-down house in Usedom, Germany. To further the perspective of a house that has fallen from the sky, it has been built on a 6% incline. With immaculate attention paid to details outside of the house, including a bicycle that is also upside down, the illusion is very real!
Upon walking inside the house, however, the illusion continues because everything else is upside down as well! If you’ve ever pranked someone by affixing a chair to the ceiling, this house will put any effort you’ve ever made to shame!
The one downside of visiting this house is its price: Adults: €7.00, Kids are €6.00, but a family ticket is €20.00.
Wonderworks – Orlando, FL
“Wonderworks” by Charles P. is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.
Maybe what you need in an upside-down house is more of a mansion or miniature amusement park than an actual house.
And maybe, just maybe, instead of having a bunch of upside-down stuff in this mansion, what you’d like to see is something more like a walkthrough of Ripley’s Believe it or Not! museum.
If that’s the case, then what you’ll want to see is Wonderworks in Orlando, Florida. If it isn’t, well, you’ve been warned!
Now to be fair, the entry room in this substantial upside-down building is upside down too, but they take you through this “inversion tunnel” that supposedly turns your perspective right side around so that you’re “upside-down” too.
Once that is accomplished, you can zap your upside-down but right-side-up siblings with laser tag. Then head to the bubble lab and blow massive bubbles from a bubble sheet until you’re winded and dizzy, or use your brainwaves to control objects!
Welcome to the home of Professor Wonder! Once a top-secret research laboratory on a secluded Caribbean island in the Bermuda Triangle, the now upside-down house was carried thousands of miles away to Orlando through a swirling vortex.
And so, the top-secret laboratory Wonderworks began a new life as one of the best family tourist attractions in Florida. This crazy house also offers a killer 4D motion ride and a high ropes course in this upside-down world for an added cost.
General admission to this famous Florida upside-down attraction begins at $19.99 per person and is popular with kids and adults alike.
The Education and Region Promotion Centre – Poland
This upside-down house that looks as though it landed upside-down is located in an open-air museum in Northern Poland, which means the intent is for you to learn something new by visiting this museum and house.
Don’t tisk; this place rocks, plus it’s inexpensive and it’s all in English.
What can you learn about walking inside a house, decorated in Polish socialist-style decor from the ’70s that has all the furniture glued onto the ceiling? Eh?
For starters, if you have an inner ear problem, you’ll probably not want to step foot inside of one!
And if you’ve got a pacemaker?
I doubt they’ll have a microwave going, so you should be fine.
The museum itself is a study of folk architecture. Alongside one of the top upside-down houses in the world is a log cabin, a yurt, and even a small castle where rumor has it that you can judge the flying velocity of an African swallow carrying a coconut.
Opened in 2008, the intent was to “protect the heritage of two Lesser Polish families”, as well as provide a unique center for presenting Polish history. Honestly, it blends an amusement park with a museum, as this tourist attraction invites guests to enjoy:
- Ropes course
- XC Cinema
- Onsite fishery
- Onsite Brewery
- Playground
- Mini zoo…and much more!
Well, all I can say is if these families lived in upside-down houses for decades, it makes you wonder about a different perspective on life! Maybe it’s an allegory for Communist rule in Poland or something.
It’s a popular tourist attraction in Poland, so unless you get there before it opens at 9 am, avoid the parking lot. The entry fee is 9PLN, but kids under 6 get in free.
If you really feel like making a statement, bring some acoustic instruments with you to play some folk music alongside the folk architecture for an extra special experience!
Device to Root Out Evil: The Upside Down Church – Canada
“Device to Root Out Evil, Vancouver” by daniel0685 is marked with CC BY 2.0.
More of a right-way-up sculpture than an upside-down building and more of a church than a house, this upside-down three-dimensional expression is specifically designed to root out the evils of the world.
Well, at least the evils that you can find in Canada if you can even find evil there.
Possums? Are they evil?
It was initially constructed for Stanford University, but the President of the University rejected the sculpture because an upside-down church was apparently “not appropriate” for his campus.
Cue collective eye-roll…
The intent of this piece, which you can see on the waterfront in Vancouver for free (except for maybe having to pay for parking), is to evoke conversation.
How much conversation an upside-down church creates is probably up to the individual. In reality, there’s a good chance of rain when you visit and you’ll probably just want to nip into a Tim Hortons, snap a quick picture, and talk about what else you’ll want to do while visiting Canada.
And if the sculpture does happen to root out some evil there in Canada, make sure you’ve got your repenting robes on so you can get rid of those sins right away, okay?
White House, Georgia
“File:Building that looks like upside-down White House, Batumi.JPG” by Keizers is marked with CC BY-SA 3.0.
Have you always thought that American politics were upside-down? In the Black Sea city of Batumi, in the Republic of Georgia, you’ll get a chance to see what politics really looks like thanks to an upside-down replica of the White House!
Unlike other upside-down houses, however, the White House in Batumi is actually a restaurant.
The reviews on the restaurant are above average. It is huge, however, with three floors of dining rooms to meet the needs of hundreds of guests eager to eat out in an upside-down house.
It’ll be a bit posh, a bit expensive, but I hear the walnut sauce is quite excellent! On the bright side, if you get all hot and sweaty from walking up and down three flights of stairs, the bathroom has a shower in it so you can freshen up before dessert!
Another Upside-Down White House, WI
Upside Down White House by Vinny Gragg
If you’re looking for a more realistic-looking upside-down White House, then proceed to the town that everyone in Wisconsin heads to when they want to have a little fun, spend a lot of money, and get wet going down a waterslide; the Wisconsin Dells!
To get people to visit in the winter, you’ll get discounts to come to see the various attractions in the Dells. This White House is one such attraction and you’re either going to love it or you’re going to hate it. There’s just no in-between!
Here’s the thing about this upside-down house: it has Bigfoot in it. In jail. Then you go down…or up (I don’t know it’s hard to tell) into the secret upside-down White House basement where you’ll learn all the secrets of Area 51.
And then they shoot a huge cannon off when you walk by it thanks to some motion detectors that are installed somewhere. Imagine being the person working there that has to listen to it all day! It’s kind of cheesy, [Editorial note; “KIND OF cheesy?!?!”] but that’s pretty much how you’d describe all of Wisconsin Dells if you’re honest with yourself anyway.
Invest in a duck tour afterward, go see the actual Dells out on the river, and you’ll make the trip even more worthwhile!
House of Katmandu, Magalluf, Mallorca
“Katmandu Park” by wuestenigel is marked with CC BY 2.0.
So it’s got an interactive aquarium. It’s got a wind machine that will blow you with wind speeds that are equal to a hurricane. It’s got an ice cave where you can carve your name into it. It’s also very pretty when the colorful lights hit the walls of this upside-down house at night!
The House of Katmandu is part of a more extensive park complex, which means you won’t be visiting just to see some upside-down stuff on a ceiling.
You can also soundly defeat your children playing mini-golf, go on a 4D ride that you probably don’t want to experience right after you’ve eaten lunch, and then you can go to an interactive shooting game where it’s more fun to shoot your partner than it is to shoot stuff on the screen.
My partner won’t play arcade games with me until I apologize. Sounds like 2nd place talk to me. If you want even more interactive rides, there are zombies in the XD Dark Ride, and who doesn’t love a good zombie attack at an upside-down house? Maybe that should be on the next episode of The Walking Dead. Hold on a minute while I give them a call…
