Forget about every time you've ever seen a vaguely interesting house on Grand Designs and thought to yourself, 'ooh, that'd do', because regardless of what you thought your dream home was before, THIS is it now.
Have some of that! Credit: Ricardo Bofill
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This colossal stone structure near Barcelona may be impressive enough to make you do a little bit of piss in your pants now, but it started life looking like a complete and utter shit tip - albeit a very nicely designed one.
The building is actually an old, World War One-era concrete factory and has spent the past 45 years being renovated by one very devoted man (and, no doubt, his hundreds of builders, electricians, plumbers, gardeners, landscapers etc).
Here it is in 1973. Credit: Ricardo Bofill
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Architect Ricardo Bofill fell in love with the towering concrete structure the minute he laid eyes on it and has been working tirelessly on it for almost half a century. Now that work is complete, the old factory is a setting more than worthy of a Bond-style cocktail party and inevitable ensuing shootout/car chase/explosion/some other classic 007-type thing.
Ricardo calls his creation 'La Fabrica', meaning 'The Factory'. We assume it didn't take him 45 years to come up with the name.
The building is an early example of European Postmodernist architecture with elements of Brutalism and Surrealism thrown in here and there.
Not sure what I just said there, but here's a gallery of images from the building.
All credits: Ricardo Bofill
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Some other architecturally amazing houses:
Fallingwater - Pennsylvania, USA
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Frank Lloyd Wright was a contemporary architect who believed in designing buildings in harmony with nature and humanity.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any cooler than a giant converted concrete factory, this incredible home was built over a waterfall... Yeah, an actual waterfall.
Falling water is home to Edgar J. Kauffman, founder of Kauffman's department store. Certainly a very lucky chap.
Glass Pavilion - California, USA
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Glass Pavilion is a stunning design by architect Steve Hermann. The five-bedroom masterpiece even has a downstairs space for the owner's massive collection of classic cars.
It covers almost 14,000 square feet and its walls are made entirely of glass.
Lovely stuff, provided that you don't mind a few woodland creatures eyeballing you while you take a shit.
Barge Conversion - Stockholm, Sweden
If you've ever tried to convince your girlfriend to live on a house boat before, then you'll probably know that it's not something that's very high up on her to-do list.
However, we reckon that even the pickiest girlfriends out there couldn't say no to this beauty.
This amazing barge conversion can be found on Skeppsholmen, one of the islands off Stockholm, Sweden. It was formerly used for transporting heavy goods, but has now been turned into a breath-taking floating home, fit for a king.
Featured Image Credit: Ricardo Bofill