The bubble has finally burst for architect Graham Birchall who is selling is 40 year labour of love – his Karalee ‘bubble house’.
“It’s time for someone else to have all the fun here,” Mr Birchall said.
It was the lure of a grandchild that helped Mr Birchall and wife Sharon decide to move on from their dream home.
“I have a grandchild who is an hour and a half away so we want to be closer,” he said.
“I will miss the spacious of the house and the way each room opens up to another.
“The upper levels ceilings are four metres or over.
“And of course I will miss Ipswich.”
Mr Birchall believes you can build anything and is looking forward to new challenges.
“I joked to a friend that I’d be happy to live in a tin in shed for a bit but I will build again,” he said.
“I am working on a couple of different creations at the moment.”
First National Ipswich real estate agent Helene Shephard said it was another first for Ipswich.
“This house is unique, there are only seven other bubble-type houses in the world that we know of and this listing has gone viral,” she said.
“We had local photographer and videographer produce our content and we have had enquires from as far away as France and Vanuatu.
“It’s not just a very unique house, it is a home and I am excited to find a buyer who understands function, form and uniqueness of this creation.”
Mr Birchall was ahead of the curve when he decided to build a house made from 11 domes that are all interconnected to create 16 rooms.
There are many unique features in the home such as the fountains that double as natural air conditioning unit, a fireplace that spans two floors and a kitchen fitted out by a shipwright.
The unique iris design Mr Birchall designed to cover the windows were inspired by NASA.
“It was about 10 o’clock at night when I remembered that NASA’s Mars Rover had one of these things on it. So I thought to myself, they might be able to help me with that.
“So I rang them up,” he said.
“They said, this is our email address. Put down what you want and I’ll send it to you.
“Within two days I had the drawings of the Mars Rover. It didn’t help me but I’ll still amazed that they released it to me.”
The solution in the end is to create shutters, similar to the iris of a camera.
The house is dedicated to the memory of Mrs Birchall’s parents Ed and Ethel Bohl who were stalwarts in the building process and spent many long hours assisting Birchall’s achieve their dreams.
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