Seven of the coolest house conversions from around the world

There are plenty of cool warehouse conversions around, particularly in Australia’s inner-city suburbs, and quite a few beautiful churches repurposed as houses, too.

But what about some of the more ambitious projects?

Denmark: Silos to apartments

The Silo, Nordhavnen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo: COBE Architects

This project, based in Copenhagen’s North Harbour area, sees an old grain silo repurposed as an impressive block of apartments, with the top floor turned into a restaurant.

The 17-storey, 38-apartment development was designed by COBE Architects and building finished in May 2017.

England: Ironworks to penthouse

The Penthouse, Shoreditch High Street. Photo: Urban Spaces UK

Located in the “famous Shoreditch Triangle” (like the Bermuda Triangle, but it’s money that goes missing in this expensive end of town), this three-bedroom penthouse apartment takes up a couple of floors of a former Victorian ironworks.

There is plenty of exposed brick, stainless steel appliances and high ceilings in this quite fancy conversion, which is on the market for £3,750,000 ($6.34 million).

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England: Crane to Treehouse Bnb

Canopy and Stars at Crane 29. Canopyandstars.co.uk

This one is in Bristol – it’s Crane 29, designed by Canopy and Stars, a glamping rental service. It’s completely carbon neutral and built from sustainable materials. It’s described as a “sensory treehouse” and decked out with green plant walls and a composting toilet.

The crane was open for bookings via a ballot system from June 9 to September 24 this year, and has a competition going for the final night available in September.

US: Jumbo jet to jumbo jet-shaped forest home

Bruce Campbell’s plane home in the forests of Oregon. Photo: Bruce Campbell, airplanehome.com

Anyone can buy an old bus on Gumtree, stick it in a field and rent it out on Airbnb for $100 a night. True commitment is doing it with a Boeing 747.

With that in mind, meet Bruce Campbell, a retired engineer, from Portland, Oregon. He liked his first jumbo home so much he’s hoping to make second one, and put it in Japan.

And if you want to give the aero-lifestyle a shot before committing to picking up a decommissioned plane, there’s also a (much smaller) plane up on Airbnb in St-Michel-Chef-Chef in France.

England: Former royal railway station to luxury home

Wolferton, Norfolk. Photo: Bedfords.co.uk

For £1.5 million pounds ($2.5 million), you could be living surrounded by Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham Estate, in a luxury home that used to be part of Wolferton’s Royal Train Station.

Sitting on about half a hectare of land, the property has the old ticket office, the platform and some remaining track.

The station was regularly frequented by the royal family in the 1800s, but had shut up shop by 1969. It was run as a museum before being converted to a home by a private developer.

Indonesia: Shipping container to epic Lombok pad

Shipping container homes are all the rage – but this Lombok project, designed by Indonesian architect Budi Pradono, is no minimalist metal box sitting in the sun.

It isn’t so much a shipping container conversion as a stunning tropical home with a container inserted in it at an angle.

The striking residence is surrounded by undeveloped forest and paddy fields and the shipping container – all 2.2 metres of it – is set at a 60-degree angle, making up the ceiling in the master bedroom.

The Netherlands: Windmill to Airbnb

Let this windmill spin you around. Photo: Airbnb

Up for rent through Airbnb for $425 a night, this windmill dates to 1874 and is, well, a windmill you can live in.

It sleeps up to six, and is 15 minutes from Amsterdam – convenient and cute.

If you can’t get enough, there are some other options, such as England’s oldest working windmill, in the Surrey Weald which could be yours for £800,000 ($1.34 million).

Germany: World War II bunker to community space with rooftop garden

Artist’s impression of the finished Hilldegarden bunker project. Photo: Hilldegarden.org

This is a bonus entry that hasn’t quite been built yet – but planning permission has been granted, which puts it way ahead of some of the other reality-defying concept renders floating around the internet.

The original bunker was built in 300 days in 1942, quite possibly with forced labour, and was used by local Hamburg residents to shelter from bombings. It has already been converted and is home to a nightclub, music school and studios, and will have a memorial centre, museum and hotel added.

To top it off, it will have a 19-metre-tall pyramid and community garden, providing vegie-growing space for local residents.