Bubble Houses

The Bubble Houses of Hobe Sound are an unexpected architectural curiosity on the Treasure Coast — a cluster of rounded, dome-shaped residential structures that look more like mushrooms or something from a science fiction film than conventional Florida housing. Built in the 1970s using an experimental foam-and-concrete construction technique, the structures have smooth white exteriors with no sharp angles, interconnected by rounded corridors and passages.

The houses are private residences and cannot be visited from the inside, but they are clearly visible from the road and are a well-known local curiosity. For anyone interested in experimental architecture or unusual housing types, the Bubble Houses are a genuinely distinctive stop — and entirely incongruous with the conventional Florida bungalows surrounding them.

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A story
The houses were designed in the 1970s by architect Eli Attia, who used a construction technique involving inflating large polyurethane foam structures and then spraying them with concrete — the foam serves as a mould that remains inside the finished structure. The result is a cluster of smooth white domes clustered together like soap bubbles, entirely unlike anything else in the American residential landscape. They were originally built as a demonstration of cost-effective construction technology, but became simply a very distinctive place to live.