Hermit House
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Hermit House is an earthen residence situated on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean near the Sidna Ali Mosque in
Herzliya Herzliya ( ; , / ) is an affluent List of Israeli cities, city in the Israeli coastal plain, central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it had a populatio ...
,
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, and is an example of
vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range a ...
. Its owner, designer, and creator, Nissim Kahlon, has been building the structure solely by hand since the late 1970s, tunnelling deep into the cliff side and using natural sea materials. The structure includes dozens of chambers covered in highly elaborate tile mosaics made of recycled materials such as blue glass from broken Maccabee beer bottles, plates, and other debris washed ashore. Local city authorities have so far been unable to oust the non-code-compliant resident.
Rising sea levels The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...
, caused in part by the city's construction of a jetty, pose a threat to Kahlon's work of several decades. Hermit House's exterior is publicly visible and requests for interior tours are occasionally honoured by its owner.


See also

*
Watts Towers The Watts Towers, Towers of Simon Rodia, or ''Nuestro Pueblo'' ("our town" in Spanish) are a collection of 17 interconnected sculptural towers, architectural structures, and individual sculptural features and mosaics within the site of the arti ...
, intricate Gaudiesque towers decorated with
found objects A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have ...
*
Forestiere Underground Gardens The Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California are a series of subterranean structures built by Baldassare Forestiere, an immigrant from Sicily, over a period of 40 years from 1906 to his death in 1946. The gardens are operated by membe ...
, earthen residence and gardens constructed by one man over thirty years. *
Casapueblo Casapueblo is a building constructed by the Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró. It is located in Punta Ballena, from Punta del Este, Uruguay. Initially, it was the artist's summer home and workshop, and includes a museum, an art gallery, a ...
, the house of noted Uruguayan artist
Carlos Páez Vilaró Carlos Páez Vilaró (1 November 1923 – 24 February 2014) was a Uruguayan abstract artist, painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and constructor. He took an active role in the search for survivors of the 1972 crash of Uruguayan ...
*
Ferdinand Cheval Ferdinand Cheval (; 19 April 1836 – 19 August 1924), often nicknamed Facteur Cheval ("Mail Carrier Cheval") was a French mail carrier who spent 33 years building Le Palais idéal (the "Ideal Palace") in Hauterives, in southeastern France.
, a French postman who constructed an "ideal palace" out of rocks in his spare time. * Rubelia, a castle constructed of found objects located in
Glendora, California Glendora is a city in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, California, east of Los Angeles. As of the 2020 census, the population of Glendora was 52,558. World-famous Route 66 runs through the city. Known as the "Pride of the Footh ...
*
Mystery Castle Mystery Castle is located in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter Mary Lou Gulley. After learning he had tuberculosis, Gulley moved from Seattl ...
, a house in
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
built in the 1930s in a similar style. *
Nitt Witt Ridge Nitt Witt Ridge is a house on two and a half acres in the coastal city of Cambria, California, United States. Artist and recluse Arthur "Art" Harold Beal (18961992) bought his hillside lot in 1928 and spent most of the next 50 years carving out th ...
, a house in
Cambria, California Cambria () is a seaside village in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles along California State Route 1 (Highway 1). The name Cambria, chosen in 1869, is the Latin name for Wales (Welsh, ...
constructed in a similar style.


References


Apollonian Story
feature documentary on Nissim Kahlon and his residence, 2011. * "Let's Go: Israel" St. Martin's Press, 2002 {{coord, 32.185976, N, 34.803708, E, region:IL, display=title Vernacular architecture Houses in Israel Herzliya Buildings and structures in Tel Aviv District Visionary environments