Story point
Upside-Down House
A furnished house with its roof on the ground and an entrance through a window, conceived as a symbol of a political order overturned.
Content language
The roof rests on the ground, the foundations are overhead, and visitors enter through a window. The Upside-Down House reverses both the building's structure and the arrangement of its interior. Visitors walk on the ceiling; windows that would normally be at eye level are much lower down. The building is also tilted, making it harder to keep your balance.
The interior is fully furnished. Household objects sit above visitors' heads, following the inverted layout of the building. Familiar objects in unfamiliar positions distinguish this structure from an empty model viewed from outside.
Its creators gave the house a political meaning: it symbolises the fall of communism. In this interpretation, the overturned building represents a change to an order that once seemed permanent.
Question 1 of 2
What does the Upside-Down House in Szymbark symbolise?
- Location
- Upside-Down House · Centrum Edukacji i Promocji Regionu
- Author or origin
- Centrum Edukacji i Promocji Regionu w Szymbarku
- Reference
- PKT-CEPR-01
- architecture
- symbolism
- communist era
- family attraction
- inverted structure