Architecture that clings to cliff faces may not be the most practical or environmentally sensitive, but it sure is visually striking. A new proposal from Turkish designer and architect Hayri Atak takes the drama up a few notches with a vertigo-inducing cantilevered platform that juts out from the rock, complete with a glass-bottomed infinity pool.

The Cliff Concept Hotel is designed with Norways’ famous cliff Preikestolen in mind, overlooking the beautiful Lysefjorden body of water below. The lookout point itself resembles a pulpit, hence its name, and is the most popular tourist attraction in the Ryfylke area. Atak imagines the rock transforming into a boutique hotel with oval balconies, the rooms presumably carved into the rock beneath the plateau.

It would certainly offer a unique tourist experience, especially for those brave enough to venture out into the tip of the swimming pool, and the design itself is an intriguing one. However, it’s probably safe to say that people who like to visit the rock wouldn’t exactly appreciate it being taken over as a for-profit venture exclusively catering to deep-pocketed travelers, and would prefer to leave it as it is.

As fantasy architecture, or perhaps a project for another location, it’s pretty cool, and a great way for a young architect to call global attention to himself and his work. Hayri Atak is a graduate of Istanbul Technical University, Auburn University and the Nuova Academia di Belle Arti in Milan, and his projects include parametric pavilions and facades, retail and restaurant interiors and other hotel designs.

Supported by nothing but skinny poles, delicately balancing or tethered as if they might float away, these precarious-seeming houses laugh in the face of gravity. Cantilevering architectural volumes off cliffsides or elevating them well above ground level gives modern residences incredible views of their surroundings, whether they’re located on a mountain overlooking the sea or in the middle of a busy Japanese city.

Snohetta Treehotel, Sweden

Architecture firm Snøhetta has completed their addition to Sweden’s Treehotel, a hovering cabin that appears at first glance to be supported by no more than the staircase leading up to it. The design is based on a traditional Nordic cabin with a wood facade clad in charred boards of pine for a look that contrasts with the snow below, making the structure look heavy and solid to enhance its gravity-defying properties.

Tower House Inspired by Observatories

Tucked into the woods of upstate New York, GLUCK+’s Tower House takes inspiration from observatories for its mostly-vertical form. A bright yellow staircase is visible from outside through the glass envelope of the supporting tower, and the upper volume is topped with a terrace.

House in Yatsugatake Mountains by Kidosaki Architects, Japan

Jutting out over a cliff at the foot of Japan’s Yatsugatake Mountains, this home by Kidosaki Architects Studio expands horizontally out into midair to enhance views of the natural landscape through floor-to-ceiling glazing on three sides. The cantilevered portion of the home is supported by two diagonal steel cylinders.

Cargo Container Office Sticks Out Beyond Edge of Hill

Architect Patrick Bradley repurposed a 45-foot cargo container into an office for himself, allowing a third of it to hang out over the edge of the hilly plot as a sort of floating balcony encased in glass. The project makes very few structural changes in the container itself, staying true to its original form while modernizing its exterior.

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Hovering Homes 12 Cantilevered Elevated Residences Maximize Views

File this dramatic cliff-hanging, swimming-pool-topped home called Casa Brutale under ‘fit for a villain in every possible way.’ Practically begging to be used as a base for unsavory characters in a film, this concrete residence set into the craggy hills overlooking the Aegean Sea is surprisingly modest and spare, free of flashy luxuries.

It doesn’t need to show off, really, when its very existence in this location packs such a powerful visual impact. You enter the home from a stairway on the ground level, descending into an interior that’s shielded from the sky only by the glass-bottomed swimming pool.

Anyone who swims in the pool is instantly turned into entertainment for the people watching from below, and the watery reflections cast over every surface are the main defining characteristic of the simple, open interior spaces. The entire cliff-facing facade is also made of glass further opens the home to the shimmer of water, this time from the sea.

OPA (Open Platform for Architecture) clearly heard the cries of ‘James Bond villain lair’ when their initial drawings were released, so they’ve worked a nod or two into the new renderings, including a requisite Ferrari.

“Case Brutale is a geometrical translation of the landscape,” say the architects. “It is an unclad statement on the simplicity and harmony of contemporary architecture. It is a chameleonic living space, created to serve its owner and respect the environment… in literal groundbreaking integration, Casa Brutal penetrates the landscape.”

Dangling precariously from cliffs, tumbling down hillsides or jutting out over the water, these beautiful seaside homes feature mirage-like rooftop infinity pools, diving boards that lead nowhere, terrifying drop-offs and terraces that seem to float.

Mirage House with Rooftop Infinity Pool

The glimmer of water on the rooftop of this incredible home on Greece’s Tinos Island seems like a mirage at first, encompassing the entirety of a flat, rectangular surface. Come closer and you’ll see that it’s not a mirage at all – it’s an infinity pool on the cantilevered rooftop of a modern home by Kois Associated Architects. The home was designed to blend into the Aegean Sea so as to be virtually undetectable, with the visible parts of the front of the home mimicking the surrounding stone.

Dangling Modular Cliff House

All that can be seen of this five-level modular home from ground level is the very top portion. The rest dangles in rather terrifying fashion over the roiling water, producing an effect that’s worthy of a Bond villain. Cliff House by Modscape Concept makes use of a challenging plot of land on a rocky portion of the southwest coast of Victoria in Australia. Each floor has glass walls for maximum views, and the whole thing is anchored to the cliff with engineered steel pins.

Actually Affordable Elevated Ocean Views

It’s rare that elevated homes with stunning views of the sea are actually affordable, but Canadian firm Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects has created a modest timber box that juts out over a bedrock cliff to make it seem as if it’s floating. Clad in wood to blend into the environment, the 960-square-foot cabin has a galvanized steel frame skeleton and diagonal planks supported by joists to eliminate the need for interior cladding.

Retrofuturistic Mushroom House

Sam Bell’s retrofuturistic Mushroom House is tucked away next to the Pacific Ocean in the cliffs of San Diego, its round design offering panoramic views, a concrete sea wall and elevated living area keeping it from being inundated by the waves. And if you’re wondering just how the owners even access it, there’s an elevator stretching up the cliff face to a larger home above.

Dizzying Drop-Off House Design

What looks like a diving board jutting out of the end of this concrete house in Japan by KA Architects leads nowhere but a cascading rocky cliff, so you probably don’t want to actually jump. The all-white home is all about sharp lines and stark contrast, with no transition between the street and the outdoor room that can be seen on the top level.

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Seaside Stunners 14 Cliff Clinging Houses With Crazy Views

Only the uppermost portion of this ambitious five-level home is visible when approaching from land, preserving the views for others and making for one dramatic way to live adjacent to the sea. Cliff House by Modscape Concept is a response to the demand in Australia for residences to be built along extreme parcels of rocky land on the coast.

The clients approached Modscape to explore options for a vacation home on the southwest coast of Victoria, where they own a piece of land that could prove a challenge for more conventional architectural solutions.

The architects took inspiration from the way barnacles cling to the hull of a ship, hanging the home off the side of the cliff instead of perching it at the edge. This configuration makes it feel like an extension of the cliff face, opening up incredible views of the water.

The prefabricated, modular house would be anchored to the cliff using engineered steel pins, with entrance through a carport on the top floor.