Dalat beauty is actually picturesque. The shimmering picture has been created thanks to the roadside colorful flowers, the sparkling cascades, along with the poetic feeling of the misty city. Separating away from the valley, evergreen pine forests, or flower gardens, tourists will have a chance to experience a particular Dalat when dropping their minds to discover the Crazy House. Situated on Huynh Thuc Khang Street with its campus of nearly 2,000 m2, Crazy House has been extremely famous for its unique architecture and its singularity.
The Crazy House was formally called “Hang Nga Villa”; the change of its name was made as some people had copied its original name for their buildings. Its owner is Mrs. Dang Viet Nga, a Vietnamese architect. With a desire to to bring people back to nature to be more friendly with it, to love it; not just to make full use of it, then destroy it, by the voice of architecture, the architect has built the villa to show off her own dreams. Rather than relying on the classical principles of shape layout composing of straight lines and perpendicular planes as usual, she has produced paintings, and hired non-professional local artisans to transform these into structural elements. Few right angles have been found throughout the building, which instead boasts a complex organic structure echoing natural forms. In addition, she also took advantages of open space on all four sides of the room to make a rich surrounding vision. Inspired by the romantic and wonderful natural scenery around Dalat city as well as from the works of Gaudi, the architect has designed "Crazy House" right at No.3 Huynh Thuc Khang Street.
The Crazy House was built mainly in the period of 1990 - 2010 with the dominant content: "Right in the heart of amputated trees and stones, human can still create a warmish and fully-equipped space and even a castle full of mystery and appealing". It is also a passion of almost tourists taking part in Dalat travel and is home for tourists who would like to stay longer as well. The house is considered to consist of the Hoc Cay (Tree Cavity) Hotel and the Spiderweb Castle - both of them are ancient trunks made of the concrete. Right from entering the premises of the house, tourists will actually feel like being lost in a forest in the fairytale: the evergreen tangled vines along with shaggy ancient trees. Around the house is the convergence of wild animals and giant mushrooms - all are made of concrete. Outdoors, the spiderwebs which are formed from steel wires drop down from above, creating a stunning space. The house retains the rugged and uneven architectural arrays produced from concrete patches of black, yellow, brown with strange diverse shapes bringing about a mysterious feeling.
Stepping up the winding stairways, tourists will meet the small rooms with pretty well equipped facilities. Crazy House now offers 10 operating rooms for tourists staying. The rooms are located in the niches like caves and named as names of the wild animals: the bear room, the tiger room, the eagle room, or kangaroo room... All of the rooms are extremely particular, not repeating back on architecture and design. Interior decoration is especially strange and roughly carved, which is suitable for curved walls. In addition, the windows in the rooms also maintain relatively special shapes, some of which are convex and concave. From the ceiling to the roof, the entrances and corridors leading to the rooms are designed according to the owner's inspiration.
Especially, the rooms offer full facilities as the requirement of a luxury hotel. Perhaps, the most beautiful room is "gourd" room. It is also the highest room of the villa and receives the most attention of and international tourists. Spending their sleep here, tourists can comfortably burn wood inside the gourd, keeping warm throughout the night without any blanket. Actually, they will enjoy the feeling of losing in the fairytale when overnighting here. The overall house is considered one of the appealing tourist attractions in Dalat and is much mentioned in numerous tourist handbooks to Vietnam. Notably, this work has continued to be improved and expanded so far. Many foreign magazines also praised the special architecture of the Crazy House. In detail, Rediff Business voted Hang Nga Villa into the top 20 most unique architectural houses. People's Daily in China honored it as one of the most bizarre houses in the world. Most recently, Dailymail in UK has praised the particular architecture of the villa.
Thanks to its unique architecture and potential values, Crazy House deserves to be an attractive rendezvous for tourists who would like to explore the peculiar and unique architectures. The house is also considered today as a museum, or even a full of interesting park in Dalat tourism. It is truly a particular highlight of the poetic and romantic beauty in a dreaming Dalat.
