Sachin Tendulkar And The Shell Shaped House

Summary:
Email claims that an unusual and beautiful shell-shaped house depicted in a series of attached photographs is the home of Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and is located in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai, India (Full commentary below).



Status:
Real house, but the description is inaccurate

Example:(Submitted, October 2009)


Commentary:

©iStockphoto.com/redmal Famous Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar does not live in a house shaped like a shell

This message claims that a fascinating and beautiful dwelling featured in a series of accompanying photographs belongs to famous Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. According to the message, Tendulkar's unique house, built to resemble a shell, is located in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai, India. Bandra is known as the location of choice for many rich and famous Indians.

The photographs themselves are genuine and do depict a real house. However, the dwelling does not belong to Sachin Tendulkar. Moreover, it is not located in Bandra or anywhere else in India. In fact, the building is located half a world away in Naucalpan a large urban center in the north of Mexico City, Mexico. The house dubbed "The Nautilus" in homage to its shell-like appearance, was created by Mexican architect Javier Senosian.

And far from housing an Indian cricketer - famous or otherwise - the shell house is actually home to a Mexican family of four. An article about the house published on Guardian.co.uk notes:

Every morning and evening, 10 lines of traffic inch through Naucalpan to the north of the Mexico City, along one of its busiest sections of ring road. Low concrete blocks stretch for miles, punctuated by picturesque, if precarious, shacks hugging hillsides and dotted with gated communities for the well-heeled that seem to hover above the general grit and grind.

Magalli Mayorga lives in one such neighbourhood, filled with large, conventional houses that evoke many an affluent US suburb. Except the home where she lives - with her husband, Fernando, 11-year-old Alan and six-year-old Joshua - doesn't exactly fit the mould. It is an extraordinary giant snail.

"The idea is that, just as a snail lives inside its shell, so our world is inside our house," Mayorga says of the ferroconcrete structure sprayed with polyurethane plastic foam, built for her family by Mexican architect Javier Senosiain. An admirer of Antoni Gaudí and Frank Lloyd Wright, he specialises in undulating, organic structures: "The concept of an organic habitat," he has written, "is the creation of spaces adapted to man that are also similar to a mother's bosom or an animal's lair."

Information about "The Nautilus" is also available on the architect's website along with more photographs of the house. Senosian has created a number of other "organic" dwellings that reflect natural creatures or environments, including a whale shaped house, a shark shaped house and buildings reminiscent of peanut shells, snakes, birds and flowers.

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References:
Sachin Tendulkar
Javier Senosian
Snail space
Nautilus House Natural Design by Javier Senosian

Last updated: 3rd November 2009
First published: 3rd November 2009

Write-up by Brett M. Christensen

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