5 places you probably didn't know people actually lived in
A typical house with four walls? For some people, that's boring. These unusual locations - including a cement factory - actually serve as homes, but would you want to live in them?
Cement factory
"La fábrica" is what Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill calls his villa, which he created in a run-down cement factory. For over 30 years, he has lived there with his wife and son, who is also named Ricardo Bofill. Measuring over 500 square meters (well over 5,000 square feet), the space includes several offices, a library, a showroom and multiple living rooms.
Bunker
During World War II, Hamburg built more air raid bunkers than any other city in Germany. There were over 1,000 when the war ended. Since bunkers are hard to tear down, a number of architecture firms subsequently worked on repurposing the structures - which is not an easy task, considering that the walls are often over one meter (3.2 feet) thick.
Cistern
Water used to be stored in this cistern on the Canary Island of Lanzarote off the coast of Spain. But when the residents of the small village of Los Valles got running water, the cistern was forgotten. It wasn't until just a few years ago that a local couple, Oda and Yayo Fontes de Leon, rediscovered it and turned it into a comfortable apartment.
Airplane hangar
The bricks are just a façade. This house in the northern German town of Uetze was built in a converted airplane hangar. It can get a bit loud when it rains on the corrugated metal roof, but otherwise it's quite comfortable in the 140-square-meter home. When the British military pulled out of the region in the mid-1990s, a number of the hangars they left behind were repurposed.
Church
What does a church do when it runs out of money? It rents its building. In London, that can be particularly lucrative. The second floor of the Westbourne Grove Church in the posh neighborhood of Notting Hill has been converted into luxury apartments. While that may not be orthodox, the Baptist congregation below was happy about the financial blessing.