IF THE Big One hits San Francisco, William Tsui and his wife, Florence, can at least take comfort from the fact that they live in what should be one of the safest houses around.
Visitors to the retired professor's home at number 2747 Mathews Street will have no trouble finding it in the tree-lined middle-class suburb of Berkeley, California - the bizarre white building resembles a giant sea creature from a Jules Verne novel.
It is certainly a fish out of water among the boxy, conservative two-storey houses that line the rest of the street, and this has their neighbours in Berkeley - renowned as a liberal academic community - up in arms.
The Tsuis' 40-year-old architect son, Eugene, designed their bizarre home to deal with any disaster nature could hurl at it, including earthquakes, fires, floods and even termites.
'In California we face so many risks and I wanted to design a home that can deal with them all,' he said. 'However, many parts of the world have to deal regularly with at least one of the risks we face so my design is suitable for all over the globe.' But how could anyone condemn their ageing parents to life in an eye-sore that has provoked their neighbours to such hostility? 'My parents have been very supportive,' Eugene insisted. 'In fact, the building was designed with them in mind and included many features that they insisted they wanted in their home.
'They played an important part in the design process. We discussed everything and I came up with a design to meet their needs and desires.' But the result was far from satisfactory for their neighbours, who lobbied the council through the planning stage and at public meetings, trying desperately to prevent the house being built. The Tsuis' next-door-neighbour describes it as 'horrible'.
