Malawi’s football-shaped home

A Dutch architect took the BBC's Aubrey Sumbuleta on a tour of his football-shaped house where he lives in Malawi's commercial capital, Blantyre, with his Malawian wife.

Until about five years ago, Jan Sonkie was just an ordinary Dutch national operating in Malawi but now, everybody talks about him.

He has constructed a unique house in the shape of a football.

Standing on a three-metre high brick wall, Sonkie's house has become a tourist attraction, as many do not believe that human beings stay in the house.

Drinking den?

"Many people thought this was a drinking den and that we were sleeping in the normal houses on the other side of the fence," says Thokozani Sonkie, Jan's Malawian wife.

She says a lot of people including women normally come around to take a look at the house.

"They want to take a look at my kitchen and bedroom because they don't believe a house of this shape can have these things inside," she says adding, "after taking a look, those with cameras take pictures of the house."

Something different

Why construct a football house?

Jan Sonkie an architect by profession says he wanted to do something different from the rest of the buildings in Malawi.

"After having a good think, I settled for a football-shaped house because of the plot that I was allocated," he says.

Sonkie says the four-storey house that has at least a room on each floor is warm during winter and cold during summer because of its building specifications.

"The outside is all metal and the inside all wooden hence the self control of the weather."

Crazy

What do people say about his idea?

Sonkie says that a lot of people could not believe him when he hatched plans to construct the football house.

"Maybe I am crazy but I have a passion for football, although my busy construction schedule does not allow me sometimes to follow the game."

Sonkie says he decided to build his unique house in Malawi because he just likes Africa and would like to stay on the continent forever.

The Sonkies stay alone in the house. They don't have children and so the rest of the rooms are left for visitors.