Why play it safe when you can live on the edge? These designers daringly sited homes on the edges of cliffs, rivers and oceans. While the engineering was certainly no easy feat, the views are obviously well worth the effort.

The Holman House, designed by Durbach Block Architects, sits atop a cliff in Dover Heights, Sydney, Australia.

Cliff House on Gig Harbor, Washington by Scott Allen Architecture.

House at Jardin del Sol by Corona y P. Amaral is precariously positioned on a cliff 300 meters above the ocean in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.

photo by Patrick Reynolds

photo by Patrick Reynolds

Cliff House by Fearon Hay Architects in Auckland, New Zealand.

Another Cliff House in Dover Heights; this one is designed by Collins and Turner Architects.

Casa 205 in Vacarisses, Spain, designed by H Arquitectes.

Appropriately called the Edge House, Jarmund/Vigsnaes AS Architects designed this impressive residence on the outskirts of Oslo, Norway.

A-cero‘s almost Brutalist concrete house juts out of a cliff in Galicia, Spain.

The iconic Stahl House, or Case Study #22 by Pierre Koenig in Los Angeles has appeared in many famous photographs and films.

And finally, no compilation of “houses on the edge” would be complete without mentioning  Adalberto Libera‘s Casa Malaparte in Capri, Italy.