I will say upfront that there are plenty of opportunities for me to make Thor jokes in this post, but I am resolving not to. Anyway, Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky are building a compound in their beloved Byron Bay in Australia. Unfortunately, they seem to be the only ones happy as the extensive construction of their dream home has left everyone else fuming.
Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky are building a monstrosity of a home in Australia … and the massive building is pissing off tons of people who say it’s totally out of place and looks more like a shopping mall.
You can judge for yourself … but it’s easy to see why the Internet is going crazy over Thor’s new fortress. There are endless amounts of concrete, a huge chunk of forest missing and it dwarfs everything else in Byron Bay.
Chris and Elsa have been building their dream house for nearly a year — they’ve reportedly poured $8 million into the project — but the colossal compound has become a nightmare for neighbors.
The sprawling estate is expected to feature a huge swimming pool, steam room, gym and a luxury spa.
I can’t say as I blame the neighbors. Look at this thing:
Chris Hemsworth Building Massive Property in Australia, But Is It Too Big? https://t.co/rR9fwRAovC
— TMZ (@TMZ) September 25, 2018
A year of construction will set neighbors off, regardless of what’s being built. I know it’s the homeowners right to build but that noise and disruption drives you batty after a bit. Plus, I remember how much The Greater Hems waxed poetic about the beauty and tranquility of Byron Bay. How better to honor a serene bit of paradise more than ripping out forest and replacing it with an enclosed city. I’m sure Chris has a wholesome reason for this kind of ostentatious display of wealth. Since both brothers Luke and Liam are primarily based in LA, this citadel will likely house everyone for holidays and scavenger hunts. Not to mention that the Hecate Suite will need to be a corner unit with views of the forest and Chris. An at-home spa seems a bit excessive but what do I know, I’m just as happy to lay by their crystalline pool, watching the kiddies play and sipping on a bottomless margarita. Speaking of thirst, I imagine this makes Elsa quite happy. Nothing like having your mate procure you a castle to show their love, amirite?
I hope the finished fortress is an homage to the area and not a blight on the landscape. Although looking at that in-progress picture, I have my doubts. Still, I love some good house pr0n so as long as I get a spread in Architectural Digest on this, I’ll be happy. But the Hemsworth-Patakys will need to throw one very impressive barbecue to win over their irked neighbors. Maybe good friend and fellow Byron Bay enthusiast Matt Damon can attend, he’s so good with resolving controversy.
Hey, look at that, no Thor jokes – 10 points to me!
Photo credit: Twitter, Instagram and Avalon Photos
Lmao at “with views of the forest and Chris”
That place is ginormous and although not finished it looks like it will be an ugly looking house aesthetically.
I don’t understand why a family of 5 needs that much space? Someone is over compensating for something….
“Someone is over compensating for something….”
Someone is building a huge mansion for someone because he plans to be overseas filming more often than not (and being totally faithful of course…*cough* 😒)
Seriously though having been to Byron Bay this is out of place and tacky. A real shame.
Eh it’s not finished so it is hard to say right now. There are plenty of large homes which, when finished, blend into and even complement the natural surroundings. You see houses on Grand Designs and World’s Most Extraordinary Homes that are in natural surrounds and are pretty huge but look gorgeous. Doubtless, when they were being built they looked something like this too. Fingers crossed they end up with something lovely. I won’t judge until we see the finished house.
Who in the he!! needs a space that large? Good thing they have the money to hire people to keep it clean.
I don’t get megamansions. Whenever I see those giant suburban palaces (or heck, even Versailles…) I just feel very confused about the point of them (outside of status). Surely a family of 5 or 6, including staff I suppose, can live in comfort in much smaller spaces? I have a friend who has a big house (for France), with two living rooms and one game room, and no one ever uses the second living room or the game room, they all tend to pile up together in front of the chimney.
in my opinion, if you have to walk 2 miles to get to your fridge for a midnight snack that’s the complete opposite of luxury.
It looks like it’s big enough to have a kitchen in every room, or have a monorail to take you from room to room.
When I see mega-mansions, it makes me think the owners skimped on a good designer and architect who could create beautiful, functional spaces that would reflect how the owners actually live.
It’s such a colonizing mentality to build homes like this. You have to be a tone deaf, self aggrandizing jerk to go into an established neighbourhood, plant your flag, completely disrupt everyone and everything for years on end, build out to the property lines, and hire “the help” to take care of it all. These two are not as exceptional as they think they are.
My old neighborhood was annoyed and complained about the noise, filthy dust, and mess during the construction of condos next to us. This house looks even bigger,dirtier, and noisy than all of the condo buildings, so I understand why they’re annoyed.
It must be nice to be able to afford a big, luxurious mansion, but that looks ridiculously huge and more like a school, apartment building, or mall, not like a one family house. What’s the point of having a house with so many extra rooms that will never be used? That’s way too big
Byron Bay locals are super resentful about these kind of developments and they are vocal too! Elsa is going to have people yelling abuse at her while she’s out for lunch – I bet when it’s all finished they won’t spend so much time there after all.
They are right to try to protect their neighborhood.
Palm Springs for example was nearly destroyed – the last minute they realized their architecture is a major plus and draws tourists, even the small “ordinary” houses.
I hate these giga-mansions the mega-rich build. I feel like they grab my views. I find it obnoxious, people like Hadid and so on, or Edge or whatever his name is who insists on building in Malibu on those protected hills.
Which cracks me up because out in that area he’s surrounded by a bunch of pompous linen wearing richies who like to pretend they’re children of the forest. They’re all fakes, those neighbours would run you over in their totes environmentally friendly 4WDs in a beat if you got between them and their kombucha.
Ticking off the neighbours when I build my own mall-sized residence is one life stress I will never have.
And when the neighbors homes were built, they drove the people already in the area nuts, too.
I get it – it’s loud, it’s annoying. But your own house didn’t just grow there, you know? There was a time where the building of their own properties caused someone else distress, and that’s how it goes. It’s annoying, but what can you do. I have a neighbor who is an older, half-deaf, Newfoundlander (love the newfs, but many are very loud without hard of hearing yelling on top of it) who is constantly yelling, setting off fireworks, playing around with a big tractor, and having arguments with his dog. “HARLEY. HARLEY. NO. NO. Harley you get the f— back over here goddamnit. Goddamn dog. HARRRLEEYYYY”. Yes. Thank you for listening. Good boy”. And my god, it can be annoying. Especially because my dog is terrified of both Harley (VERY big German Shepherd) AND the fireworks. The smell of his firepit when I have a migraine is rough.
But I like my neighbors. They’re not actually hurting me with the things they’re doing. They’re loud, but they’re so nice, and he takes his tractor over to our house and plows out our driveway in the winter after a bad snow. He’s told me he doesn’t want to see me out there shoveling because he had a heart attack a few years back and he’s retired now so there’s no point in me shoveling the crap out of my driveway and then having to go work all day and shovel again when I get home.
I just can’t imagine complaining about what a home looks like. I mean – an illegal junkyard or something – sure. But a well cared for property – I don’t give a crap.
+1
Having visited Byron Bay – it was my favorite stop in Australia! – I agree that this is definitely out of touch with the quaint small town feel and vibe of the area. This looks like it belongs in Melbourne or along the Sydney Harbor. Not Byron Bay.
Once you get out into the surrounding area it’s totally Byron Bay. There’s a lot of money floating around out there.
Nahhhhh… There are plenty of mansions and big properties in Byron. I grew up going there every year – before it was cool. My dad and his friends started surfing there in the 60s when it was an abattoir town and the local cops used to kick them out of town for their long hair and jeans. When we were kids, we knew everyone in town and the same people were there every year for holidays. Over the years it has turned into something completely different. Backpacker stalwart, faux-hippy playground of the rich and famous, holiday homes for the rich, etc. Most people who grew up there can no longer afford to live there because all of the wealthy Sydney and Melbourne people buy their holiday homes up there and drive the prices of land and houses up. It is like a very swanky pretend “hippy” town these days. All about wellness and everything organic. They’ve stuck to their guns about not allowing fast food in the town (seriously, no McDonalds, no KFC, nothing) which is great. There are loads of organic cafes and pretty clothing stores and lovely spas around. I know people who have built up great businesses up there and love the lifestyle. On the downside it is an anti-vaxx hotspot (they seem to occur in places with wealth and wellness obsessions). I still love it, but it is not the same place. And as I said, there are plenty of mansions around – no matter how much people like to pretend to be crunchy hippies.
Did you visit a long time ago? I’m saying this because Byron Bay stopped being a quaint small town years ago. It’s not the big city but it’s not ‘country’ either. It was a hippie paradise in the 70s and 80s but it’s a wealthy and developed (some would say spoiled) place now. The countryside around Byron is stunning, though. This house may be big but the neighbours don’t look close by and there are lots of rich people’s houses in that area so … eh, it’s fine.
I’m just happy to see those Elsa/Adrien castle photos again.
Never fails to cheer me up. Especially that bathtub pic. That’s gold.
The cover is hilarious too! Elsa is really good at finding guys who will give her a castle/megamansion. Bleach…
I’ll be honest, while its his money and he can do what he wants with it. As someone who didn’t grow up with much I can’t help thinking about all the facilities he could of helped build for 8 million dollars. I just don’t see why someone needs this much house, especially when you work in a field that doesn’t have job security.
Not to mention if you look at the other photos, it shows pictures of his neighbors houses. Looks like that thing is going to obstruct a lot of the views.
BFD.
There are worse things being done to our world today than an actor building a dream home for his family.
If I had 8 mil to blow I would build a cat rescue and sanctuary and a modest home. That is my dream 🙂
Me too!
I hope they enjoy that ugly thing because there won’t be a long line of buyers should they decide to sell it.
An indoor labrys? Well la-di-dah, mr fancypants.
Construction is annoying, full stop. My parents are moving to Connecticut for cheaper property taxes but the quiet cul de sac dead end street they have lived on has had construction project after construction project since they moved there when I was in 8th grade (so not so quiet I guess). Both houses on both sides of the house they are selling were purchased by contractors, demolished, and a McMansion was built in its place. One of the contractors used dynamite to blast through the bedrock to build his basement. We were fully warned ahead of time and we were never around to actually hear it–construction usually was during working hours and done by the time I got home from school and my parents were at work. But I could always tell when they had dynamited because my dog would be incredibly freaked out when I got home. Also some tiles on the fireplace fell off due to the force of the dynamite blast which I think the contractor had to reimburse us for.
It’s fine if you don’t work from home but if you do or you’re a stay at home parent, I think I’d go bananas.
I can’t believe Chris married a gold digger. Yes, she is one, since she hasn’t had a career or even attempts to have a career in decades (way before starting a family)
The sad thing is that even her beauty is fake. https://static.canalblog.com/storagev1/starsaunaturel.canalblog.com/images/patakiantes1pk.jpg
That house is a monstrosity. The only thing that makes me kind of understand it is that he’s famous. When you’re famous you don’t want to leave home too often because the public and media harass you. You therefore want a house with a theater and many other things. The house also needs to be designed to provide privacy so the media with long range lens can’t intrude.
It’s ugly and stupid big.
Why do people need such massive houses? Where I live people are constantly trying to force through a plan for a massive house on a small lot, in our cute “olden day factory worker” neighborhood. The old houses are small and cozy and beautiful. The new houses are mostly gigantic persian palaces, so hideous I want to throw bricks through their tasteless cathedral windows. I’m furious.
Thank you for including the link to the castle.
😂😂😂😂
Meanwhile Hiddles is still living in his bungalow in North London with a tiny kitchen.