That’s okay. I still enjoyed your comment.
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Exactly. BoingBoing has a running history with the McMansion website, which is what was linked in the original post. Individual opinions are fine, but they aren’t automatically the one true definition. This is the definition we’re working with here.
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This looks like the kind of place Number 6 might find himself in after drinking some drugged tea. Are we sure there aren’t angry weather balloons swimming around in that lake?
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It’s not what you’re thinking I was commenting on, since I’m not a mind reader… it’s what you said to a humorous post about a monstrous house by a woman well-known for commenting on monstrous houses and having a pretty good track record of publishing on the topic of architecture… 
Hold my beer, says random developer…
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If it’s not a Scottish McMansion- it’s crap!
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I would be willing to wager good money that the original owner was the builder. So much of it has a “I’ve always wanted to do this” sort of look to it.
Well that and
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No, but that’s awesome…
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I’m pretty sure it was bright pink when I was a kid, but I like this paint job too. Small Scottish towns can often be quite colourful, Kirkcudbright is worth a visit, a few scenes from the wicker man were filmed there, my dad was an extra.
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I actually kind of like the wooden flying buttresses.
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Oh, there’re lots of cool features. That’s basically the problem.
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That boat house thing is epic, but just looking at all those stairs to get there makes my old knees ache.
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From the linked website:
Outside of McMansion Hell, Kate has written for Curbed, 99 Percent Invisible, The Atlantic, Architectural Digest and more. She recently graduated from Johns Hopkins with a Masters of Arts in Audio Science, specializing in architectural acoustics. Her thesis project examined intersections of acoustics, urbanism and Late Modern architecture.
So her formal training is within the field of architecture.
As someone without any formal training in architecture, I’m going to accept she has greater authority on the subject (and definition) of McMansions than I do. Who’s with me?
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So… is the “true definition of a McMansion” now one of the many things that will cause endless arguments on BB?
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Is there a room with an opening on the floor so one can fish from inside the house!?!
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I’m not sure I’d not call it the “ultimate McMansion,” because it’s just far too weird, overall. I’d call it a McMansion mullet - McMansion in front, eccentric architectural fever-dream in the back.
A big part of what defines McMansion designs is that they incoherently throw together a bunch of different architectural elements, so there is that similarity (even if, in this case, it’s far more extreme than you’d get with McMansions). Large swathes are pure McMansion, though. But yeah, in other ways you mention, it’s not entirely working as a McMansion. It’s sort of McMansion adjacent… or in the same family, or a hybrid or something.
I suspect it was constructed by people used to building McMansions (I mean, that kitchen…), which accounts for some of the similarities to McMansions.
I’m a fan of eccentric houses, and in many ways this is really the most boring “weird house” I’ve seen. Parts of it are weird and interesting, but then there’s too many generic, modern construction and design conventions going on which are incredibly boring. Granted, it’s interesting compared to McMansions, and the tension between the boring bits and the interesting bits is also itself interesting…
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IDK. That one has six different styles of windows, not because they fit different eras of architecture referenced in the design, but just because, er… Profit?
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I’m guessing that’s in the boathouse, but with this place all bets are off.
It probably has underwater lights to attract baitfish and thus predator fish.
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And yet our McMansion Heaven is still a McMansion. It is still an accumulation of deliberate signifiers of wealth, very much a construction with the secondary purpose of invoking envy, a palatial residence designed without much cohesion. The presence of golf, of wood, of masculine and patriarchal symbolism with an undercurrent of luxury drives that point home. The McMansion can aspire to an art form, but there are still many levels to ascend before one gets to where God’s sitting.
It’s sometimes fun to be less than pedantic.
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That’s a lot of meeting. 
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