Finding “nail houses” in Google Earth
by Google Earth Blog on Jan.23, 2013, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA
Nail houses are an interesting phenomenon, where homeowners refuse to sell their house/land to development companies and the company simply builds their new development around their house. They tend to be most common in China, but can occur in many different countries. The Disney/Pixar film "UP" featured Carl Fredricksen in his nail house before he attached the balloons and took off on his adventures with Russell.
The most famous real-life example of a nail house is probably the home in Chongqing, China, shown here, where the homeowner held out for nearly three years before finally selling to contractors:
Stefan Geens at Ogle Earth recently wrote an excellent article about nail houses in China, with geospatial references whenever possible. He covers a variety of nail houses in China in recent years (including the Chongqing house) and includes a nice KMZ file
to help you find them all.
As he points out, Google Earth's historical imagery tool can be quite useful when viewing the before/after of these various situations. I recommend you read his entire article to learn more.
Update: For more nail houses, check out this post from a few years ago on Google Sightseeing.