East Hamptons’ mortality-fighting Bioscleave House could be yours for $2.5M
In East Hampton, the mortality-fighting Bioscleave House (aka the Life-Span Extending Villa) has returned to the market for the second time in its existence and is asking $2,495,000. Combination experimental art installation and dwelling, the 52-colored Cubist four-bedroom was commission by Italian art collector Angela Gallman from the late design duo Arakawa and Madeline Gins for $1.25 million in 2007, according to Curbed. As 6sqft previously explained, “the duo’s design philosophy is to combat mortality by creating architecture that makes people use their bodies in unexpected ways, challenging them to maintain equilibrium, in turn stimulating their immune systems.”
The property contains two connected homes: the new, 2,700-square-foot, avant-garde “back” house and the 900-square-foot “front” A-frame. The cubist back house, according to the listing, “is an addition, a landscape of shifting forms punctuated by 52 colors.”
The front house dates to the 1960s and was designed by architect Carl Koch with Bauhaus tones and the style of a summer cottage. In addition to being a work of art in its own right, the front home also features a fireplace, full basement, and floor-to-ceiling sliding doors and windows. Throughout, are small slopes and nooks and crannies made of “Japanese rammed earth country floor to stimulate the feet a kind of kaleidoscopic laboratory or incubator for living well and long.”
The creators were proteges of Marchel Duchamp, according to the listing. In fact, Madeline Gins suggested in a 2008 New York Times interview that hospitals be built like the Bioscleave House. In an earlier post, 6sqft described more details:
The house is meant to be an interactive laboratory for everyday life as well as research for the Reversible Destiny Foundation, also founded by Arakawa and Gins. The design of the home is fully symmetrical and includes sloping sculpted floors and walls that connect in unexpected ways. The abnormal structure is meant to challenge coordination; within this environment, people will be able to see how difficult it becomes to complete even the simplest tasks.
And to make you feel better about the $2.5 million price tag; it’s only $500,000 more than it took to construct the place.
For more photos, see 6sqft’s 2015 article on the home.
[Listing: Bioscleave House by Jose B. DosSantos for Brown Harris Stevens]
Images courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens
