Real estate is often a hot commodity in the Hamptons area of Long Island, New York. But an oddly designed house in East Hampton remains unsold even though it has been on the market since 2011.
The 2,700-square-foot house is painted in 40 different colors and has windows located at floor level, power outlets tilted at 45-degree angles and a cement floor covered with little hills.
The property, called Bioscleave House, is a testament to belief in “reversible destiny,” or the notion that humans can take action to avoid death.
Two deceased artists, Shusaku Arakawa and his wife Madeline Gins, completed the house in 2008.
They met at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, married in 1965, and together tried to achieve eternal life by making the world a better place – initially through painting and writing, then through architecture.
They designed the Bioscleave House to ensure active engagement in the performance of routine tasks, which the couple believed would strengthen their immunity to illness and extend their lives.
For example, the hilly concrete floor required them to use caution when walking across it to avoid falling. They also believed that the floor-level windows, the angled electrical outlets and the 40 different paint colors put the focus of their attention on their immediate surroundings and made their senses sharper.
But the residential real estate market in The Hamptons isn’t buying it.
The asking price for Bioscleave House just dropped $200,000 to $1.29 million. The asking price had fallen from $4 million in 2011 to $2.49 million last July and $1.49 million in February.
The property is an annoyance to locals. Marc Boroditsky, a neighbor who resides next to Bioscleave House, derides the unsold property as “a disturbing deviation from the norm.”
The belief in reversible destiny has no scientific basis, according to Dr. Ted Strange, a pediatrician affiliated with Staten Island University Hospital.
In 2010, Arakawa died of ALS at age 73, and in 2014, Gins died of cancer at age 72. [New York Post] – Mike Seemuth