Most luxurious estates fit a certain profile: a huge mansion, some smaller buildings and a pool or other recreational space. The emphasis is on “most” there — because the world also contains a few high-end residencies that look like nothing so much as a science fiction fever dream, the sort of place where an ambitious filmmaker might set their epic feature set in a psychedelic future.
In the south of France, you’ll find one such place, known as the Palais Bulles — or “Bubble Palace.” In the 1970s, architect Antti Lovag designed the space in keeping with his ongoing fascination with “bubble housing.” It’s worth mentioning here that Lovag preferred to refer to himself as a “habitologist,” and created a host of distinctive structures that resemble a cross between La planète sauvage and Frank Gehry at his most sprawling.
Over the course of five years, the Bubble Palace was built for industrialist Pierre Bernard. In 1992, Pierre Cardin bought it, and the property is currently for sale. An article at designboom provides more details and includes this description of what buyers will get. The estate, writes Sofia Lekka Angelopoulou, “includes ten bedroom suites decorated by contemporary artists, gardens, water ponds, a swimming pool and a 500-seat outdoor auditorium overlooks the sea while facing the breathtaking bay of Cannes.”
The sale is being handled by Christie’s International Real Estate. It’s a singular building, and an absolutely stunning one to behold — the kind of architecture that looks more like organic life than anything else. Who will be its next occupant? Someone with very distinctive taste in architecture, we’d guess.
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