It may be in the middle of a Russian forest outside of Moscow, but this home designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, which cost about $140 million to construct, looks like it was transported from a galaxy far, far away.
The property, known candidly as “The Spaceship House,” is the only private home ever to be designed by Hadid, who died in 2016, and was commissioned by Russian-born billionaire Vladislav Doronin, founder of real estate development firm OKO Group and owner of luxury resort brand Aman.
Vladislav Doronin | Credit: Taisuke Ota / Wikicommons
“I said, ‘I want to wake up in the morning and not see anybody, just to look over the top of the trees,'” Doronin reportedly told the Financial Times in 2018 of his request to Hadid. “She drew a sketch on the napkin and I said, ‘You’re hired.'”
The 36,000-square-foot home, formally dubbed “Capital Hill Residence,” has many unique features, but one of the most outstanding may be its narrow tower, and what it supports — namely, the master bedroom, situated over 100 feet high. The tower’s supporting column includes a glass elevator and staircase.
“She wanted this skinny leg,” Doronin told the Times. “The contractors and engineers said, ‘We can’t do this’ — but she was right.”
The lower part of the home is partially submerged beneath a hillside, and includes a 65-foot swimming pool, a spa and a nightclub. The ground floor includes the home’s main entrance, guest bedrooms and a library.
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“The residence is an expression of Mr. Doronin’s health-centered lifestyle and passion for both wellness and hospitality,” the project description on OKO Group’s website reads.
Although preliminary designs for the home were drawn up in 2008, the project was not completed until 2018, two years after Hadid’s death.
Patrik Schumacher, Hadid’s former business partner, took over the architecture firm after her death, and referred to the Capital Hill Residence as “a dream house.”
The project “has Zaha’s signature features of organic intricacy, complexity, of spatial arrangements, a lot of surprises, a lot of craftiness and beauty in the honing of the shape and forms,” Schumacher told The Times.