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Artist Ugo Rondinone’s sculptural home near Zürich is up for sale

A pavilion-like home in Switzerland by artist Ugo Rondinone is for sale for $5.35m – and it’s been designed as a living sculpture.

House no.1 was completed in 2014 as a live/work space for Rondinone in a forest clearing, close to the small town of Würenlos, near Zürich. The Swiss-born artist teamed up with architects Andreas Fuhrimann and Gabrielle Hächler on the genre-blurring, two storey prefab home.

Ugo Rondinone House No. 1 Zurich
Photography: Valentin Jeck via House Rondinone.com

‘I wanted to create a special place which is equally perfect for working and living,’ says Rondinone of the space, which he calls a gesamtkunstwerk.

Fusing Japanese influences with European Arts and Crafts design, House no.1 looks like a garden pavilion from the outside with its tall glass windows and a low-slung corrugated roof.

Ugo Rondinone House No. 1 Zurich
Photography: Valentin Jeck via House Rondinone.com

Inside the home, the soaring living room has double-height glass doors and windows, which peek out onto the property’s gardens. A sculptural fireplace is also a functioning replica of Rondinone’s artwork, ‘John’s Fireplace’, exhibited internationally.

Across House no.1 – on the market via Michelle Nicol of Neutral Zurich and Architecture for Sale – Rondinone’s built-in features blur the line between function and art, and use materials found in the artist’s work. A neutral, raw colour palette has also been used across the three-bedroom home’s interiors, with plaster walls (sealed with beeswax), warm wooden floors and finishes that evoke a Japanese vibe.

Ugo Rondinone House No. 1 Zurich
Photography: Valentin Jeck via House Rondinone.com

Furniture has been custom-designed by the artist, and the building’s gallery-like walls are hung with his pieces.

Rondinone’s skylit studio and guest accommodation take up the three-bedroom property’s upper level, with shared spaces set on the level below. Two brightly coloured staircases connect the levels, and the entire house is wrapped in terraces.

Ugo Rondinone House No. 1 Zurich
Photography: Valentin Jeck via House Rondinone.com

And while House no.1 is surrounded by trees on three sides, there’s room to build an additional structure to the east of the house, subject to planning.

Read next: 12 incredible artists homes you can visit

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