VILLA SPIES: STEFFAN BERGLUND'S VILLA SPIES with an essay by Mikael Askergren

Eriksson & Ronnefalk Forlag, 1996, First edition, 31 pp., 10" X 12", Softcover

Fine

Made entirely of plastic, this fully circular villa is an extravagant house designed in 1969 for Danish airline magnate Simon Spies who used it as a retreat to host massive parties and supposedly orgies. The house futuristic interior contains a special moveable kitchen connecting the lower with the upper floor. The house was widely featured in popular press, but not in architectural books. The house nickname is “Villa Fool” or “Pleasure House”.

Designed by Swedish architect Staffan Berglund, the winning proposal’s circular plan concedes extreme flexibility. The house has two levels: the kitchen is in the inferior level, and at the center of the cupola directly above it, a futuristic device opens to the superior level, allowing the dinner table to rise up to the dining room on the upper level, where the chairs are fixed to the ground. Thanks to this mechanical device, the modest dining space in Villa Spies worked as a versatile space, turning the house into a space seemingly twice as large