Gates' home with secret bar
Under my morning coffee at the beginning of the work week, I wrote for you a story about the house of one of the richest people in the world.
Bill Gates started buying up land on the shores of Lake Washington forty years ago. He paid $2 million for his first parcel. Then he bought another and another. In all, he bought eleven parcels for $14 million.
Gates tore down some of the houses and consolidated the area. It created a two-hectare buffer zone to distance himself from his neighbors.
The main house took seven years to build. The budget went from a conceived $10 million to $63 million. The house was named Xanadu 2.0. I'll explain the meaning of the name at the end.
The building turned out to be massive - 6,100 square feet. Seven bedrooms. 24 bathrooms. A garage for 23 cars for Gates' collection of rare Porsches. A banquet hall for two hundred people for social receptions.
The sports area has a separate room with trampolines. The ceiling is six meters high. Gates admitted that jumping on the trampoline helps him distract himself. There's also an 18-meter pool with underwater acoustics. You can hear the music as you swim underwater.
For hedonism, there is 100 meters of private shoreline with a beach. The sand is imported from the Caribbean every year.
Gates also made himself an atmospheric library. It has a domed roof. One of the bookcases slides away to reveal a secret bar.
The library's main pride is an original notebook with Leonardo da Vinci's scientific notes. Gates bought it at a Christie's auction for $31 million. It's the most expensive book in the world.
When guests arrive at the house, they are given a special badge at the entrance. Personal preferences are entered into the house system: air temperature, light levels, favorite music. They even ask what artists they like.
Sensors hidden in the walls and floors read a signal from an icon. The lights in the rooms are smoothly turned up to the right level, the temperature adjusts, and your favorite music follows your guest.
On the walls in the rooms are top screens stylized to look like paintings. Works by your favorite artists will accompany you everywhere.
If there are several guests with different profiles in the room, the system looks for a compromise. The algorithm for this case is written separately. Every tree on the property has a status sensor too, and the gardener's system monitors their health. And all this in 1997.
Fashion architect Peter Bolin was responsible for the architecture. French designer Thierry Despont was responsible for the interior. But there is one important nuance: all the participants signed the most stringent NDA. It's a non-disclosure agreement. For decades, not a single real photo of the interiors inside the estate has surfaced in the press. The level of secrecy is off the charts.
There are only a few drone and water shots of the house. I took those. Since there are no real pictures of the inside of Xanadu 2.0, I took a different route.
I studied designer Thierry Despont's portfolio and selected a few of his works in similar premium wooden homes of the rich. Designers of this caliber retain a signature handwriting. That's why the interior photos you see in this post are of Despont's actual work in architecturally similar projects.
So why is the house called Xanadu 2.0?
It's a reference to the movie Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. In the movie, media mogul Kane builds himself a lavish palace called Xanadu.
However, his wealth does not make him happy. He dies in this huge castle all alone. Before he dies, Kane utters the words, "rosebud." It was the name of his baby sled. In the last seconds of his life, the billionaire remembered not his riches, but the happy moments of his childhood. Will definitely watch this movie the other day.
Gates' house is named after a palace. Ironic. As a symbol of a rich man's loneliness. And proof that money can't buy happiness.
The best country real estate in the Moscow region:
"Lyon" is a chamber cottage village surrounded by ecologically clean forest. There are 50 cottages without finishing in neoclassical style. Owners of forested plots can additionally rent a plot with the forest. The territory of the village is fenced and guarded.
Millennium Park is an elite deluxe-class cottage village in Istrinsky district. There are 670 cottages in neoclassicism and art nouveau style on the territory. The village is a winner in the nomination "Low-rise residential real estate" of the international competition FIABCI Prix d'Excellence. There are 5 parks with canals and sculptures, a lake with sun loungers and a summer cafe, a children's playground, golf, soccer and tennis grounds, and a private kindergarten on the protected territory.
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Art.Eco is a cottage village in a picturesque pine forest with a protected territory and cottages in a unified style on wooded and lovely plots. All houses are bright due to the large area of glazing on the facade. For the residents' recreation there are walking paths near the lake, 2 children's and sports grounds, a barbecue area, a tennis court and a sauna complex.
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