Moebius and Butterfly houses at Dover Heights hovering on the market: He Said/She Said
Moebius House, the landmark Sydney eastern suburbs coastal home, remains listed for sale through Daniel Baran at BHR Estate Agents. Its owner-architect, Tony Owen postponed the Dover Heights home's mid-week auction, but there has been an offer which is still subject to ongoing negotiation. Another modern iconic architecturally-designed home, known as the Butterfly House is also up for sale.
Our property commentators Margie Blok and Jonathan Chancellor debate the purchasing merits.
HE SAID
This curvaceous Dover Heights home - with a passive solar design - has been well recognised as setting a benchmark in environmental and construction innovation. The four bedroom, three level house comes also with views of the CBD, Opera House, Bridge and Sydney Harbour.
The north-east-facing home took 18 months to build, and flows over three levels with five bedrooms and four bathrooms to complement the large living areas. The lounge area has a mushroom-shaped Fireorb fireplace from Chicago, hanging like a stalactite would from the ceiling. The 129 Military Road home’s entire construction is an engineering feat, described once as like a parachute locked in the final stages of deflation.
{yoogallery src=[images/stories/2013/10/25/dove1]}
129 Military Road, Dover Heights
"It takes a computer to come up with a shape like that," the architect once said. And apparently not just any computer, either as Owen used Maya, a 3D modelling software used to make James Cameron movie, Avatar. With a retro Jetson's feel, it's named the Moebius House, a reference to the concept of the Möbius strip - a continuous, wavy surface with only one boundary.
Its made in China exterior is made of about 300 lightweight metal panels, no two the same size, with such customisation prohibitively expensive but for another new type of software, CAD/CAM.
All a bit reminiscent of the other white tiled Sydney landmark, this one is the Opera House of Dover Heights. Co-incidently Owen's father designed the seats for the Opera House. What a wonderful opportunity for buyers.
SHE SAID
With its so-called elastic architecture, the Moebius House is a little ahead of the curve. But at least Moebius House was relisted this time with more realistic reduced $3.75 million plus hopes. On its last listing the agents were seeking offers above $4.5 million. Completed in 2007, the 525 square metre block had cost $1.97 million in 2007. It looks more like a giant white sculpture than a family home, which is why nearly every day people get out of their cars to undertake a closer look, often right the ground floor curved windows which are unadorned.
And of course no surprise that the nearby lauded Butterfly House (pictured below) has also struggled to sell since listed in March, although they have recently installed tinted windows as a result of buyer feedback.
Designed by architect Ed Lippmann, the futuristic figure-eight-shaped Butterfly residence has been a talking point of the suburb since it was commissioned in the mid-1990s by a wealthy Chinese-Malaysian businessman, who abandoned the complex project two years after construction began. It was finished with eliptical-shaped rooms stacked to give three floors of living space in the north-west wing and a 12-car granite-tiled garage and the bedrooms in its eastern wing.
{yoogallery src=[images/stories/2013/10/25/dove2]}
The Butterfly House at 197 Military Road sold in 2010 for $5.05 million to telco company owner Michael Yi and his wife, Michelle, who living mostly in Jakarta. They had prevopusly listed the property with $6.5 million plus hopes.
It's now with different agents, Adam Ross and Shayne Harris at Savills Sydney inconjunction with Ray White Double Bay agents Elliott Placks and Gavin Rubinstein who have it listed for November 21 auction. It's now with $5 million plus hopes.