Libeskind Hops on Pre-Fab Playground with 'Artist's Residence'

Architect Daniel Libeskind is not shy. The famously outspoken architect has been tapped for a spate of museum projects in the past several years: first, the Jewish Museum in Berlin that put him on the proverbial map; and more recently Dresden's National Military Museum, a modification of an existing weaponry arsenal that's drawn criticism for its nouveau Brutalist addition onto the 19th-century facade. Libeskind has defended his design, explaining that German history cannot be seen as a seamless chronology; instead "there is an interruption, a fundamental dislocation -- particularly when it comes to the Nazi period."

Taking a break from explaining German history to its citizens, Studio Daniel Libeskind has undertaken a smaller-scale residential project, a friendlier canvas on which to apply the architect's signature triangles of glass and steel. The pre-fabricated house defies convention: it's not designed on a grid; the materials are luxe, not cheap; and the exterior is an undiluted version of a Libeskind original. The Villa is also not for the faint of heart. The structure resembles a cut crystal, with silver zinc-sided facets triangulating from a central point. Even the interior plan is experimental, intended to blur the line "between a residential home, a museum and a beautiful villa."