Kenny Schacter wants to work out of his house. To do that, he needs a new house. Naturally, he wants it to be a distinctive work of architecture, the Times of London tells us:
When Kenny Schachter, an art dealer, decided to build an extravagant new live/work property in Hoxton Square, in east London, he knew who he wanted to design it: Zaha Hadid, probably the world’s most prominent female architect.
Baghdad-born Hadid, whose most recent projects include the Aquatic Centre for the 2012 London Olympics, also in east London, came up with a suitably extraordinary design for Schachter’s house/gallery: something like a cubist painting turned into a 3-D building. However, although planners at Hackney council, the local authority, gave their permission, English Heritage, according to Schachter, “acted like Prince Charles, saying it was the wrong building in the wrong neighbourhood”. Their objections were eventually overcome, but then the credit crunch hit, and the £7m house/gallery project was suspended. […]
Schachter, who reckons he spent some 6%-10% of his £7m budget on Hadid’s fee, meanwhile hopes his unusual home will be “up before the Olympics”, giving him the only residential project she has designed in Britain.
Not that it has been a smooth ride. “Zaha’s well known for dressing people down, and I’ve been dressed down,” he says. “Still, I’ve moved from fear to love.”
Architects: Catch a Rising Star (Times of London)
