From the stationary in its library to the layout of its garden, nearly everything about this 2,470-square-foot property in Hawaii was designed by Memphis Group founder Ettore Sottsass. Sotheby’s International Realty's Becky Hanna listed the brightly colored three-bedroom, 2.5-bath house last month for $9.8 million.
The two-story house was completed in 1997. Located at 0 Kolohala Drive in Maui, Hawaii’s Kula district, it is one of seven Sottsass-designed houses in the world—only three are located in the United States.
Located on a 21,780-square-foot site on the slope of the Haleakala volcano, the house has views of the ocean and four surrounding Hawaiian islands. The house also boasts outdoor deck and courtyard spaces, as well as Sottsass-designed organic gardens.
Its current owners are husband-and-wife Adrian Olabuenaga and Lesley Bailey, founders of Maui–based accessories company Acme Studios. Founded in 1985, Acme is "the first American company that Ettore Sottsass ever designed for," and the only company to “work with all 14 Memphis designers,” according to its website.
Olabuenaga told James Tarmy from Bloomberg that after commissioning Sottsass for the project, the couple "wanted it to be a complete expression of what he had in his brain." According to the article, they gave him complete design control, then filled the house with Memphis-style furniture and accessories.
The Memphis-style décor of the house—including its flatware, furniture, art, and stationary—much of it designed by Sottsass himself, is available for separate purchase.
