Exploring Eliphante
By Never teh BrideThe NYT Home & Garden section (a bit of rad I recommend everyone read) had a wonderful piece on Eliphante, a Cornville, Arizona home built by an artist and his wife over the course of twenty-eight years. When the late Michael Kahn and Leda Livant began building on the property Eliphante inhabits, they didn’t even own it. Driftwood, stones, pottery, shards of glass, construction scraps, and even astroturf became building materials in Kahn’s somewhat capable hands.
Was there a floor plan? Did they discuss the number of bedrooms, the layout of the kitchen?
“We didn’t think in those terms,” says Ms. Livant, who is 82. “We thought shelter from the elements and a beautiful place to live in: stained glass and pottery and wood, sleeping loft and a fireplace. Michael had no definite plan except to work and see what the natural shape would be. If you stay with a preconceived notion of what you want, it could be too restrictive.”
There are, of course, more photos under the cut!
I think the whole place would feel almost cave-like, were it not for all the colors. I remember as a child being obsessed with the underground evo-houses in my grandmother’s art and design books — I would have been happy to live in a structure like this. I still would, in fact.
With windows like that, who wouldn’t? Here in New England, every other house has its token stained glass window, but none are particularly exciting or moving. I think it takes an artist’s touch to make glass do something really stunning and this is it.
The donated astroturf? Eh…in the article Ms. Livant says that it keeps the Arizona dust to a minimum, so it’s practical at least. But I personally would want to surround such a house with all manner of interesting plant life that would flourish in messy but fascinating ways.
Eliphante is now available for art installations and, if you have to means to find it, you can take a tour of the compound. The sad part of the story is that the whole works is falling into disrepair, attacked constantly by the rough climate and the local wildlife. I, for one, hope that someone with more cash than they known what to do with donates some to Eliphante LTD (501-3c) for the upkeep of the site.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I am humbled and awed! The redwood countertop is more art than mundane. This had to be a work of love because this cannot be purchased…
February 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
This is awesome. It looks as if it were built by a hobbit who followed the Grateful Dead.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Actually, what this reminds me of is the home that was used for Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle’s home. I think it was in Tunis - and for desert dwellers, living underground makes eminent sense. If we tried to do this in Upstate New York, we’d be standing ankle deep in water.