In recent years, the market for rare, small homes and pavilions has boomed, driven by well-heeled collectors who are developing an appreciation for unique architectural baubles. Previous iterations of the Serpentine Pavilion\u2014an annual summer commission for a temporary structure in London\u2019s Kensington Gardens\u2014by starchitects such as Zaha Hadid and Bjarke Ingles have fetched mid-six figures or more, with others having second lives as beachfront restaurants, event spaces, and even a concert venue<\/a>. Property developer Victor Hwang purchased the 2002 Toyo Ito-designed Serpentine Pavilion, using it as a promotional piece for developments in London and St. Tropez. Irish property developer Patrick McKillen bought and moved a Frank Gehry Serpentine piece<\/a> to his estate and winery in the south of France.<\/p>\n Developer Victor Hwang purchased architect Toyo Ito\u2019s 2002 Serpentine Pavilion, using it to promote properties.<\/p>\n Patrick McKillen, another developer, bought Frank Gehry\u2019s Pavilion de Musique, a Serpentine pavilion, for his winery estate in France.<\/p>\n The work of French industrial designer Jean Prouv\u00e9 comes up for auction often, his demountable prefab structures fetching significant sums. A small cadre of collectors, including artist Richard Price, have bought Prouv\u00e9 designs; fashion designer Azzedine Alaia slept inside a Prouv\u00e9 gas station assembled inside his apartment. In 2021, a six-by-nine-foot demountable home that had been used as a pool house sold for $441,000 at a London auction, about 15 percent higher than expected, and last May in New York City, the Croismare School, Prouv\u00e9\u2019s largest such structure, was up for auction at the European Fine Art Fair; it\u2019s still seeking a buyer<\/a>.<\/p>\n At last year\u2019s Basic.Space event, another Prouv\u00e9 gas station fetched $1 million at auction. The buyer, who prefers to remain anonymous, told Dwell that they hadn\u2019t sought out a Prouv\u00e9 piece in particular, but once they saw it on display, they found it intriguing; it currently sits in the yard of their Palm Beach home functioning as a pavilion for the tennis court, stocked with magazines and bottles of fresh-squeezed orange juice. The collector doesn\u2019t make a habit of seeking out prefabs, but when sought after artworks can fetch tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, a more interactive, functional piece of design\u2014which ended up being relatively easy to move and maintain\u2014seemed pretty fun and somewhat low cost. It also reminded them of Burning Man and the power of temporary, movable structures. “It felt super cool and edgy, and if I wanted to I could put it up or take it down somewhere in a few days or sell it,” they say. “From the community standpoint, it\u2019s something I can share a little bit.”<\/p>\n Basic.Space auctioned off one of Jean Prouv\u00e9\u2019s prefab gas stations, which an anonymous buyer is now using as a pavilion for their tennis court in Florida.<\/p>\n The Walker Guest House last changed hands in 2019 via a Sotheby\u2019s auction, when it was bought for $750,000 by an undisclosed purchaser who has kept it in storage ever since. (Reportedly<\/a>, Belgian art collector Peter Gallieaert bought it and shipped it to Palm Springs.) At the Pacific Design Center in L.A. in March, the starting bid was $2 million, and while multiple parties have expressed interest, a final price hasn\u2019t been reached, according to Jesse Lee, who founded Basic.Space in 2019.<\/p>\n Lee, who says he was contacted by the current owner, had to split the Guest House in two to transport it to the design center, where it was reconnected on-site. A trendsetter who understands the pulse of collectors, Lee doesn\u2019t have the next piece ready for auction, but says they\u2019ll definitely be selling another soon. “Obviously it\u2019s not a common thing to own,” he says. “However, we believe there\u2019s a growing market for collectors with homes and properties that can accommodate what we consider a piece of art.”<\/p>\n Prouv\u00e9\u2019s work remains the most sought after. His steel-and-aluminum projects, designed to assist with France\u2019s postwar housing shortage, were rediscovered in the 1990s and 2000s; French art collector Eric Touchaleaume traveled to what was once Niger and Congo in 2000, where a handful of Prouv\u00e9 homes were used by local families as homes. He bought them from the current owners, and then resold them at considerable profit at auction<\/a>. The anonymous gas station buyer at Basic.Space expects their investment to appreciate over time.<\/p>\n![\"Developer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777879052_643_original.jpg\")
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