ABSTRACT
David Leatherbarrow has described the origins of the word economy in relation to the ancient idea of the villa. The Libeskind Villa, however, derives from multiple, intersecting economies. The Libeskind Villa is about creating a custom fabricated house that can be duplicated many times. This chapter explains limited edition prefabricated house marketed under the Daniel Libeskind brand and an account of it in the architectural press. Claiming that the house and its depiction in the media offer an insight into contemporary architectural culture, the author proposes four economies of architecture are at work in the Libeskind houses physical and intellectual construction. They are the economy of technical efficiency and commercial profit; the autonomous economy of the house itself as a siteless, timeless network terminal; the shape-economy of Libeskind-branded architecture; and, the connoisseurs economy of cultural capital.
