Brad Pitt Purchases Xasteros House, a 'Portable UFO', in Girona

With great secrecy, American actor Brad Pitt has acquired a historic rarity of prefabricated architecture in Catalonia, designed in 1969 by Greek architect Nikolaos Xasteros. It is an oval portable house, akin to a flying saucer, restored by French architect and designer Clement Cividino. It was situated in an idyllic plot in the town of Sant Climent Sescebes, Girona, from where it has 'flown' to California.

Passionate about architecture, Pitt collects unique houses. The amount paid for this modernist rarity, which Cividino found abandoned in Greece and purchased in 2023, remains undisclosed. After restoration, it was exhibited until September 2024 at the Terra Remota estate-winery in the Empordà, until Brad Pitt showed interest in it.

Made of fibreglass, the 'UFO house' has a surface area of 45 square metres and wooden flooring. The discreet purchase was made nine months ago, as Cividino has now explained. At the end of last year, it was dismantled to be transported in two large containers to California, where the actor treasures his unique buildings, a collection of unique houses by great architects.

Xasteros built seven other identical houses, of which Cividino has acquired four that he must restore and will sell without furniture.

The actor joined Canadian architect Frank Gehry, designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, in 2012 to provide homes for those affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Together, they created a foundation in New Orleans to build functional homes with sustainable materials. Also interested in design, Pitt has a furniture line.

Cividino has been exhibiting for nine years at Terra Remota, a winery located at the foot of the Albera Natural Park and acquired by the Bournazeau Florensa family in 1999. The architecture and interior design firm of Pepe Cortés conceived the 40-hectare exhibition space that integrates nature, technology, aesthetics, and viticulture, with 23 hectares dedicated to vines.

All the houses exhibited have been sold for prices that Cividino does not disclose. Only one remains in Empordà, while the others have travelled to China, Korea, or France. He is now exhibiting a tropical house from 1947, a unique piece by architect Ferdinand Fillod, which Cividino rescued and restored in collaboration with the French Ministry of Culture. His offerings can be viewed at https://www.clementcividino.com.