For sale: Designed by Bjarke Ingels, Vollebak Island is both building research lab and radical retreat

Vollebak Island is the brainchild of Steve and Nick Tidball, the founders of high-tech, ultra-performance, post-pandemic, gorpcore magnet clothing brand Vollebak. It represents a speculative project that takes their vision of corporate sustainability to another level. 

Welcome to Vollebak Island, set for a Sotheby’s auction

The private island has become a mainstay of modern tech bro culture, a realm apart from the everyday world, and where every facet of daily life can be meticulously curated to maximise pleasure, security and longevity. 

Now, billed as a ‘Visionary Concept for the Future of Habitation’, the 11-acre island off the coast of Nova Scotia is being offered for auction via Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions, complete with comprehensive plans drawn up by architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).

Ingels and his team have taken the Vollebak ethos to the limit; this is a brand that favours natural materials, organic processes and complete synergy with the Earth. The entire island is therefore designed to be entirely self-sufficient, using local materials wherever possible and sourcing energy from the land, including solar power, offshore wind and geothermal sources.

The catch is that all this wilderness wonder currently only exists on paper. The lucky purchaser will also be buying into the BIG vision and get the rights to shape the island in their own image. If they choose the Ingels route, then they can look forward to constructing, specifying and ultimately occupying the following accommodation, all set within a natural wilderness that’s theirs alone to explore. 

The Earth House is the centrepiece of the residential complex, actually nine interconnected buildings designed to resemble a piece of land art at the centre of the island. Covering 597 sq m, this collection of structures mixes building materials such as thatch, seaweed for insulation, and features a Japanese-style Bath House with ‘soaking tubs cut from the stone bedrock’. 

Guests can take the 88 sq m Wood House, set on the eastern shores of the island. This two-bed, two-bath annex will be built of wood and is entirely self-contained, rising up above the shoreline like the prow of a ship. The Earth House will also have a glass block greenhouse to grow food, extensive green roofs and 3D-printed concrete bedrooms. 

Nick Tidball, who co-founded Vollebak with his twin brother Steve, describes the project as a ‘glimpse of the future – a vision for how we might one day live on our planet – but one that can be built in real life today... It’s the home of the future as a fully living, breathing ecosystem.’ 

‘If you can build this one island, the principles can be scaled to a neighbourhood, a city, or eventually the planet,' Steve adds. 

Will the successful bidder be up for such an adventurous journey into unknown waters? Watch this space. 

Vollebak Island is available through ConciergeAuctions.com

Vollebak.com

BIG.dk