When I caught up with Kate Nei she had just returned from a two-day road race down the Adriatic coast. She had bested the best in Formula A. I was wowed. She seemed pretty unfazed. Her big concern was staying still for this interview. I suppose my crew seemed mighty dull to a Zen adventurer. Kate is the consummate warrior. Intuitive action and reaction govern her movements. She seeks peace through design. The rest of her life reads like a spy novel. Kate’s a daring lass.

Kate’s work is no less moving. It’s as dramatic as design can be. Her homes reach out and grab you by the nose. They point you where you’ll find the right way. Their AIs toil behind the scenes. They let you forget that they’re so damn brilliant.

Kate’s humor punctuates her architectural statements. A Marble Faun supertoy playfully attempts to seduce women wandering in the gardens. A driveway greets you with all the fanfare of a Hollywood premier. Walls shift or open as the party crowds its way out of the room. Books in the classic library seem to pop out according to need or suggestion. The music sooths you when you discover that the copter port door won’t open because you’re too drunk to drive.

Kate Nei Creations is organized around five design groups. The Fire Team creates lively kitchens and hearths and trademark under-floor heating ducts. Her Air Force tackles the living spaces inside and outside the abode. Nei’s Earth Group quite naturally concerns itself with gardens & landscaping. Water Folk make pools, fountains, baths, and saunas circulate like the life’s blood of the household.

The Lighting Crew is arguably the most influential of this quintet. Their bailiwick includes windows, doors, and other apertures. Their work is obviously stirring. It is typically the signature feature of a Kate Nei design.

"Kate Looks Into Isabella’s Eye"

Isabella stands in the hills overlooking Durham, North Carolina. She typifies Kate Nei’s work. She is designed around a single theme: the prow.

Her owner Enrico Basta is a sailor. His house invariably juts out of the landscape like a yacht cutting through a wave. Triangular forms representing the hull and sails suggest the drama of the raging sea. In other places they provide the quiet peace of a safe harbor. Isabella is a well-anchored refuge.

Enrico Basta is in every sense Isabella’s captain. Isabella is his first mate, helmsman, cook, and purser. She insures that his is a comfortable life. She opens her walls, tints her windows, stirs her pools, and even tilts her roof according to his charted desires.

"Captain Basta at the Helm of Isabella"

I visited Isabella and spoke with Enrico Basta. He was relaxing in a cool, thermoconcrete game room with his elegant companion Venus. The two had just finished a swim that began in the garden, wove through the triangular chambers of the main level and ended with a plunge into the warm pool of the lower lounge. They looked like a pair borne out of the Milanese aristocracy.



"Enrico and Venus with Isabella"

Enrico Basta spoke nothing but praise for Kate Nei. He noted that he had seen her work while vacationing in the Mississippi Islands. Basta knew right away that she could create Isabella to suit his needs. They then struck a deal that called for a very special living home. Kate Nei Creations delivered. Isabella was perfectly suited to her site and her owner… in keeping with the Zen of Kate Nei.

Visit the Kate Nei Creations website at www.katenei.com .