The wired house where everything from your multimedia and security to your heat and water can be controlled through your smartphone is so yesterday. The next big thing is the health-centric home.
From actual at-home hospitals to wellness and fitness amenities, there’s no limit to how far celebrities and the super rich will go to make sure they stay young and healthy.
There were rumors Wednesday that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West plan to build a $3 million at-home medical facility, with an X-ray machine and CT scanner, mainly to serve their daughter’s medical needs.
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For most people though, the health-centric home starts in the bathroom, where one of the biggest trends is the vitamin C-infused showers, which removes the chlorine from the water and supposedly helps improve dry and itchy skin. Celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio have one, and you can get yours on Amazon for less than $100.
“The showers just seem to be getting bigger and have multiple shower heads,” said Jason Wilson, who manages the Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty Scarsdale office. “People still want a bath tub but they put more emphasis on the shower. You’re seeing a lot of steam showers too.”
In DiCaprio’s new Greenwich Village apartment, which he purchased last month for $10 million, there’s also a circulated aromatherapy air supply and posture-supportive heat reflexology flooring. The apartment is one of five units in the building, which was developed by Delos, a real estate firm focused on wellness real estate.
That’s not all. Luxury homebuilders in Los Angeles are also creating homes that serve their customers’ health.
A $65-million spec house in Beverly Crest includes a Botox station and a dental chair, according to a Los Angeles Times article. Architect Doug Burdge has designed homes in Malibu with wellness suites where hairdressers, fitness trainers and masseuses can come to the home out of sight of paparazzi. NBA player Jason Terry’s Atlanta home, which is on the market for $1.89 million, has its own in-house barbershop and beauty salon.
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Meanwhile designer Kenneth Bordewick has created a fully equipped intensive-care unit in one home so CEOs and other influential businessmen can be treated away from paparazzi, according to the same Los Angeles Times article. “If the owner goes to the hospital, the stock market could crash and a company may flounder,” Bordewick said.
Gyms have become ubiquitous in rich people’s homes and there’s more to staying healthy now including basketball courts, squash courts, bowling alleys and golf simulators.
There’s change happening with swimming pools too. On one hand, Wilson noted that indoor swimming pools are disappearing because of the mold problems and health issues they create for residents. On the other hand, homeowners have become more creative with the design of their pool, like this Stradivarius violin-shaped pool.
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