“The ground floor was a cavernous space of polished stone and glass, the walls lined with niches that seemed to hold fragments of life — a Roman vase, a pair of running shoes, a model spaceship— each bathed in its own pale light. … Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, crammed with books of every size and color. At the center of the room stood an armchair, its design old-world and inviting, paired incongruously with a plant crafted from living coral, delicate yet unyielding.  A great glass window arced across one wall, framing the world outside as though it were a painting. The hills, the road—all of it was there, yet it seemed somehow distant, unreal. ” The three-story house

The workshop