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on a Forbes-branded media tower in Manila). Antonio’s
father, Jose, credits his son for making much of the fam-
ily firm’s leap into celebrity dealmaking. And while Rob-
bie Antonio remains a managing director responsible for
Century’s luxury product line, Revolution is his baby. He
didn’t ask his father for an investment in his new ven-
ture: “I didn’t want to impose my passion,” he says.
In creating Revolution, Antonio is using the same
big-name flair he’s strived for in his role at Century.
Among his first calls was to architect Alan Ritchie—
a longtime design partner with Philip Johnson who
inherited the late architect’s firm—to create a modu-
lar version of Johnson’s Glass House. The 1949
New Canaan, Connecticut home is an icon of mini-
malist architecture, and Ritchie was intrigued by the
challenge of modular construction. “I think this is
something that can be built off-site and assembled
like a Lego set,” he says. “We’re striving to do some-
thing that’s customizable.”
Ritchie designed at least two models that can be
one- or two-bedroom homes. He followed the Glass
House’s clean composition and was faithful to John-
son’s proportions. He also had to ensure that the
components were simple for fabricators to re-create, in
sizes compatible with global shipping container stan-
dards and with assembly directions easy enough to be
followed by any developer. Another Antonio hire, Mar-
cel Wanders, a Dutch designer best known for creating
whimsical furniture like the Knotted Chair, says he was
drawn to the project precisely because it combines ar-
chitecture and industrial design. Wanders has a line of
homes that can be easily expanded and are somewhat
customizable (roofs are available in different colors).
While this prefab home business is reminiscent
of IKEA on a grander scale, Antonio says that he was
most inspired by Airbnb, which does three things heR
obbie Antonio defines the art of living by
living with art. The 39-year-old Filipino
real estate developer owns a Rem Kool-
haas mansion in Manila decorated with
MoMA-worthy works by Damien Hirst,
Takashi Murakami, David LaChapelle and Marina
Abramović, among others. Now Antonio wants to bring
high design and blue-chip architecture to the masses in
a small way—a few hundred square feet at a time. Last
year Antonio launched Revolution Pre-crafted Proper-
ties and commissioned dozens of bespoke prefabricat-
ed homes intended to be collectible. His new venture
isn’t nearly as expansive as his own house—which re-
portedly cost him more than $15 million. The amount
of money he raised to launch Revolution, he says, is no
more than $10 million.
Antonio hired 39 architects, artists and designers—
including Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, David Salle
and Lenny Kravitz’s Kravitz Design—to create homes
and pavilions that can be made to order and shipped
almost anywhere in the world within three months.
The average price for these mini-mansions is around
$300,000, with an average size of 1,000 square feet.
“I want the homes to be perceived as art pieces,”
Antonio says during a recent trip to New York to attend
the Frieze Art Fair. It was through his travels to art fairs
and exhibitions that Antonio met Swiss businessman and
diplomat Uli Sigg, a major collector of Chinese art, and
persuaded him to invest in Revolution.
Sigg was swayed by Antonio’s years in real estate and
his passion for these modular homes. Antonio’s family’s
company, Century Properties, is renowned in the Philip-
pines for its luxury hotels and towers branded with de-
sign houses such as Giorgio Armani and Hermès, as well
as partnerships with Donald Trump, Paris Hilton and
Forbes (disclosure: in February Century broke groundThe Man Who
Thought Small
BY KEREN BLANKFELDReal estate developer Robbie Antonio believes prefab homes by
name-brand architects and designers could be the next big collectible.FORBES LIFE