In the past few years, there's been a sort of standard playbook for celebrity real estate stories: an enormous property is revealed, its size is extolled, and a few green amenities are mentioned as a testament to “environmentally friendly” design. One early and well-documented example is the Malibu compound owned by Pierce Brosnan, called the Orchid House, which is often discussed as an “eco-mansion.”
There is a long history behind this. According to a 2020 Second Shelters publication, Brosnan and his wife, Keely Shaye Smith, bought two adjacent plots near Malibu's Broad Beach in 2000 for about $5.1 million and $2.25 million, respectively. A mid-century ranch house was already on one of the lots and was demolished. IOver the following twelve years, the couple constructed almost 13,000 square feet of a Thai- and Balinese-inspired estate, which they christened Orchid House, a timeline that lines up with rental listings describing the compound as "newly built" as of 2012. The project raises an important question: when does a "sustainable home" stop being sustainable and become simply a very large home?
