Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Andre Balazs is showing reporters around his new possession: a flat-pack jungle house that he paid $4.97 million for at Christie's International in June.

The prefabricated aluminum-and-steel structure -- a loft on stilts with rows of thick portholes for windows -- is no Chateau Marmont. A prototype designed by French modernist architect Jean Prouve between 1949 and 1951, it once stood, peeling and pockmarked, in Brazzaville, Congo.

The house is now outside London's riverside Tate Modern as part of an exhibition at the Design Museum, a short walk along the Thames: ``Jean Prouve -- the Poetics of the Technical Object'' (through April 13.)

Dressed in a hoodless black anorak and gray flannel, Balazs, 51, took time to explain his tropical New York purchase, shivering intermittently in the cold.

Nayeri: Why have you bought this jungle house?

Balazs: I've always been a big admirer of Jean Prouve. I liked the simplicity, and his attention to the form following the function.

I knew it was up for sale, and I knew there was the auction. I went and saw it. It was installed underneath the 59th Street bridge, on a spectacular site on the East River. It was love at first sight. It was a very quick decision.

Nayeri: What are you going to do with it?

Balazs: This was one of the first examples of a building truly engineered for its climate, and for a minimal impact. We'd like to take this as a centerpiece, and develop some environmentally sound prefabricated resorts in similar settings as to where this building was first built.

Heading to Miami

Nayeri: Where is it headed next?

Balazs: It's going down to Miami and residing at the Raleigh Hotel, probably for about a year or so, through next year's Art Basel fair.

Nayeri: Isn't $5 million a little expensive for a jungle house on stilts?

Balazs: Well, it's not a jungle house on stilts. It's a work of art. It's really a piece of beautiful sculpture. To go into it is like living inside a beautifully sculpted desk or cabinet. A better analogy might be a fine automobile.

Nayeri: This building is parked outside Tate Modern with your name attached -- isn't it going to help you establish a beachhead in London, which you've been trying to do?

Balazs: We are working now on a project, which is probably a little premature to talk about.

London Hotel?

Nayeri: You're opening a hotel here?

Balazs: I hope so.

Nayeri: What is it that so draws you to building hotels?

Balazs: The ability to create some sort of narrative for people to experience.

There is an element of the journalistic, of creating a story and its manifestation in a physical setting, which includes not just the design but ultimately the people and the staff. It's really about the environment and being able to give people some sort of joy and satisfaction in that special place.

Nayeri: What do you like about London?

Balazs: I like everything about it. It's cosmopolitan. Even more than New York. It's truly an international city.

Nayeri: You've said that travel is one of the last remaining luxuries. We live in a world that is awash with cash. What do you mean?

Balazs: You can get almost any luxury item anywhere. It doesn't matter where you buy your Prada bag. Travel, because it involves money and time, ultimately becomes the most exclusive thing. I think we're all looking for experiences, cultural and sensual. Travel offers all of it, and it's the only one that involves time and money, as opposed to simply money. In a way, it's the ultimate luxury.

To contact the reporter on this story: Farah Nayeri in London at Farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 8, 2008 01:54 EST