Madoff Kills Immortality

Among Bernard Madoff’s unlikelier casualties: the dream of immortality through architecture. The Wall Street Journal reports on two architects, Arakawa and Madeline Gris, who lost their life savings to Madoff. “The pair's work, based loosely on a movement known as ‘transhumanism,’ is premised on the idea that people degenerate and die in part because they live in spaces that are too comfortable. The artists' solution: construct abodes that leave people disoriented, challenged and feeling anything but comfortable.” Since losing their life savings to Madoff, the couple has closed its Manhattan office and laid off five employees.