Archinect - News

Ye’s gutted Tadao Ando home is purchased by a crowd-sourced real estate investment startup

2024-08-27T12:25:00-04:00

An upstart California property investment venture named Belwood Investments has announced the signing of a purchasing agreement for the Malibu home Tadao Ando designed for Richard Sachs (and later purchased by Kanye West) in 2013. News of the announcement was made public on Monday after the home was placed on the market for a discounted price of $39 million this spring. In a press release, the firm states the deal was made for under $22 million.

The rapper-cum-fashion mogul’s devastating handiwork might otherwise be an obvious drawback. However, the firm, which promotes a crowdsourcing model of ownership, says it plans on spending $5 million to restore its interiors to their original state (the home was worth $75 million when it was constructed). The renovation is expected to take between 12 and 16 months, according to their announcement.

The New Yorker goes inside the architectural cadaver Kanye West made in Malibu

2024-06-11T17:45:00-04:00

Saxon had been hired to carve an oceanside Turrell out of an angular fifty-seven-million-dollar Ando. Ye revealed to Saxon—although not all at once—that he wanted no kitchen, bathrooms, A.C., windows, light fixtures, or heating. He was intent on cutting off the water and the power (and removing the house’s cable and wiring, which ran through the concrete in plastic tubes). He talked of clarity, simplicity, and a kind of self-reliance.

Former contractor Tony Saxson opens up to The New Yorker about his time working with Kanye West and Bianca Censori on the stripped-bare interiors of their Tadao Ando-designed home in Malibu. Some of the better quotes include Ando saying “my decision to accept [clients] projects depends mainly on their personality and aura” and Ye telling Saxson triumphantly “This is going to be my bomb shelter. This is going to be my Batcave.”

Saxson would later file a lawsuit against West for the alleged illegal termination of his services on the demolition project. The house (which appears in a state of decay and cinematic disrepair via a drone video) was re-listed for $39 million – $14 million less than the $57.3 million West purchased it for in September 2021 – in early April.

Kanye West relists Tadao Ando-designed Malibu home for $14 million less

2024-04-12T12:04:00-04:00

Kanye 'Ye' West has reportedly reduced the price of his previously listed Tadao Ando-designed home in Malibu, California, to $39 million, according to Realtor.com. The new price is substantially lower than both the original $53 million listing and the $75 million price tag it carried in 2020 before he paid $57.3 million to purchase the home in September of 2021.

The 4,000-square-foot design from 2013 had been previously owned by Richard Sachs. The deprecation might stem from its reported current state, which was affected by a hasty “gut renovation” performed last year and leaving its interior without finishes and (possibly) electricity, light fixtures, or appliances — resulting in a recent lawsuit.

Marmol Radziner served as the executive architect and general contractor for its original construction. Ando is currently working on the design of a vacation home for West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian in the Palm Springs area after seeing his MPavilion10 commission extended by another full y...

Kanye West lists gutted Tadao Ando home for $53 million in Malibu

2023-12-20T12:37:00-05:00

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Tadao Ando, the house features a concrete exterior in keeping with the acclaimed architect’s streamlined brutalist ethos. In the couple of dozen months that Ye has owned the property, the music performer and designer removed the home’s interiors, leaving it essentially gutted. Now, instead of renovating the four-bedroom beachfront house on Malibu Road, Ye has decided to sell it, with a price tag of $53 million (he’s listing it at a loss).

Post-divorce Ye apparently contracted a gut renovation that left Ando’s original 2013 design looking more like “a bomb shelter from the 1910s” in the year leading up to its new listing. That endeavor ended in a $1 million lawsuit brought forth by its project manager over dangerous working conditions that remains unsettled.

The four-bed, 4.5-bathroom home had been purchased for $57.3 million in September of 2021. Jason Oppenheim, the agent in charge of its sale, said the new price “reflect[s] the need for the interior finishes to be replaced” and that he was confident in its ability to be “brought up to 2024 standards.”

Ando is meanwhile working on a brand new Palm Springs abode for its former co-inhabitant Kim.

Kanye West sued by project manager at Tadao Ando-designed home who was fired for refusing to perform illegal work

2023-09-14T16:13:00-04:00

A project overseer and estate guardian for Ye, previously recognized as Kanye West, claims he was dismissed for declining to eliminate all windows and electricity from Ye's Malibu residence, as per a legal complaint submitted recently in the Los Angeles County Superior Court and reported by NBC.

The legal action points to breaches of several labor standards, encompassing hazardous work environments, unsettled salaries, and unjust retaliatory firing.

The suit stems from a comprehensive overhaul the controversial rapper was attempting at the $57.3 million property, allegedly with the intention of converting Tadao Ando’s 4-bed, 4.5-bath residence into a bunker-type structure that resembles “a bomb shelter from the 1910s.” Photos published in May appear to show nearly all of the home’s glass and interior fit-out has been removed, adding to the contractor’s claims that Ye was pursuing a design devoid of appliances, electrical power, or even light fixtures.

“He continues his pattern of ...

Kim Kardashian taps Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma for post-divorce vacation homes

2022-02-11T12:30:00-05:00

At present, Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando is building Kim’s Palm Springs home, which she describes as “concrete, gray-toned, and really zen,” while Kengo Kuma, who designed the National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as LVMH’s Japan headquarters, is creating a glass-and-wood lake house for her in an undisclosed location, where Kim travels every Fourth of July.

The Palm Springs home and new Kuma design will offer some competition to the pricey portfolio her ex-husband has been building with his recent $57.3 million acquisition of an Ando-designed Malibu home that was custom-built for investment manager Richard Sachs in 2013.

Tadao Ando Interview with Archinect: 20 Minutes with a Master

Kardashian, who visited Ando's Chichu Art Museum in her past life with the Donda rapper, recently acquired ownership of the couple’s minimalist Hidden Hills home in the fall as part of the stipulation for their now-finalized divorce The Vogue cover girl credited the design process and collaboration with Axel Vervoodt with instigating a “love affair with architecture, specifically Japanese” as she spoke with the magazine’s Jen Wang about her SKIMS side hustle and new redefining role as the face of Balenciaga.

The Proust Questionnaire: Kengo Kuma

Kanye West's favorite architect is drawing some seriously high praise

2021-09-21T15:15:00-04:00

“For most of us, architecture is a profession of compromise [...] We are service people, turned on and off by the client, not so terribly different from window washers. But Valerio is different. He believes in the physical substance of architecture, not the impression — that something should not just look interesting but be interesting. That makes him incredibly important to our field.”

The ever-famous Valerio Olgiati is also a favorite of Kanye West, whose splashy architectural tastes have made headlines of late, and for whom the Swiss architect is said to be designing an underground Wyoming home, among other projects. The 44-year-old rapper even reached out to him for input on his recent album Donda.

“He says I am Picasso, and his job is to buy land so that I can create,” Olgiati told the NYT Style Magazine. “I have never had anyone who appreciates so much what I do.”

Olgiati previously served as the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Harvard GSD. T Magazine has a lengthy profile of the prolific architect here.

Kanye West buys $57.3 million Tadao Ando-designed Malibu home

2021-09-20T18:04:00-04:00

Less than a month after the release of his long-awaited album, “Donda,” Kanye West paid $57 million for a Tadao Ando-designed Malibu beach house, which first listed in May 2020.

West purchased the 4,000-square-foot concrete home in an off-market deal with retired Wall Street financier Richard Sachs. It was initially listed at $75 million in May 2020 before being removed from the market.

The former owner commissioned the home, and it was completed in 2013. It has four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, and is directly on the beach. According to Dirt, the structure reportedly required 1,200 tons of poured concrete, 200 tons of steel reinforcement, and 12 pylons driven 60 feet into the ground to support the heavy home from sinking into the sand.

Tadao Ando is reportedly one of West’s favorite architects, who described a visit to the art island of Naoshima, Japan, where Ando contributed several building designs, as “life-changing.”

Marmol Radziner was the executive architect and general contractor on this project.

Kanye West originally planned to move his actual childhood home to Chicago's Soldier Field for DONDA listening event

2021-09-02T14:59:00-04:00

Kanye West built a replica of his boyhood home for his show last week at Soldier Field because the city denied him permission to move the real thing.

For the Chicago stop of his DONDA listening tour, West built a replica of his childhood South Shore home with the addition of a cross on top, that sat in the center of Soldier Field. As reported by the Chicago Sun Times, the home “served as a dramatic centerpiece as dancers dressed in SWAT gear and a lineup of trucks continuously circled its perimeter at one point.”

Regarding the inability to move the original home, Chicago’s Buildings Department said: “Moving a home in Chicago is a very technical process that requires structural engineer reports and multiple city permits. The request to move the house at 7815 S. South Shore Dr. was denied last week because no permit application had been received to excavate and move the vacant property which is also in Demolition Court.”

Last year, West purchased his childhood home, which was abandoned and boarded up, for about $225,000 with plans to renovate it, according to a WGN report.

Kanye West unveils renewed construction photos of dome shelters

2020-07-07T11:33:00-04:00

Kanye West, who almost a year ago, was forced to demolish his housing project in Calabasas for lack of permitting and failure to comply with building codes, unveiled July 5th on Twitter what appears to be a new stab at the endeavor. "YZY SHLTRS in process #2020VISION" the post reads. The accompanying photo appears to contain three structures, each at a different stage of development. One can see some shoring happening on the structure closest to the camera, and off at the top right of the frame looks to be a structure whose structural form has already taken on a dome like aesthetic.

This news follows the musician's recent announcement on Twitter that he will be running for president of the United States. This was the first time we were introduced to the #2020VISION hashtag from the artist, something that many are attributing as a title for West's campaign for president. However, many are doubtful that West will actually run for office. In any case, we will all be waiting to see mo...

What if Zaha Hadid had designed a pair of YEEZYs?

2019-09-23T15:00:00-04:00

What we have here is a seamless, one-piece, alabaster molded slip-on, punctured by organic-shaped holes and replete with the sort of bulges, curves, and shapes that, for the design inclined, should conjure not only connections to modern automotive design, but thoughts of the late Zaha Hadid’s oeuvre as well. It’s perhaps reductive to say, as we have, that this is a Hadid version of a Croc, but it’s also accurate and curious.

Surface magazine commends West for his study and reference to design and architecture, reporting on his personal acquaintance with Hadid and his positive remarks on the work of Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron. It is only natural, the publication reports, that West's fashion would show his architectural influences. The new Yeezy Foam Runners will drop in 2020.

Kanye West's futuristic domes have been demolished

2019-09-10T10:49:00-04:00

Kanye West's "housing project" has been destroyed. Although the music mogul and controversial media star has made headlines with his plans to design and build a "new" type of home, TMZ's sources have confirmed the project has been shut down. The futuristic housing structures previously built in Calabasas, California faced destruction on Monday afternoon due to a failure to comply with building codes.

TMZ provides more details of the project's status: "All but one of the housing prototypes were torn down with about a week to spare before the September 15 deadline ... imposed by the L.A. County Dept. of Public Works for violating the building code."

Many Yeezy fans may be devastated by the news. However with one of the housing prototypes still standing, status of the project being moved elsewhere is still unknown.

MOCA Chicago celebrates Virgil Abloh's career outside of architecture

2019-08-21T18:11:00-04:00

I doubt that Virgil Abloh is ever going to design a building, even if Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA, the most successful spotter of talent in allied fields that architecture has seen in the last century, has added him to his stable of associates...

The famous Louis Vuitton designer has carved out an impressive career for himself, working as a DJ and advisor to Kanye West in addition to producing "furniture, performance sets, art work, and graphic design projects." Despite receiving his Master of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2006, Abloh has foregone a traditional path in architecture for a more multidisciplinary one.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has a current exhibition about Abloh's near 15 year career that will run until September 22, 2019.

Kanye West's domes lack permits, face potential demolition

2019-08-07T19:11:00-04:00

Last week, we received news of Kanye's plans to "build a new type of home" that he believes will separate barriers between the rich, middle-class, and the poor. Built on his 300 acres of land in Calabasas, CA, the ambitious egalitarian now seems to have left out one crucial step in the building process — apparently there are no permits.

According to TMZ's sources close to the project, it looks like "several neighbors have complained to the L.A. County Dept. of Public Works, and after inspectors came out to the property, they determined the project violates the building code, and if Ye doesn't get the property permits by Sept. 15, the structures must be torn down."

An inspector that went out to the site was told by the site manager that "the domes were part of a 'production,' and they were temporary structures." A convenient line of reasoning to avoid the need for permits. But upon further inspection, it was found, among other things, that the domes were sitting on a concrete foundat...

Kanye West is building domed housing in pursuit of breaking down class barriers

2019-07-31T19:31:00-04:00

Kanye West's passion for architecture is no secret. Almost a year ago he announced his YEEZY Home venture which emerged as a low-income housing endeavor composed of prefabricated concrete modules. We've also seen him pop up at the GSD and SCI-Arc to explore the academic depths architecture has to offer. In 2010, West cited a lamp design by Le Corbusier as a guiding inspiration for his hit single All of the Lights. About five years ago he spoke at length of a previous partnership with Rem Koolhaas. Several years later, West hired interior designer Axel Vervoordt to re-design the Calabasas home West shares with his wife, Kim Kardashian West. And more recently, West worked with Los Angeles architect Willo Perron to design Yeezy's California headquarters in Calabasas.

"I was able to take my position as a musician...and as a celebrity and be able to invest in a project with a company to that level," he expressed in an interview with Koolhaas' son, Tomas. West elaborated on his desire and...

Architecture news in the year of news: June 2018 on Archinect

2018-12-22T12:55:00-05:00

Put simply, there was an overwhelming amount of news this year, and June was no exception. It was a big month for the world of architecture, but it also marked the beginning of a significant step for the small team at Archinect, too.

EVENTS:

↑ The Opening of Archinect Outpost

Archinect Outpost first opened its doors on June 15th with the sale of Ed Issue 2. It was our biggest step into the world of retail, and we have learned countless lessons since opening day. We exclusively sold architecture magazines at first, followed by the addition of architecture monographs, which was then quickly followed by the addition of numerous design objects and apparel items. It has been a rewarding six months being a part of the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District community, and we are looking forward to what the future holds for our small but mighty retail space.

DESIGN:

↑ Olafur Eliasson completes his first building, Fjordenhus, in Denmark

The announcement of Olafur Eliasson's biggest architectural...

Kanye West's first YEEZY Home project appears to be a prefab affordable housing scheme

2018-06-04T14:00:00-04:00

It's been merely a month since rapper/entrepreneur/design aficionado Kanye West announced on Twitter that he would launch an architecture venture with his design firm, to be called YEEZY Home, and now first renderings have appeared on Instagram that list West among the designers.

"Low income housing scheme, made of prefabricated concrete in collaboration with Petra Kustrin, Jalil Peraza, Kanye West, Nejc Skufca," reads the caption of an image that shows a minimalist courtyard flanked by walls that mimic the brutalist, austere aesthetic of West's latest private estate as well as his YEEZY HQ in Calabasas, a posh Los Angeles suburb.

Image via Jalil Peraza/@jalilperaza on Instagram.

The image was shared by designer, and former Kanye West collaborator, Jalil Peraza who added another rendering this morning of an ultraminimalist kitchen with muted brass and concrete surfaces, crediting the same design team.

Image Jalil Peraza via hypebeast.com.

Hypebeast also published another rendering o...

Is Kanye West really starting a Yeezy architecture venture? (He tweets he is.)

2018-05-07T14:07:00-04:00

Kanye West's flirt with the architecture profession appears to take on a more 'It's complicated' kind of status—if you're willing to lend enough credibility to his tweet from yesterday, announcing "we’re starting a Yeezy architecture arm called Yeezy home. We’re looking for architects and industrial designers who want to make the world better".

It's unclear whether West was already looking for prospective would-be employees for this newly announced venture when he made a surprise appearance at SCI-Arc's Spring Show recently, but he's certainly expressed his admiration for the profession for some time now—receiving mixed reactions from practitioners for statements like, "I hang around architects mostly, people that wanna make things as dope as possible … This is the reason why I’m working with five architects at a time," among others.

Kanye being Kanye, we're accepting his 146-character venture announcement with enough caution and see if Yeezy home actually turns into a stable 'In ...

Kanye West visits SCI-Arc while hanging out with controversial conservatives Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk

2018-04-30T19:07:00-04:00

Kanye West has made a confusing return to Twitter this month. During his recent spree, the rapper has doubled down on his support of Donald Trump, praised the right-wing commentator Candace Owens, and—in a move that would seem to be at odds with the first two—referred to Parkland shooting survivor Emma González as his hero.

Amidst his Twitter-ing, West took a quick break yesterday to visit the Southern California Institute of Architecture, where he met with Owens and fellow right-winger and Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk. There, the three walked through the school's Spring Show (which is open to the public), looked at some student work, and learned about desalination. West even took second to tweet about his visit and shout out the work of M.Arch I student Ashley Hastings.

Donald Trump Jr. also got involved, tweeting out his delight at West hanging out with his pals.

Though the reason for their visit is currently unknown, West has long been a champion of architecture. I...

Kanye West has ambitions to design for Ikea; run for President in 2020

2016-08-01T14:11:00-04:00

Famous rapper, fashion designer, husband of Kim Kardashian West and incorrigible enfant terrible Kanye West announced his desire to design for Ikea in a recent interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1.

"I have to work with Ikea—make furniture for interior design, for architecture," he told Mac. "Yo Ikea, allow Kanye to create. Allow him to make this thing because you know what, I want a bed that he makes, I want a chair that he makes—I want more products from Ye."

West, who hired architects to design a volcano and made a surprise visit to the GSD studios, has previously expressed a desire to work with design and architecture professionals. With Mac, he spoke specifically of wanting to design "a minimalist apartment inside of a college dorm," which sounds downright wistful given his debut album was titled The College Dropout.

According to a report by the BBC, Ikea has not commented on West's aims at partnership, but that earlier this year West had visited Ikea's HQ in Älmhult, Sweden, a...

A Secret Language: Oana Stanescu and Dong-Ping Wong, partners at Family, on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #16

2016-03-28T14:04:00-04:00

This week on One-to-One, we check in with the partners behind Family, Oana Stanescu (former top-notch Archinect School Blogger) and Dong-Ping Wong, to hear how the pop culture-bending firm grew from when Oana and Dong met at REX, to now designing for Kanye West and pitching their own projects in New York, including the innovative + Pool project. Also, why Oana's dog is all over their website.

Listen to One-to-One #16 with Oana Stanescu and Dong-Ping Wong of Family:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessions One-to-One" podcast
SoundCloud: click here to follow Archinect
RSS: subscribe with any of your favorite podcasting apps via our RSS feed: http://onetoone.libsyn.com/rss
Download: this episode

Shownotes:

Oana's archived School Blog for Universitatea „Politehnica” din Timişoara

What Oana is reading:

Life Is Elsewhere, by Milan Kundera
Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco

What Oana is listening to: Nirvana, Guns & Roses

What Dong is watching...

Oana Stanescu, the architect behind Kanye's volcano, talks to NY Times about pushing design boundaries via pop culture

2015-08-06T18:45:00-04:00

For a serious architect who has designed public housing in Dallas and a bridge in Slovenia, it may come as a surprise that Oana Stanescu’s best-known work is a 50-foot-high volcano that Kanye West ascended onstage during his grandiose Yeezus tour...Along with Dong-Ping Wong, her partner in the West Village architectural firm Family, Ms. Stanescu is making a name for herself in design circles for her ability to merge pop culture with utilitarian design.

For more Family on Archinect, you can check out Oana's archived Archinect School Blog, the +POOL, and the firm's other cool projects.

Editor's Picks #343

2013-11-26T12:22:00-05:00

Archinect inaugurated a new interview series The Deans List. For the first installment, Archinect talked with David Gissen, the Director of Architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Reflecting on current trends and his own interests for the future of architectural education he reflects "I think lots of architecture schools are interested in working with cities, and with centers of power like a municipal office – some powerful agent that has the ability to transform and legislate the shape of the city. It’s an exciting thing for architecture students to be involved in those forms of power".

While in the latest edition of Showcase; featured Taipei Sales Center by Oyler Wu Collaborative. A somewhat temporary project with limited programmatic needs resulted in "a five-story volume pierced (quite literally) and interconnected by an intricate ribbon of rope, steel, and fabric. The renovation creates an entirely new identity and is suggestive of the modern ...

OMA Designs a Pyramid for Kanye West

2012-05-28T20:03:00-04:00

An OMA-designed temporary pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival was inaugurated today with a screening of Kanye West's debut short film Cruel Summer. The pavilion, with a design led by Shohei Shigematsu, is a raised pyramid containing a seven-screen cinema invented by West's creative team, Donda.