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 foundation. This, of course, called for the need for permits.
Still, the source says that "...the structures were always intended to be temporary, because they're simply prototypes," and that the concrete foundations are merely a safety measure. Will Kanye get this through the proper channels? We shall see.
Let's rewind the clocks to the Make it Right campaign with Brad Pitt. I'm pretty sure he received a lot of heat and scrutiny about how these designs were pandering to an international design community to make rebuilding New Orleans sexy. The prototypes built for that campaign are of inferior quality and ultra-expensive. It was instead the Katrina Cottage, designed by Marianne Cusato (not exactly a household name) that became the go-to alternative for FEMA trailers. A modest prefabricated house on a trailer that costs around $35,000. We can all learn a lesson from history that celebrities are impotent other than to draw attention to a subject. Best case scenario is that Kanye donates to various non-profits and low-income housing initiatives rather than trying to do it himself.
Also, now I understood why you brought politics into the discussion. No hard feelings. :)
All 13 Comments
NOOOOOOOOOooooooo (oYo) oooo .......
i give him alot of credit, for trying to do a good thing for the homeless. If the people that were complaining, could revert to helping to attempt to solve the homeless issues, it could start something very positive, in all cimmunities across the country.
I appreciate that he's trying, but please just donate money to the experts. His god complex is apparent in ever aspect.
Wish he would just concentrate on music. He hasn't had a good song since Stronger.
Damn NIKBY's
it annoys me that the guy is trying to do something to address an issue that many complain about...and people jump to criticism and cynicism without even giving it a chance. He’s a patron to the arts with an open mindedness and passion for architecture that is rare these days.
I hate to be this person, but having worked with Kanye and his team, I can assure you, he has no fucking clue where reality begins and ends. That might be an asset for creating his art and music, but it ain't no way to build things. It's a non-stop comedy dealing with absurd requests, redesigns, and general arrogance from his cronies. Oh, and not to mention the sticker shock of how much it costs to build his shit and to pay for services that his crew doesn't fully render. As if Kanye really has anything to contribute to low-income housing. Call me cynical, but damn. No, just no.
^ A good reminder of the dangers of idiocy posed by the crony/ minion/ suckup class surrounding those upper-tier celebs suffering from delusions of grandeur, including starchitects. [See Gerhardt Fjuck item.] A-listers cannot do nearly as much damage without their parasitic posses of A-holes: agents, publicists, promoters, assistants, bloggers, bankers, lawyers, relatives, and assorted apologists. Kill them for a better world with more benign, neutered "stars." (Or just maim them; I'm not a monster.)
The jealous left only likes it when celebs use their money and influence to make idle virtue signals.
I don't know why you're bringing politics into this. If anything, you could probably talk about Kanye's problematic political affiliations and the fact that he's establishing a "church" so that way he can rake in money from his new, quasi-religious performances. Furthermore, I had an discussion with some friends recently talking about how minimalistic fashion trends have fascistic undertones (think Giuseppe Terragni—Casa del Fascio, other Italian Rationalists), which Kanye flirts with both overtly and subversively with his monochromatic, boxy cut, and vaguely Maoist or Leninist fashion line. The fact that we're looking to a celebrity to make low-income housing an attractive product reveals a chasm in our profession's ability to connect with audiences that could benefit from our ideas and innovation.
Wasn’t directed at you. I agree about the chasm. I bring up politics because much of the backlash about his recent adventures seems to be linked.
Let's rewind the clocks to the Make it Right campaign with Brad Pitt. I'm pretty sure he received a lot of heat and scrutiny about how these designs were pandering to an international design community to make rebuilding New Orleans sexy. The prototypes built for that campaign are of inferior quality and ultra-expensive. It was instead the Katrina Cottage, designed by Marianne Cusato (not exactly a household name) that became the go-to alternative for FEMA trailers. A modest prefabricated house on a trailer that costs around $35,000. We can all learn a lesson from history that celebrities are impotent other than to draw attention to a subject. Best case scenario is that Kanye donates to various non-profits and low-income housing initiatives rather than trying to do it himself.
Also, now I understood why you brought politics into the discussion. No hard feelings. :)
"I bring up politics because much of the backlash about his recent adventures seems to be linked." ...not wrong, but you've got the cause / effect backwards.
Tduds, there are thousands of shitty developers out there building beige crapitecture...anything/anyone that not that is welcomed imo.
Also, didn’t he recently donate 10million to Roden crater?
I don't understand what you're getting at
jla-x... You're moving the goalposts because you want to believe in Kanye. I'm glad you're a fan (as I once was), but seriously... Kanye donates $10 million to the Roden Crater (most likely a tax writeoff as a charitable contribution to a non-profit!) and that's somehow an indication of his altruism? From my personal experience, he's just as bad as all the other megalomaniacs, but it's even worse because he's a household name and people will project all of their hopes and dreams onto him as if he's a demigod. He calls himself Yeezus, Yandhi, and wants to start a church so he doesn't pay taxes.
COME ON DUDE.
A common downfall of the egotistical is the assumption that genius in one arena translates to genius in any other arena. It rarely even translates to competence elsewhere.
dahm! i thank Kanye, Yeezus, or whatever the FUCK he wants to call himself every single day for the $10 million donation to Turrell. eso es muy importante, yo!
FRaC: Hey, trust me, I was excited when I heard about the donation as well. Hopefully something good with come of it, but excuse me for being skeptical after having worked with the guy. To be honest, I think the donation was made so he can continue making ripoffs off the Turrell aesthetic with impunity. Turrell has "signed off" on some of his recent projects.
Haters...0 dollar donation
Megalomaniacs...10 mil dollar donation
Megalomania wins...
jla-x: Wins what exactly? You're dodging the obvious criticisms and questionable intents behind Mr. West. Just because he give money to James Turrell he'll automatically do good with low-income housing? Don't you understand the moving the goal post fallacy? This article was about his low-income housing, not the donation to the Roden Crater, so let's stay focused. If you have any good arguments as to what good will come of Kanye's line of "low-income housing" then I'm down for that discussion. Otherwise, dispense with the fanboy nonsense.
My point is who the fuck cares if his housing thing works or not. He’s trying, and it’s his money. He can build giant statues of himself on the property if he wants. He’s not doing that. He’s trying to build some kind of different housing
.
JLA, even those statues on private land still need to meet minimum legal codes. Besides, I did not even know Mr. West was still doing this shit.
Kanye can do whatever the hell he wants with his money... but we don't have to pretend he's helping just because he wants his money to be helpful. He's free to fail, just as we're free to call him a failure.
X-jla I agree with everything you said
Actually he can’t “do whatever he wants with his money” if what he wants to do violates the law
These feel like bad ripoffs of Wallace Neff's airform concrete structures. Why all the framing if it's truly for low-income housing? It's hard to imagine how these prototypes compete at any economy of scale for other prefabrication techniques.
Because Kanye actually has no idea what he's doing
My comments were rhetorical and directed anyone who thinks there's any value here. See my previous reply to jla-x.
if you think stronger was his best song? Then you're clearly delusional as Kanye
.
This is just my guess, but It's very likely that these are in fact not housing prototypes and are in fact performance spaces. If you look at recent footage from Kanye's Sunday Service you'll notice several performances in rooms that are vaguely reminiscent of a James Turrell skyspace, which these share a resemblance. I guessed were built on his property in Calabasas, but once I saw this article about his low-income housing it all came together. These might also be studies into whatever he's developing for housing (with Francis Kéré, last I heard), but most likely are functioning as performance spaces.
After taking a closer look at those videos I mentioned, the performances I'm referring to look like they're in a soundstage or warehouse. Still not ruling out the possibility that these structures in particular are possibly intended to be performance spaces not housing prototypes, but I'm just guessing.
This is my unsolicited opinion, but on the subject of low-income housing, its pretty ridiculous to say that it’s a problem for the architecture profession to address alone. As architects, we are equipped to navigate our role in the process as defined to us by our scope, budget, codes, and other external factors, but our power is ultimately limited.
In fact, it’s a bigger problem of urban planning, zoning restrictions, economic policy, local politicians, consultants, and basically the entire ecosystem that surrounds the profession that we choose not to engage with, feel completely powerless to effect, or just don't have the time because of how involved the process is to develop drawings and specifications to build our work.
The major problem as I see it is bad urban planning since the 1950’s in America and around the world for that matter—a complete attack on traditional urban models, and a favoritism toward a de-centralization of uses and programmatic monocultures. The move toward mixed use development is a start, but we need to get serious about urban design principles again. Most of these mixed use developments are advertised with cutesy slogans like “LIVE, WORK, PLAY”, but are only affordable and attractive to a small audience of the somewhat affluent, typically millennials. We need truly mixed-income, multifunctional, multi-generational housing in a variety of forms (single family, multifamily, ADU’s, low-income, elderly + disabled + veterans, etc) and we need our politicians and lawmakers to codify and support these principles—incentivize developers—and to stop squandering public money on iconic starchitect for urban renewal projects that often go over budget by exorbitant amounts.
One example that comes to mind is Haussmann’s renovation of Paris and the style of buildings in his namesake. The servant’s quarters were typically in the most undesirable portion of the building—the attic—with treacherous access by narrow stairs, freezing cold in the winter, stifling hot in the summer. These somehow are now some of the most desirable spaces in all of Paris. We can discuss the ethics of servants and their living conditions and how that’s no way to do things today, but the fact remains that there’s a lasting value to these buildings.The city fo Paris is suffering it’s own problems due to both the physical and social isolation that the urban expansion of the banlieue, which again we can discuss the origins of—mostly political and social issues of cultural integration.
Architecture is the byproduct and the scapegoat, not the solution or cause of the problem.
Ok archinect, do your worst to me in the comments. :)
Economics rule. Anything done solely for money is guaranteed to be shit.
I liked that sink in his house. The one with the drain slot.
FAKE NEWS.
This is the REAL prototype for Yeezy Home. Comes in 4 colorways.
I would love to spend a few hours in that.
That's terrible . It doesn't even have a slide!
Let the guy do what he wants with his money. Who knows what might happen.
Within a very short time you will see coastlines covered in domed homes made to withstand Cat 5+ storm winds and F5+ tornados. They will withstand storm surges and tidal waves and can remain watertight to a depth of 50 meters for up to 48 hours. Solar-powered with battery packs allow occupants to never leave their homes during storms and actually in many instances not even notice a hurricane except for the wind warnings if you were to venture outside, which would be rare due to the heat waves.
Dome homes are uniquely qualified to handle cooling during the summer and maintaining heat during winter. Most would probably have a zero carbon footprint. Although I believe many would show an interest in such a home today, it will require a government mandate to truly get people to evolve. Although if you ask anyone on the Abacos Islands if they'd like a new dome home in place of their pile of rubble, you'd get plenty of takers and it could be done fast and cheap. And that's why it will never happen in the Bahamas or anywhere else. It's too cheap and too fast. The regular players need to get their hands wet and the only winners are actual workers (labor, heavy equipment, electricians, plumbers, landscapers, etc. and the cement guy. Some interior carpentry but otherwise no more stick homes. But not much left for politicians, commissioners, inspectors, etc. (the guys that kill the dreams) especially when you can bang out a 1500 sqft dome home for $5000 each and assembly line fast too.
The hurricane-ignoring dome home I described above is more than $5000, but add a little solar and some rain barrels to that cheap concrete dome home and you're almost self sufficient and I guarantee it will hold up better when the next hurricane inevitably comes.
Great comment.
That is the funniest thing on Archinect in since hedonic sustainability. You should call it the iDome.
Glad you found it humorous. I apologize for not being an architect or understanding what hedonic sustainability refers too. I like to consider myself more of a futurist, unfortunately, without Kanye's money. Domes are the only structures capable of withstanding global weather systems on steroids. Better get use to the design.
No need to be embarrassed. Hedonic (bastardization of hedonistic) sustainability is an oxymoronic marketing term flaunted by Bjarke Ingels. At to money, it is like shoes: too little and they pinch, too much and they make you stumble and trip. As to domes, your hyperbolic certainty is without basis in reality. Although I did enjoy the 'watertight to 50 meters for 48 hours' bit. I supposed bottled air is included, and CO2 scrubbers?
The only folks not in domes will be rich people who think that corners and walls should be at 90 degree angles and who can afford to rebuild every time their house gets knocked down. The rest of us (the 98%) have to deal with reality. No one will give you insurance otherwise. And where scrubbers and O2 are reasonable backups (who knows about technology in the next 50 years), I think most would adequately get by with a snorkel of some kind, since storm surge/flooding don't tend to last 48 hours. Hey, concepts are just concepts until somebody actually builds a Universal Translator or a warp drive.
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