Kim Kardashian has hired leading Japanese architects Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma to design two holiday houses in the United States: a “zen” mansion in Palm Springs and a lakeside lodge for Fourth of July celebrations.
During a recent interview with Vogue, the reality TV star described her continuous “love affair with architecture, specifically Japanese,” and revealed details about the projects.
Kuma, who built the timber-clad National Stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is currently working on a “glass-and-wood lake house” in an undisclosed location, where Kardashian hopes to spend the Fourth of July with her family.
©Michael McGurk
Meanwhile, Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Ando is designing a two-story residence in a private gated neighborhood south of Palm Springs. with a bent triangular form that has been compared to a spacecraft.
Courtesy of Christopher Schriner
According to Kardashian, the finished product will be “concrete, gray-toned, and really zen.”
Kim Kardashian is Fascinated by Kengo Kuma and Tadao Ando’s Japanese Architecture
Kardashian revealed in the Vogue interview that her passion for architecture originated during the seven-year restoration of her Calabasas house, which she shared with rapper Kanye West before filing for divorce in February.
The pair bought the house in 2014 and gutted and reimagined it with Belgian designer Axel Vervoordt and architect Vincent Van Duysen to create monochrome and sparsely furnished structure that Kardashian refers to as a “minimal monastery.”
The guest house, which is in the form of a traditional samurai residence that was brought all the way across the Pacific Ocean, is one of the few exceptions.
“I’m really inspired by Japanese culture,” Kardashian explained in an interview with i-D. “Our guest house is actually a samurai’s old home that my art dealer, Axel Vervoordt, used to own.”
“We got the bones of this old house from Japan and built it into our house because it had such a different energy, this house has the energy of a warrior.”
As part of the couple’s continuing divorce processes, Kardashian recently acquired full ownership of the Calabasas home, while West purchased a bachelor pad in Malibu designed by Ando in 2013.
The construction plans for Kardashian’s own Ando-designed property have been postponed as the local council sought further information to determine whether the structure meets fire safety and pool requirements, despite the fact that the planning application was filed in November.
