Alicia Keys is one of the most beloved singers and interpreters in American music. Beside being a standard-bearer for feminism and human rights movements, she has won several prizes for her amazing songs like Fallin’ , No One, or If I Ain’t Got You. Let’s say it: she’s a queen! And as a royal, she deserves to live in a castle.
The African American artist knows that and she also loves avant-garde design: a couple of years ago, the American pop star bought an incredible mansion in California, specifically in La Jolla. The building became world-famous after appearing in the third Iron Man movie, being Tony Stark’s house and headquarters to save the world from the villains.
Alicia Keys and her husband, music producer and rap singer Swizz Beatz purchased it for $18.8 million to convert it into a beach retreat. The interior and exterior of this building are masterfully merged through its glass walls. So you will be able to delight in discovering each of its corners with a gravity-defying architecture suspended from a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the district of San Diego.
Alicia Keys’ future-looking “Razor House” in California
A mansion that creates a unique, mind-blowing, and beautiful landscape around it thanks to the unknown location that the genius of architecture, Wallace E. Cunningham, has managed to conceive and materialize. Called “Razor House,” it is a building like few others in the worlds , capable of generating an incredible mixture of feelings towards it that undoubtedly make it into anyone’s real estate dreams. Natural light is a crucial element in this design used to define, fragment, and animate the space. The environment is the main source of inspiration and a driving force.
The luxury and paradisiacal place, with 33,583 sq ft (3,120 m²) to satisfy all tastes and the most demanding needs, is located in front of the beach and the ocean shores allowing the lighting and climate to be a plus. If the ocean is not enough, the house includes an infinity pool that merges into the horizon to create an oneiric, awe-inspiring effect. The futuristic and hyper-realistic design is another great point in favor of the striking and vitality of this building, where terraces and large outdoor spaces stand out, and of course, a guest house completely independent of the main building is included in the project.
This home offers four comfortable and luxurious bedrooms, plus a couple more in the guest house. There’s a spa, billiard rooms, kitchens, a movie theater, a multi-car garage, and a futuristic circular library. By its futuristic visual aspect, home automation and state-of-the-art technology is integrated into every one of the spaces, where sensors and computer-controlled automation make it possible for the “Razor House” to be a true technological delight.
A house offering breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean
Access to the views from the futuristic La Jolla community building is possible from all angles and all rooms thanks to its glass walls, allowing the building to integrate with the natural landscape in which it is immersed. The furniture preserves a minimalist style where the white color is the master of the looks and is complemented spectacularly by the travertine marble of the floors.
The building consists of a couple of floors where Alicia Keys and her partner can move from one foot to other thanks to a wooden staircase with a glass handrail, with access through a wooden corridor that protrudes above the marble floor.
The living room and dining room maintain a shared space but evidently of large dimensions where the architect has managed to support a personal delimitation that is visually these spaces, the dining table with a large format and an oval shape, which plays with the organic shapes and the curved structure that predominates throughout the construction, is striking. Wallace E. Cunningham is one of Architectural Digest’s Top 100 Designers, so the owner of this house possesses a true one-of-a-kind piece of art built in 2007
Alicia Keys: icon and women’s rights activist
Born in New York, Alicia Keys began playing the piano at the age of seven and became a prodigy pianist. After signing a record deal at the age of 15, she released her first album, “Songs in A Minor”, in 2001, which was a commercial and critical success and earned her five Grammy Awards. Since then, she has released another six albums and has been recognized for her musical abilities and for her activism on social and political issues.
In a 2016 interview, Keys talked about her decision to stop wearing makeup and how it helped her feel more confident and authentic to herself. In the article, Keys also spoke about how society imposes expectations on women regarding their appearance and how she felt pressured to meet these expectations for a long time. Her decision to stop wearing makeup was a way to free herself from those pressures and to affirm her true identity, and became an inspiration for other women.
Alicia Keys has many popular songs, but some of her most well-known and beloved hits include:
- “Fallin’”
- “If I Ain’t Got You”
- “No One”
- “Empire State of Mind” (featuring Jay-Z)
- “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart”
- “Girl on Fire”
- “New Day”
- “Hallelujah”
- “In Common”
- “The Diary of Alicia Keys” (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné!)