Kanye West (Credit: Getty Images)
Jesus walks, but Luke Skywalker talks, at least for Kanye West when it comes to affordable housing.
The rapper-turned-aspiring real estate mogul is reportedly leading the development of an affordable housing project with a “Star Wars” theme at a secret California forest location.
Forbes reported that the recording artist, entrepreneur and designer is working with a team to design prefabricated shelters as affordable housing, possibly for homeless people.
West wanted an austere design for shelters inspired by the childhood home of Skywalker, the main protagonist in the multibillion-dollar “Star Wars” franchise.
With Forbes editor Zack O’Malley Greenburg in tow, West drove his Lamborghini to see prototypes inspired by a hut where Skywalker grew up on the fictional desert planet of Tatooine, as seen in the 1977 film “Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope.”
Forbes published neither photos nor the location of the prototypes, but Greenburg described the trio of prototypes as “structures that look like the skeletons of wooden spaceships.”
Greenburg, a former child actor, also reported that near the mysterious prototypes “at a bungalow in the woods,” he and West encountered a four-person team preparing to meet the following day in San Francisco with potential investors in the affordable housing project.
West, 42, has previously expressed appreciation for “Star Wars.” For example, in his 2013 song “Guilt Trip,” West sings, “Star Wars fur, year I’m rockin’ Chewbacca.”
West, who last year sold a Soho condo in New York for a loss, announced in early 2018 that he would form his own architecture firm. In June 2018, renderings of West’s prefab models were released by his California-based Yeezy Studio to the Architect’s Newspaper.
“Star Wars,” however, does not seem to have guided the design of the $20 million home where West and his wife, Kim Kardashian, live in Los Angeles, which has what the enigmatic entertainer calls “wabi-sabi vibes.” [Forbes] – Mike Seemuth