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Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz are showing off their luxurious La Jolla, Calif. mansion.
The singer (born Alicia Augello Cook), 40, and the record producer (born Kasseem Daoud Dean), 43, welcomed Architectural Digest into their family home for the magazine’s December 2021 cover story.
“Every wall in this house, every bit of it, is sculpture,” Beatz told the publication. “These beautiful ‘S’ shapes, these chevrons going down the hillside, curvatures flying in space over your head. It’s more akin to sculpture than architecture.”
In fact, the home is so unique that it was actually the inspiration for Tony Stark’s futuristic home in Iron Man.
Measuring in at 11,000 square feet, the property sits on a mountainside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, boasting floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a stunning infinity pool.
The architectural wonder has long been nicknamed “Razor House” after the nearby Razor Point Trail — though Keys, Beats, their sons Egypt, 11, and Genesis, 6 call their home “Dreamland,” she said.
“[It’s] a place to create dreams and to be bold enough to dream your wildest dream — for us to even be here is a wildest dream,” Keys explained.
Beatz shared that the home — which the family has lived in for eight years — is “incredibly important to me,” and that he and his wife chose their interior designer, Kelly Behun, because she “has soul” and puts it into her work.
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For Keys and Beatz’s home, Behun’s incorporated wood elements, Moroccan wool rugs, velvet fabrics, grand walkways, and floating staircases into her design. She tied them all together with a warm color scheme that compliments the ocean view.
“The interiors don’t in any way shout; they’re simple and timeless,” Behun told AD. “It was never going to be about trying to upstage the natural surroundings, the architecture, or the art.”
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There’s also a lot of art. Throughout the home, the living areas feature creations by African and African American artists. The couple’s collection includes over 1,000 pieces of art, they tell AD, including the works of award-winning photographer Gordon Parks.
“To be able to keep his collection together and for it to live in the home of Black artists is really emotional for me,” Keys said of owning Parks’ work.
One of the Grammy Award-winning couple’s most prized possessions, which they also display in the home, is their grand piano. It was gifted to Keys by the record label that signed her when she was just 16.
The musicians also have a private recording studio, which Beatz called the “grown-up floor,” where they love to get creative.
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Being creative and expressive is important to the family, and both Keys and Beatz said their home allows them to do so freely.
“We do a lot of dreaming, you know,” Keys said. “And [the home] doesn’t get in the way of whatever we could possibly imagine.”
The family is known for being welcoming hosts, and they hope all their guests feel the same way that they do in the home.
“When you hear a song or something we’ve produced, the foundation is to make people feel good and feel loved. That’s what our art is about,” Keys shared. And “when you come into our home, that’s exactly what we want you to feel. We want you to feel loved, to feel safe, to feel relaxed… We want you to feel inspired.”
Read the full feature and see more photos in the December issue of Architectural Digest or on archdigest.com.
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