Kanye West, now better known as Ye, has been refused permission to come into Britain to perform at a music festival. As previously in Australia, Brazil, South Korea, and elsewhere, he’s banned because he espouses Nazism tropes in songs and statements.

Too right (pun intended). Why give a platform to someone peddling abhorrent ideas in the current fractious state of the world?

If there is any truth to the saying 'Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me', then a worse injustice is possible.

I’m aggrieved by the hurtful words Ye uses, but the horror is double for me, with his violent use of sticks and stones committing a crime against architecture.

This beautiful house, designed by Tadao Ando in 2011, on the beach in Malibu, was bought in 2021 by Kanye West (as he was then) for $57.3 million.

In an act of unprecedented vandalism, over a period of 18 months, he gutted it back to a concrete shell. Using unlicensed contractors and day labour, he removed everything on the interior: linings, flooring, exquisite joinery, stairs, internal fit-out, and even the huge windows.

The ‘renovations’ amounted to entirely removing everything of value from the house, except the concrete.

The process took over 18 months. Whilst the neighbours were horrified, they were powerless to stop it. The uproar eventually caused Ye to back off, but by then the horrific damage was done. Like so many dodgy developers, Ye didn't pay his way, and the workers sued him for millions but settled for a lot less.

Ye sold the house in 2024 for $21 million to a developer, who promised to restore it to the way it was. More unhappy endings; that developer has declared bankruptcy without the house restored to its former glory. It’s back on the market again.

Despite Tadao Ando’s prolific output, it’s not as if we can afford to throw one away, even if it’s a private house in a gated community. Imagine somebody owning a Van Gogh or a Picasso, and then slashing it, tearing it, destroying it. And not shredding it in a creative way like Banksy.

Sad to say, he was aided and abetted in all this wanton destruction by his ‘girlfriend’ Bianca Censori, an Australian with a master's degree in architecture from the University of Melbourne.

Recently on Facebook, she described the work as “beautiful”. Just shows you that an education at one of Australia's premier architecture schools can’t overcome a senseless lack of judgement.

Don’t think all of this vandalism is always far, far away. We have vandalism by neglect. A recent story by Julie Power in the SMH discusses how the heritage-listed Paragon Café in Katoomba, NSW, is disappearing piece by piece.

One of the most beautiful early ‘milk bars’, finished in Aussie-Greek style, has been closed for 8 years.

The current owner has allowed it to rot, for vandalism to replace beauty, and many of the exquisite fittings to be removed.

Not as dramatic as Ye. But still, it needs to be called out. We need much stronger laws to prevent this kind of architectural vandalism.

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, formerly of Tone on Tuesday. Amateurs draw plans; professionals draw sections – never at cross purposes.

Tone Wheeler

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