Rick Owens, a name that is synonymous with sculptural shapes, raw architectural beauty, and a transgressive sense of aesthetics, carries the very same no-holds-barred vision with him into his own homespaces. His homes are not homespaces; they are living works of art, architectural statements of artistic purity, of brutalist shape, and of personal mythology.
The “Concrete Palace” in Paris
As in 2003, Ricks Ownes and his partner, Michele Lamy, have lived and worked in a five-story mansion in Paris’s 7th arrondissement, which was once the headquarters of the Fresh Socialist Party. Owens very affectionately accounts this as his “concrete place” or “working compound”. Here, the inclusion of both cornies and remnants of Haussmann-era grandeur with stripped-back industrial surface. Concerning this, Ownes took the initiative to reconceptualise the entire space into a large, brutalist canvas. For instance, guests at his A/W 2024 menswear show even experienced that home as the runway, which was occupied sparsely, engraved with his sculptural furnishings, and highlighted with cold winter light. The inclusion of raw concrete walls, on the other hand, met his look for minimalist furniture, where each element, from antler chairs to marble plinths, functions both as art and as a formal echo of his design.
A Creative Haven in Concordia, Italy
In Northern Italy, just minutes from his factory in Concordia, Owens has a top-floor loft sometimes described as his “travertine cave.” The travertine-wrapped space contains an in-house gym, sculpture furnishings (his own designs and his own collection of Giacomo Balla chairs), his father’s antique guns, and an incredibly beautiful Egyptian sarcophagus that he dubs “Liza.” Ascetic and theatrical, minimal and filled with idiosyncratic treasures such as skulls, feathers, and memento mori details that preserve the artistic torch, it is the perfect retreat for the publicly prolific designer.
A Reflective Retreat on the Venice Lido
Apart from the aforementioned assets, he also owns and has transformed a penthouse apartment on Venice’s Lido. This is designed as a “beach house idea of Superman’s fortress of solitude”. Overall, the initiative renovation took away nostalgia and sentimentality while leaving, serene space that is well defined by Sicilian White store floors, limited cabinetry and a brooding onyx marble bathroom. Here, some of the key artefacts, such as the Marinetti bust, luxury crystal globes and sculptural urns, add more depth and aesthetic touch to the space and capture his love for austere, despite richly textured minimalism.
What Ties These Spaces Together?
The designs incorporated by Ownes in each home are concrete, minimal furnishings and sculptural furniture merger of architecture and art in the most seamless form. I feel that all his homes are rather a double studio, galleries and retreats where each residence effectively supports his creation and incorporation of elements that signify fashion, furniture and introspective retreat. Here, by the very term, minimalism does not mean sterile, right from “Liza” the sarcophagus to memento mori elements, each environment has been deeply personalised and expressive in presentation. The Paris home, for instance, retains historical grandeur on the outside but is brutally transformed on the inside.
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