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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis built their Los Angeles farmhouse around solar power, agriculture and water access, creating a 2.4-hectare (6-acre) property whose solar array produces significantly more electricity than the house requires. Known as KuKu Farms, the compound sits on a hilltop above Beverly Hills and includes a main house, a guesthouse and entertainment barn, and a freestanding barbecue pavilion. Architectural Digest documented the completed property in its June 2021 issue, with Howard Backen as architect and Vicky Charles handling the interiors.
The couple’s approach went beyond installing solar panels. A private well irrigates the land, and during the COVID-19 lockdown they planted and harvested a field of corn on the property. Backen has described soil, food and water as practical considerations in the project’s approach to sustainability and regenerative farming.
Kutcher bought the parcel for US$8 million in 2007, Realtor.com has reported. The couple broke ground on the residence in 2017, and the finished compound includes the main house, a two-story guesthouse, and the pavilion on the six-acre lot.
Architectural Digest describes the project as a five-year undertaking without specifying when that period began. Kutcher and Kunis worked with Backen and Charles from the ground up, beginning with separate Pinterest boards they created to collect design ideas. When they compared them, roughly 90% of the images overlapped, and many of the houses they had selected turned out to be Backen’s own work.
No source reviewed for this article puts a figure on the finished construction cost. The US$8 million figure refers to the land purchase.
The photovoltaic system is the most thoroughly documented part of the project. Panels are concealed above the main house’s expansive porch, and the array generates substantially more power than the property consumes. Municipal codes at the time complicated sharing that surplus beyond the property line, a limitation the homeowners hoped would eventually change.
California Energy Designs lists the residence in its portfolio as an MEP engineering project and credits itself with HVAC and plumbing design. The firm’s project information identifies the home’s systems work alongside the solar installation, while Backen & Backen’s project page describes the residence as powered by a solar array.
The engineering also had to account for the architecture. The entertainment barn has floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, while the main house uses tall ceilings and extensive glazing. Those features created cooling and airflow requirements that formed part of the system’s design.
The six-acre property also supports agricultural use. Kutcher and Kunis drilled the well to irrigate the land, and the corn they planted during the COVID-19 lockdown was later harvested.
Backen has said the couple approached sustainability through practical concerns involving soil, food and water. The firm’s project description identifies regenerative farming practices among the property’s features.
The available documentation identifies the well as an irrigation source and the cornfield as agricultural production. It does not establish that the property supplies all of the family’s drinking water or food.
Backen designed the compound using reclaimed wood, board-formed concrete and glass. The main house connects to the guesthouse and entertainment barn, while the barbecue pavilion stands separately. The buildings are arranged along a central axis, and landscape design firm L.Z. Design Group worked the grounds around the same layout.
A 10-foot crystal chandelier that Kutcher and Kunis already owned became part of the design process. Kunis told Architectural Digest that they built the barn around the chandelier. Charles later incorporated the fixture into the interiors alongside furnishings carried over from the couple’s previous home.
The documented picture is narrower than a claim of complete off-grid independence. KuKu Farms generates more electricity than the house requires, has its own well for irrigation and has produced food on the property. The available record supports describing the residence as energy self-sufficient, but it does not establish complete independence from outside food or water supplies.
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