The New ‘Contemporary’: Gnosis Home Tours Feature Homes of Architects
There’s No Place like Home—Especially if You Design It Yourself
By Cassaundra Brooks
Perhaps you marvel at their structures, but never know their names. Or maybe you admire their works with some understanding of their individual styles. Regardless, we sometimes take the arts of architecture and design for granted, not considering the work that goes into that nicely decorated office building or that striking-looking theater, museum, library, or gym. Balancing durability with style, modern motifs with practicality, and individuality with complementary aestheticism is no easy job.
If individual style and creativity distinguish one architect from another, how does the average person extract these marks of personality from each architect’s work? One way would be to view the collections of two particular architects and note the contrasts in design and style. To help you start, we have taken the liberty of going straight to the source. What better way to get to know an architect’s style than to look at his or her own home?
Gnosis, Ltd., a nonprofit organization, annually grants the public viewing access to a number of architects’ and designers’ homes each fall through their Architects and Designers’ Own Homes Tours. Suzanne D. Johnson, executive director of Gnosis, Ltd., says that the tours are intended to illustrate the fact that good design is both attainable and affordable. The featured homes fall under the term modern. Everyone has undoubtedly heard that word before, but what does it mean with regard to architecture?
Johnson quotes Mark Wigley on Le Corbusier’s Toward an Architecture: “The goal is momentum. Modern architecture is simply that: architecture, which allows itself to be carried forward. More precisely, architecture is the movement forward. It is not a matter of replacing an older architecture with a newer one…Only by moving forward can architecture be seen or produced.”
With delightful deviations on traditional structure and design—disappearing walls, shocking uses of metal, unexpected finishes, and creative use of light—these homes are pieces of art. Yet they are not treated like “look but don’t touch” museums. They are functional, practical, kid- and pet-tested, and thoroughly enjoyed. Introduced on these pages are four of the designers featured in last fall’s special tour.
BUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP
JOHN KANE
Name: John Kane AIA, LEED AP (architect principal)
Company: Architekton
Typical Style: Contemporary; functional; warm; indoor, outdoor, climate, and context-responsive
Inspiration for Home: Derived from functional and site responsiveness.
Intention for Design:
Photos Kane Residence 2 and Kane Residence Interior
Great room able to open completely on two sides, actually connecting to the outdoors. Large screen panels transform the room into a traditional “Arizona room.”
Previous Projects: Include Tempe Center for the Arts, Phoenix/Tempe/Mesa light-rail stations, Chandler/Gilbert Community College Student Center, Scottsdale Community College Fitness Center, Jewelry by Gautier, Farmer Studios, and Tempe Police Substation.
Photo1
Simple courtyard concept with garage/kitchen and master bedroom “bar” sliding through house and cantilevering toward the adjacent lake.
Photo 2
Great room designed to open completely on two sides, actually connecting to the outdoors. Large screen panels transform the room into a traditional “Arizona room.”
464 S Farmer Ave, Suite 101, Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 894-4637
jfkane@architekton.com
architekton.com
MATTHEW TRZEBIATOWSKI
Name: Matthew G Trzebiatowski, AIA (principal and design architect)
Name of Company: blank studio, inc. (please mind the lower case letters in the name)
Typical Style: In a word: contemporary. But it’s so much more. blank studio was created to challenge, inspire and elevate design awareness in an environment that is directed toward increasingly simplistic and synthetic solutions. The design process centers upon investigation and synthesis, the experiential use of space, and engagement of the senses.
Inspiration for Home: As a reminder that all design solutions should be in a direct response to the environment in which the project exists, Trzebiatowski calls the home Xeros, a description in Greek of the condition of land in relation to nearby water. The building includes an opaque face situated toward the intense western afternoon sun, with the other faces exposed to the south and east, shielded by an external layer of woven metal shade mesh. Its unique shape, along with its height, allows the maximum amount of site to be retained for low-water-use vegetation. The site itself was “recycled,” in that new life was injected into a neglected plot in an equally neglected 1950s-era Phoenix neighborhood.
Intention for Design:
The building includes a two-story lower-level design studio that descends into the earth, accessible from the courtyard by a tall, steel-framed glass door. To access the residence, one must ascend an exterior steel staircase to an upper-level balcony before entering the common room (sitting, dining, and kitchen). A central gallery leads to the cantilevered master suite/media room. This space is completely glazed on the north façade for enjoyment of the mountain-preserve views. To complete the cycle of movement, a cantilevered yellow glass-framed “Romeo and Juliet balcony” allows views of the city and across the long axis of the building. A stainless-steel water feature leads you down the steps and terminates at a reflecting pool.
The primary building material is exposed steel that is allowed to weather naturally and meld with the color of the surrounding hills.
History: Matthew G Trzebiatowski, AIA (Wisconsin, 1972) earned a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP) in 1997. Trzebiatowski is a registered architect in Arizona and Wisconsin, and is currently a faculty member at Collins College of Design and Technology. Trzebiatowski established blank studio in 2001 with his wife, Lisa, while working with an internationally recognized architectural studio in Phoenix. As an emerging concern in our natural and constructed environments, explorations into sustainable technology and practices inform much of the current work of blank studio. Besides its educational component, the studio participates in various local and international design competitions.
1441 E. Sunnyside Drive, Phoenix, Arizona 85020
(602) 331-3310
blankspaces.net
ALTERING EXISTING HOMES
BRIAN & MELISSA FARLING
Names: Brian and Melissa Farling
Company: Home Company: Studio Twenty46 Inc.
Full time employer: Jones Studio, Inc.
Typical Style: We practice architecture of this time—call it modern.
Inspiration for Home: We are transforming a 1950s modest ranch into our long-term, permanent home. Our focus is capturing blue sky and green landscape to make modest-size spaces feel larger, comfortable, and uplifting.
History and Previous Projects: Melissa has most recently joined Jones Studio, but before that, she worked on the Maricopa County Downtown Court Tower while at Gould Evans. She is also studying the effects of views of nature on stress as a Research Associate for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture and the Academy of Architecture for Justice. Brian has worked with Jones Studio, Inc. for the past nine years, most recently leading the design and construction team for the new expansion to the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.
Photo 1
Butt glazing and pocket doors help create an almost seamless connection from the master bedroom out into the west garden.
Photo 2
Looking east from the ramada-covered west garden patio into the master bedroom. Salvaged, translucent polycarbonate panels clad the lower-level exterior walls and sliding doors. This wall system produces a glowing interior wall surface during the day and a soft glow outside at night.
Photo 3
Interior view of remodeled 1959 ranch. Original restored concrete floors, naturally finished materials and furnishings, and a thin sliver of Arizona sun help create a warm, comfortable living area.
2046 S. College Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85282
studio2046@earthlink.net
Melissa@jonesstudioinc.com
brian@jonesstudioinc.com
Jones Studio: (602) 264-2941
MCCOY & SIMON
Architects & Owners
McCoy and Simon Architects: Ron McCoy, FAIA and Janet Simon (602) 808-9899
Landscape Architect
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects: Christine Ten Eyck (602) 468-0505
Cabinetry
Kenyon Studios: Krista Kenyon (623) 936-8077
General Contractor
Studio: Stonecreek Building Company (480) 832-0905
Kitchen and Residence
RJ Bromley Construction (480) 557-9217
Typical Style: McCoy and Simon’s work is contemporary, in the tradition of modern architecture and with an emphasis on craft and the intimacy of materials and details. This is a version of modern architecture that emphasizes space and carefully considered response to program, context, and landscape.
Inspiration for Home: This home is a careful integration of the life and work of the family. The design is inspired by the site that is dominated by a spectacular setting in the shadow of Camelback Mountain and by the native landscape that surrounds the home. The specific qualities of light from all directions are used to shape the design.
History and Previous Projects: Janet Simon graduated from Sci Arc and worked with architects Richard Meier and Barton Meyers. Ron McCoy graduated from Princeton and worked under Michael Graves and Robert Venturi. Their office works on all scales of design, from hardware to urban. They have designed numerous homes, schools, and commercial projects in Phoenix and Los Angeles, and have completed several projects for institutions such as the Getty Museum. Ron McCoy is a professor at ASU and serves as the University Architect.
Photo 1
The Eastern exposure is a wall of glass that opens up to a deep-covered entry porch. The deep overhang to the south protects the interior from the sun in the summer, but allows the sun to enter the building in the winter months. There are dramatic views to the south of Camelback Mountain, which can be seen from almost anywhere inside the studio.
Photo 2
While the studio workroom is open, airy, and inviting, the conference room is a quieter, more inward-looking space with low ceilings and an intimate walled garden. The ceiling and some walls are lined with sanded Homasote—acoustic paneling made of recycled paper—which serves the dual purpose of being used as a pinup surface for presentations and to help keep the space quiet by absorbing sound.
Visit gnosisltd.org for information on Gnosis, Ltd. and its annual tours.