Xeros House=Gesamtkunstwerk
Gesamtkunstwerk-”total work of art” by Blank Studio, Matthew Trzebiatowski, AIA, LEED AP
Gesamtkunstwerk: “Total Work of Art” Xeros house by Matthew Trzebiatowski, AIA, and LEED AP.
I had the opportunity to interview Matthew Trzebiatowski, AIA, and owner and lead architect at Blank Studio in Phoenix Arizona. Matthew received numerous awards for his design. Blank Studio and Matthew enjoyed months of attention via home tours and the admiration of the architectural community.
However, all that attention has stopped. Once the housing crunch landed, Blank Studio like many other Architectural and creative thinkers fell into the pool of luxury ideology. Architecture is the foundation of building, and as we as a country focus on sustainable building, the architects should be our leaders. Energy efficiency, use of local and sustainable materials all begin with design.
I asked Matthew to describe to me who inspires him, the works of classic architecture by LeCorbusier, Miles Van Der Rohe and Sigurd Lewerentz and more recently, the work of Anish Kapoor and Olafur Eliasson are his Mentors. All of which had a futuristic-using steel and glass in an open form, less is more, and small space or use of space ingenuity that can be seen in Matthews work.
When I asked him about “green” design, he agreed with me that the ideology is good but the “checklist” system is skewed. Steel IQ, Inc. is frustrated that USGBC and LEED do not advocate for architects like Matthew who like his mentors inspire and lead the way for change and can be adapted to exceed energy efficiency. Instead, buzzwords fly, advertising, memberships and LEED accreditation seem to be the focus.
It is Steel IQ’s mission to advocate bare steel use in sustainable design, the architects, and designers. To educate them on the use of American made steel. Together we will see real innovation and lowered energy use.
The Xeros house is Matthew’s home and office, unrestrained by conventional client issues, Matthew built his dream home. I cannot help but sense that at some level he sought it to be his “mark” in his trade. The “sensual minimalism” as Matthew puts it is obvious. From the outside, the building has a futuristic look, very angular and square, the bare corrugated steel cold roll, oxidizes to a deep cinnamon color, requires no maintenance, and has a life span up to 80 years. This bare steel blends beautifully with the desert landscape and jagged rock hills of the Arizona desert.
Matthew left the facing West sidewall solid, to neutralize the Arizona sun’s heat. On the South, East and North sides light to showers in from all sides, with a heavy industrial mesh flowing from the roofline to the ground, offering a heat buffer, as well as texture. The long narrow bathroom window’s blue huge add unique contrasting color at night.
The house’s clean lines, open space, sensuous spiral staircase to upper living quarters are all made of materials left in their natural state give purpose to the design. Matthew stated that most construction is covered up-because their ugly, rough, and lacking artisanship.
Unlike his open design where the foundational concrete is left open-“authentic” as Matthew refers to it, one instinctually understands that it is the foundation, it is under ground and it is the “grounding point of the whole house. One cannot help but feel solid and comfortably “at home”, that coherent element is lacking in traditional building.
The natural look is one that many industrial designers like, leaving beams open ect. However, with the Xeros house half way up the wall is covered in plaster with a zero VOC finish of bee’s wax and honey-the warm glaze looking finish gives warmth to the bare walls that span the total height of the buildings insides. Finishes like this add texture without masking the natural plaster and the ability to connect with the hand-finished glaze does evoke a personal appreciation to the artisanship of the work.
The staircase is a central focal point, the shear size of it is impressive and the hot roll (an industrial structural metal) is detailed with the steel’s stamp of origin, the welders beading is again left for admiration.
Regardless, Blank Studio’s phone is not ringing off the hook with contract offers. This is disturbing to Steel IQ. How is it that when someone such as Matthew who understands the need for sustainable design, innovative materials and is intuitive enough to know that the “trend” should become the norm, and yet is an anomaly?
This is where Steel IQ, Inc. becomes an advocate, we see this kind of neglect as a violation of inspiration, the very thing sustainable-GREEN-industry is intended for.
Steel is by far our favorite building material and we seek out architects like Matthew to further our argument that America’s standards for building need to reach far beyond LEED and inspire an urban-back-to nature mentality. It is simple common sense, use sustainable, environmentally (actual location) sympathetic design and material to lower the gluttony America is now known for.
Please visit Blank Studio’s website and see more about Matthews work. Visit. www.blankspaces.net
Contact Blank Studio at 602-331-3310
Photos by Bill Timmeraman
