Startin' Spartan
When Jay Atherton and Cy Keener met in grad school at the University of California, Berkeley, they discovered in each other a rare constellation of common interests: minimalist architecture, rock climbing, and “not talking.” After graduation, Atherton moved back to his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, and purchased a downtown lot. Wanting to build a house, he asked Keener—–a pro carpenter, then living in Colorado—–to help with design and construction. Six months later, “His house became our house,” says Keener. “It became obvious the only way it would get built was if I shared the mortgage.” Atherton cackles: “I suckered him down here.” The roommates are now business partners: They founded a design firm, Atherton Keener, in 2007. On a 110-degree day, they invited us in for a tour.
Keener: When we first came to Phoenix, we realized: People move here for the “weather,” but you drive around and you see that everyone is either outside squinting or inside with their shades drawn tight. So we wanted to create a house that was still connected to the outside.
Atherton: The house consists of three rooms: a bedroom on either end of the house and a living room in the middle. Each room faces a different direction, and each receives light in a different way. The west gets extreme sun exposure in Arizona, so we don’t have any openings on that side, except for the front door. The kitchen, laundry, and two bathrooms run along that wall and they are very compact, like in a ship or an RV. The hallway is a clear long path that connects everything, with a wall of translucent glass on one side and black plywood cabinets on the other.
The Meadowbrook house is an anomaly in downtown Phoenix, nestled in a downtrodden neighborhood amid lush oleander bushes.
Keener: Because of practical and budgetary reasons, we didn’t have the luxury of using crazy materials. Concrete block has been a part of building in the desert for a long time. The screen that wraps three sides of the house is just a standard thing you see everywhere down here—–generally used to shade parking lots and kids’ playgrounds. The floor is concrete. The walls are drywall. Our interest was in using standard things on a relatively unremarkable site and creating something that was more than the sum of its parts.
The exterior of the house consists of sandblasted masonry and Ferrari shade sails stretched on a steel frame.
Atherton: The design process was fairly rigorous and very slow. We were the clients and the builders and the designers, so we were really our own worst enemies. Instead of just going to Home Depot and buying everything, we tried to make as many things as we could by hand, so that they would agree with the rest of the house. We wanted to accomplish as much as we could with just a few materials.
Keener: Basically the only things in the house that we purchased were the plumbing fixtures and the appliances. We made all the cabinets—–in the bathroom, kitchen, storage closets, and hallways—–ourselves, out of plywood that we dyed black. For a while the sinks and tubs were going to be concrete. But it never felt right. In the end we made them by hand, out of marine-grade plywood and marine epoxy resin.
Atherton: One of the challenges we faced was that at some point, the design started to reject ideas.
Keener: It was important that the rooms be pure spaces. The curved walls are just there to capture the light conditions from the windows. We’ve been very meticulous about locating distractions—–like closets or light switches—–in the hallway. We wanted to make something quiet enough to receive what’s going on outside. It helps that we don’t carry a lot of furniture with us. Before we moved into the house we lost our lease on a rental and shared a five-by-ten storage unit. It wasn’t even full; it was like half full. People come in and they say, “Whoa, art would look so good on these walls.” But I’ve never felt like this house is missing anything.
Here's a wider view of the exterior.
Atherton: There are some uncon-ventional aspects to the house, but we’re also using it as an architecture studio, and a pavilion, and a warehouse. If we’re interested in something, we can bring it in and experiment with it. When we were working on an art installation, we had two 300-pound blocks of ice in a tub in the middle of the room. At one point there were 800 yards of fabric piled up. We have a dog, and when we had all that fabric lying around, he loved it, he was like “Oh my god, it’s furniture.” And then it was gone.
Atherton: Our friends know that this house lacks a certain amount of comfort, but everyone adapts to what it does have. When people come over to eat, we usually sit on the floor—–we keep it really clean—–or outside. We’ve all adapted to what it means to not have a dining table. We don’t have a couch. It can be a bit of a problem. Like when we have our girlfriends over it’s hard to make them just sit on the floor or on a chair. And it’s very presumptuous to have the bed as the main piece of furniture in the house. One of the nice things about having a girlfriend is, she has a couch at home.
Another view of the pair, with pup Pip underfoot.
Keener: The house isn’t static. A photographer friend uses the place for fashion shoots. The other weekend we had 40 people in the living room listening to a classical guitar, bass, and flute trio. One night this woman played a solo piece on the violin in the dark, and the moonlight was bright enough to cast shadows on the screen from the oleander outside. It was so beautiful.
We have been fairly open with sharing the house with folks and that’s been really rewarding. It always surprises me with how grateful they are and how pleased they are with the experience that they have here. I think that people appreciate being in something so clear and consistent. They use words like “peaceful” and “Eastern” and “meditative” and “calm” to describe the space.
Atherton: There are lots of examples in history where an architect builds a home, and from that home, his ideas develop, and he becomes more fully realized as an architect. It doesn’t necessarily make the best or easiest home. But it does set a trajectory for future projects. We were both interested in building something that we could learn from.
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exquisite!
Absolutely stunning! I don't suppose you considered extending this philosophy to a climate like Colorado?
Nice idea, but it seems that interior glare is still an issue.
Very interesting, thoughtful and well executed & seems it would accept furnishings well. Crafting so much of the interior finish - especially well done.
It does seem from some of those photos that glare is an issue. Would a darker color shade alleviate the problem?
Excellent structure, from design through execution. Bravo! But, a floorplan would have been helpful. VERY helpful. Or did I miss something?
Absolutely stunning. This project truly exemplifies innovative uses of inexpensive materials and unexpected detailing. Kudos.
Clever, clean, and ingenious design. Four pages do not make justice to this project. There is a little more info on the Web but not enough. Brilliant! Where is the floor plan?
All of us at Buddy Rhodes are happy that you enjoyed using our Mix for you spartan and spiffy kitchen. What a success. Bravo!
One of the qualities that makes your publication exemplary is that you almost always provide a floorplan. Note that I said ALMOST ! Add one to the slideshow, please.
Yes, would be helpful if Dwell included floor plans and specs on materials in every article printed. Would also like to see detail on the structure and how the screen is affixed. Also, would like more detail on how the kitchen countertop turned out, how the pieces of the concrete fit together and how the kitchen sink was installed. Is the house airconditioned? Are there operable windows? Are the screens an effective substitute for all interior curtains/blinds?
This project is clearly a thoughtful, interesting piece of work, and the lack of floor plans is a real injustice, making it difficult to understand the whole. Haphazard inclusion of plans has always been my biggest complaint about Dwell.
Sorry, I didn't notice the slideshow before. I was relying only on the photos in the magazine article. Still, I would like to know more about the structure, especially where the sails/screen are affixed, and the layout with fenestration details. Is there/will there be an outbuilding for storage? (I have never seen upper cabinets directly over a cooktop unless there is a vent-hood. Is that safe/code-compliant?)
Thanks for the input, all. We hear you loud and clear on the floor plans. While we can't always include them in the magazine, we'll make every effort to include them online. For your reference, we added a floor plan into the slideshow. You can jump straight to it here : http://www.dwell.com/slideshows/startin-spartan.html?slide=24
I lived like that once. Then I got a job that allowed me to buy some furniture.
what is the backsplash made of?
The silver finish on the ceiling does a nice job of drawing light further inside. On a side note, I think personally I'd compromise the minimalism a little bit for a couch :)
Real tight... But dang it I want to see that wood tub or shower pan!!??.. I tryed looking online but couldn't find nothing,, No pics of their bathroom, come on!?!.... Marine grade plywood for basin/tub,etc. in order not to mess with a skilled concrete process is Kool.
There are some fantastic ideas here. But, honestly, would anyone really live like that for long? That spartan aesthetic is striking photographically, but it really only works for magazine spreads. People have stuff.
This is a great first project to start a business from. I don't mind sitting on the floor but if the only surface to lean back on is a white wall, that is going to get pretty grungy over time. I think that the reveal/minimalist trim approach suits the overall uncluttered esthetics of the house. I would have liked to see more of the bathroom.
Liked the idea of this in terms of minimalism, but this is minimalism to an extreme. A bed (mattress on the floor) and some desk tables appear to be the only pieces of furniture in this Phoenix home. Smart that they bought a vacant lot and used concrete as their building material. They can keep it cooler that way during the 110 degree heat. 110 degrees and they are both wearing dark colored clothing...okay...I feel sorry for the dogs paws...ouch! So it is a big, white shoebox. Could double as a storage-facility from the outside. Suddenly the interior shot of him sitting on the bed on the floor is now gone...okay, well prior to the edit, the man sat on the bed which sat on concrete. Not sure why they don`t get a table and chairs for dining purposes, but they want the extreme minimalist experience. Concrete is a good, solid, cheap building material. Long-lasting. A bit challenging for colder climates, but not impossible. One could take the concrete floor idea and then insulate it on top of that for cooler climates. Overall a nice concept, but more suited to a storage facility than a home.
To each his own. Great job guys it's very inspiring to see how you built it all from scratch. It looks awesome.
whoa i love minimalism buy these guys go a little too hard even for me. awesome trees tho.
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