Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison / povy.com
Photo by Povy Kendal Atchison / povy.com
The master bathroom's recycled-copper tub has a soothing mountain view.
By Laurel Kallenbach
From its fairytale tower to its onion-shaped colored-glass windows, Alice and Karel Starek’s home is a magical place featuring a multitude of artists’ creations. With unexpected features in every nook and cranny, the home represents the family’s values: Live artfully, play, develop your soul, connect to the earth.
Alice, an architect, designed the home to nurture her family’s passions. Her son Adam, 16, plays guitar and drums and sleeps in a loft bedroom in the tower. Peter, 14, is a budding naturalist who makes his own boomerangs. Emma, 10, plays piano and stages theatrical performances in her room. “In many ways, our house is a canvas for experimenting artistically and philosophically,” says Karel, an investor and stay-at-home dad. “We tailored its design around our lifestyle, interests and values. It has a playful quality, and we have fun living in it.”
Natural Living
Banked into the slope of an acre in the Gold Hill area west of Boulder, the home’s design benefits from the earth’s thermal mass and passive solar energy gain from the high-altitude sun. Hot water and in-floor radiant heat are powered by solar panels. Future plans include a solar-electric grid-tied system.
The walls are composed of energy-efficient Cempo, concrete forms made from Portland cement and recycled-polystyrene mixture. “Cempo,” short for CEMent POlystyrene, saves styrofoam from the landfill and results in highly insulated walls that are more durable than stick-frame construction, without the use of wood.
Local yellow sandstone was used for many of the downstairs walls—including the living room, dining room and kitchen. Reclaimed wood (much of it from storm-damaged or dead trees) resides in the ceiling beams and furniture, including cabinets, bed platforms and shelves. The downstairs clay floors are comprised of local mud that cracked while drying. It was then finished with nontoxic linseed oil, and looks remarkably like leather. Upstairs, sound-absorbing, sustainable cork covers the floors. “Natural materials and light bring life into a home,” Alice says.
An Art Inspired Home
Dozens of local artists contributed to the Starek home, which Alice describes as a collaborative work in progress. “Being in such a creative space makes you more creative,” says local artist Jean Pless, who is painting a free-form sculpture that wraps the kitchen. “Alice’s house has helped a lot of us artists think outside the box.”
“I love community,” Alice says, “so I hire artists to share something special. Their creativity enriches the life of our family.”
The house’s architecture is likewise eclectically inspired. “It follows universal laws of harmony and balance: patterns found in mathematics, music and the natural world,” Alice says. “It loosely follows the Golden Mean, the form of a chambered nautilus and the shape of our galaxy.”
Alice’s floor plan resulted from an architecture school project in which the instructor assigned the class to build a song. “Most students ran for the door,” Alice recalls. “She suggested I use a movement from Beethoven’s Third Symphony, and that semester I explored music’s shapes and rhythms. I believe architecture affects your psyche in a way that’s just as profound as music.”
Alice developed a system of asymmetrical rooms that flow from one to another and spiral toward the kitchen. “We wanted a central, high-energy kitchen, an inspirational study, a comforting living room, cozy bedrooms and a dining room that’s sensual and alive,” Alice says. The dining room is part of an attached greenhouse where figs, lemons, herbs, bougainvillea and night-blooming jasmine are grown. “Every meal is a special event, surrounded by living things,” Alice says. “With the scent of the night jasmine and the music of the fountain, it feels like dinner in a tropical paradise.”
“Our floor plan is a little like an M.C. Escher drawing,” Karel adds. “People sometimes find all the levels and turns disorienting, but it makes me smile to watch them explore the house.”
Slow and Meaningful Spirit
Alice is in the open kitchen for hours each day, so it’s understandable that she and Karel are supporters of Slow Food, an international movement committed to savoring meals prepared from local, healthy ingredients. “Enjoying a cooked meal is a thing of beauty, and I feel the same about creating a home,” Alice says.
Alice dreams of a Slow Architecture movement that employs local materials, builders and artists. Instead of McMansions designed to impress, Alice believes homes should fit into their landscape and community. She also believes in building a “slow” home in an engaged, creative way. “It’s not about having it done yesterday; it’s about the process,” she says, noting that the Starek home was six years in the making.
For all its consciousness and artistry, the Stareks say it’s the home’s spirit that means the most to them. “Alice used to work for a firm that designed churches, and this house feels somewhat like a chapel to me,” Karel says. “Our home provides a nurturing environment for us. We feel grounded here.”
Provided by Natural Home - http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com
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