Zen Temple
July 1, 2008
According to interior designer and developer Xorin Balbes, a man’s house is much more than his castle, reflecting aesthetics, erudition, economics, even ego. Rather, it is a repository and recharger of the spirit, not to mention a barometer by which one’s spiritual condition can be evaluated, nurtured, and buttressed. "The environment is an exact mirror of the individual’s interior, everything is visible," says Los Angeles–based Balbes, whose goal is to create casas, castellos, or contemporaries that remind owners of their personal divinity, physical home bases for the metaphysical where "people remember something bigger than themselves, like when they walk into a temple, church, or synagogue, where they forget who they are and are reminded who they really are."
Balbes’ general prescription for creating what he calls "temple homes" is to reconnect the interior space with the exterior, and balance the four elements—earth, fire, water, and air. "We have moved so far away from the land, elements, and nature that it is important for me to reintroduce them in the home," he says. But that’s not all: The reconnection must occur with sensitivity to the site’s topography and its context, sensitivity to any preexisting structure, and sensitivity to the client’s wants and needs (both expressed and intuited by Balbes). He goes far beyond the coordination of drapes, wallcoverings, and crown moldings—his passions include activism (Balbes is cofounder of Global Vision for Peace, an initiative launched in 2004 during the Academy Awards, which received support from boldfaced nominees such as Nicole Kidman and Adrien Brody, in addition to the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan, and Mikhail Gorbachev), and his multi-pronged business model that encompasses interior design and architecture, development, and vacation and event rentals.
Scouting for a desert location in Southern California’s Coachella Valley in 2005, he and architect Paul Ashley (Balbes’ partner in TempleHome, the interior design and architecture tine of his business) happened across this property in the Old Las Palmas section of Palm Springs, which was being prepped for its first open house. "We’ll buy it. Right now. Please take the signs down," Balbes remembers saying to the Realtor after a quick look-see.
What had attracted him so ardently? Built in 1974, the three-bedroom contemporary was not by a noted architect, and although it was only on its second owner and had retained many original design elements and details, those attributes were by and large "horrifying." Mauve 12-inch porcelain tiles covered the floors; a largely barren front yard was dominated by the driveway, which passed too close to the pool before continuing its meander through a porte-cochere and into the backyard; bad built-ins made the dark duo of kitchen and utility room feel even darker and more claustrophobic; four steel posts punctuating the front facade and forming a loggia were good in theory but too small in size, not to mention incongruously regaled with black and white fabric referencing the Hollywood Regency style.
Yet there was something—an air, an atmosphere that resonated with Balbes. The 12-foot ceilings, the posts’ suggestion of columns, the spaciousness created by the floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors, and the public rooms’ generous proportions conjured the image of an actual classical temple—one that he envisioned cleared of its architectural and not-so-decorative sins. Extensive renovation was called for.
While Balbes recognizes the literalness and physicality of a renovation, for him the process is consistent with his design principles, and deeply rooted in the metaphysical. "Renovation is about fusing with the original owner or architect’s vision as well as tapping into the existing structure, which is a storehouse of old energy. Maybe it contains a vision that keeps getting clearer, like a living organism constantly evolving, or maybe it just wants total release," says Balbes, who has renovated 39 homes over nine years, among them several architecturally significant properties such as his Los Angeles home, Sowden House, designed in 1927 by Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright).
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