Real House

Real House frames the boldness and subtleties of the Sonoran Desert, translating these qualities into spaces that a young family of five can call home.

A driving part of the design process was site selection with the clients. Their ambition was to find a foothills parcel with panoramic views, however, as this kind of property was unavailable, HK Associates instead transformed the opposite of their preconceptions into an opportunity. Situated on an introverted parcel along a quiet arroyo — with seemingly no views — downslope from a busy road and surrounded by neighbors, the design is transformative. The home reveals a dramatic sightline down the arroyo, while surprisingly capturing the opposing panoramic range of the Santa Catalina mountains.

Artful siting, architectural framing, and the use of mirrors, stage views near and far and transform the low-lying riparian prospect of the lot into an experience of expansive solitude that edits out the neighbors and amplifies the raw beauty of the desert. The positioning of the home also integrates careful topographic cut and fill manipulations to minimize desert habitat disturbance and skirt the banks and setbacks of the arroyo’s protected flood plain.

The design of the home is also an echo of desert architectural traditions. The form is an abstraction of simple Sonoran massing and courtyard typology. Rendered in white plaster that recalls Tucson’s Sonoran row housing and the iconic Mission San Xavier del Bac, the design integrates the region’s wisdom of passive indoor-outdoor connections to tune contemporary living with the sun, water, and natural world.