Desert Wash Dwellings

Two houses situated on a 5-acre desert site against the Mountain Preserve, two generations of a family agreed to pair their individual dwellings within an expansive desert site where they can enjoy rest, relaxation, and recreation with the utmost privacy and security. The Desert Wash Dwellings are highly sustainable, off-the-grid-ready houses designed with a straightforward goal: simple desert living.

The highly-resolved designs of both houses are protected by large, southfacing high roofs. These structures create massive porches along the length of each house that allows the families to maximize outdoor living and enjoy views across the desert wash to the mountain preserve beyond. The central spaces of each house, containing the open living, dining, and kitchen areas, utilize the entire volume below this high roof, while at the secondary spaces this structure shades and protects a lower roof from the intense desert sun. Each of the houses is equipped with a solar array on their high roof that provides power to the dwelling. Both houses are designed to be off-grid employing a combination of both high and low-tech equipment.

Each house is designed to relate to one another while retaining its own distinctive personality. Weathered prefabricated trusses form the high-roof structure of both houses, and the rectangular forms of the spaces below respond to the unique programmatic needs of the individual families. Both houses are clad in locally-sourced materials intentionally selected to withstand the harsh desert environment – one in flat sheets of weathering steel, the other in corrugated steel. In contrast to the steel-clad walls and sandblasted masonry of the exteriors, the interiors are white and bright with Douglas Fir slatted ceilings (acoustics) and ground concrete floors. Strategically placed windows openings in custom steel boxes frame natural light and views full of native vegetation that re-inhabits the site.