TSG Foundation Center of Spiritual Development

Located on an 11-acre parcel in the Sonoran Desert, the TSG Foundation is surrounded by the scenic mountains of north Scottsdale, Carefree and Cave Creek, Arizona.

A meandering desert driveway welcomes visitors and provides selective glimpses of the TSG Foundation as you reach the drop off point. Parking areas are organic in shape and well landscaped to screen them from street view, with a stabilized decomposed granite surface to minimize the heat island effect. A pedestrian bridge links the parking areas to the building by crossing a shallow desert wash and giving visitors a time for pause and reflection as they approach or leave the building.

The Foundation building is infused with a sense of mindfulness that leverages the natural environment by creating meaningful and useful connections to the outdoors, axially rotated on the site to welcome the southern winter sunlight, northern views to the Carefree Mountains and opportunities for night-time star viewing events.

Visitors are welcomed into a large lobby space with access into a modest 3,000 sf Sanctuary space that opens up to the north. A research library is adjacent to the Sanctuary and gives visitors controlled access to Torkom’s original manuscripts and book collection. A central corridor links these public spaces to the administrative offices on the southwestern side of the building. On the exterior we used regional and natural materials for the harsh desert environment: Concrete, Steel, Masonry, Rammed Earth, Weathered Zinc panels.

The interior palette employs natural materials, such as ground concrete with local earth toned aggregate, wood panels, wood and cork flooring, and acoustic gypsum for acoustic relief. The material selection creates calming, biophilic spaces that deinstitutionalize the building and exude a feeling of wellness and hope. Through the building’s passive and active energy strategies, the Foundation is striving to be Net Zero Energy.