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. the ideal was to find a foothills parcel with panoramic views; however as these kinds of lots were scarce we instead found the opposite of these expectations: an introverted parcel along a quiet arroyo — with seemingly no views — surrounded by neighbors, and downslope from a busy road. 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 integrated careful topographic cut and fill manipulations to minimize desert habitat disturbance and skirt the banks and setbacks of the arroyo’s protected flood plain.