Architecture Wednesday: The Ghost Wash House

They had me at Ghost ...perfect for Halloween.

The home is located along the lower hillside of the north side of Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley, a small, town in Maricopa County, Arizona. It was completed in 2017 and covers some 8,500 square feet.

Two long, thin tumbled brick bars run parallel to the east and west natural washes framing a third topographic condition, the Ghost Wash, that runs down the center of the site.

The east bar protects this architectural wash from the low desert sun that streams across the mountain in the morning and houses the garages, kitchen, office, and family dining room. The west bar shields the occupants from the intense hot western sun and houses the private parts of the home: the bedrooms, family room, and recreation space.

The living and dining room make up the interior of long sequence of courtyards, gardens, and play areas that unfold along the Ghost Wash from the south entry to the north pool house.

A pool house!

The home is topped by a massive floating roof that provides for storm water collection and solar power to the entire home, and landscape. The large roof also protects the primary living spaces of the house—kitchen, dining room, living room, and family room—while its shade, power, and water both physically and symbolically nurture the life of the home.

The Ghost Wash House is not a house in the desert, but a house of the desert.

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