Architecture Wednesday: Desert Nomad House

Y’all know that sometimes I go for the big homes, but I really do also appreciate the small spaces, and the unique spaces. And this one, the Desert Nomad House, really fits the bill.

Architect Rick Joy designed and built this home in 2005 for an artist. It sits on nearly five acres of Arizona desert at the base of the Tucson Mountains and the Saguaro National Monument.

The house is composed of three separate rusted steel and glass cubes—each basically one room—with differing views of the Sonoran desert. There’s a 780 square-foot Great Room, with a bathroom, a 440 square-foot bedroom and bath, and a 200-square-foot office/guest room and bath.

Compact, and yet, with those views, it’s wide open.

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Studio Rick Joy

Architecture Wednesday: Tucson Mountain Lava House

When we talk about places we’d like to live and I mention the desert as being one of my choices, Carlos always gags. But there’s just something about the sparseness of the landscape, the broad vistas, the heat and, sometimes, the cold of a high desert locale.

Plus, deserts always seem to have the most stunning homes, like the Tucson Mountain Lava House in Tucson Mountains just above the Santa Cruz River.

With vast walls of glass, you can relax in the home and yet still take in the vast landscape, bedrock outcroppings, various types of towering cacti, and desert dwelling plants like palo verde, ocotillo, jojoba, and creosote.

It’s just peaceful.

Like most desert homes, this one was designed to be anchored into the natural terrain without interrupting it as much as possible. The house was sited between weaving natural water sources and desert vegetation without drawing attention to human imprints on nature and yet it provides views of the Tucson Mountains on one side and the Santa Catalina Mountains on the other.

The house features several intentionally placed primary walls around which the rest of the house is built. These walls “anchor” the home to its natural slope and it’s around these walls that the public and private spaces are arranged.

In an attempt to control heat and maximize views, Lava House was built rather low, with long horizontal roof planes and several overhangs that provide shady havens throughout the property. But then there are other spaces where the low roofline allows winter sun to enter the house on shorter, darker days.

It’s made for living in intense heat and cool climates, but whatever time of year, it’s gorgeous.

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