Japanese Desert House

Sunnyslope, Arizona, USA

This south-facing 1200SF house is designed to be sited within the most minimal footprint existing on the streetside of a deep mountain wash that bifurcates this long undeveloped site hidden within the three-sided Cinnabar ‘Box Canyon’ of Sunnyslope high above the Valley of the Sun with distant views to both the White Tank and Estrella Mountain Ranges. Radial concrete walls – perpendicular to steep wash slope allowed for more practical backhoe excavation from above, both stabilizing and lifting this multi-generational home for a Japanese-Hawaiian mother and son wanting two-autonomous-houses-in-one safely above the occasional flash flood, while incorporating shared carport, dog / cat runs, and desert-vine-covered stairs up thru an in-situ concrete deck supporting ‘light wood frame tatami-mat houses’ set within a contrary geometry, which maximizes every SF of the unexplored and more economical street-side building envelope. This simply follows the street / property-line setback curve (with allowable overages), both angled side-yards and on the north a reciprocal curve is introduced that provides additional privacy and NW / NE summer shade for each house respectively and a corner bridge to an island reserve of creosote for outdoor night / seasonal programs, while enveloping both houses in an all-encompassing form, a second vegetal skin of liminal shaded spaces for accessible front-entry-porch(es) as well as back-desert-wash-garden-balconies to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve.

Schematic Design Complete

Visualization - 5visual

Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House
Japanese Desert House