Dessert House

Designing a house for the rugged desert landscape of west Texas requires a careful balance of protection and exposure. A house in this place must be a shelter, a retreat when the weather turns. It must absorb the extremes and protect those inside. However, no one makes the long journey to this place to sit inside all day, and so the house opens to the views and breezes wherever possible.

We used wind, sun, and climate to carefully situate the house on the site. The north side is sheltered and contains private spaces, while the south side opens to a deep porch. Because of the topography the porch is slightly raised, and it is carefully oriented to catch the prevailing breezes during the spring and summer months. A pool reaches out into the natural landscape, while native plantings at the porch reach through an opening in the roof, blurring the boundary between nature and building.