High Desert Home

In the high de­sert on the south slope of a large rock out­crop­ping ap­pears a giant bird from some preh­is­to­ric time. 26 grace­fully ar­ran­ged wings of gently cur­ved con­crete forms, all res­ting on can­ti­le­vered, shaped, con­crete plat­forms, span up to fifty feet and ten feet across. This home is de­si­gned for en­ergy gains from the ther­mal mass. The wings are se­pa­ra­ted by glass to allow for na­tu­ral light and the va­rious fre­quen­cies cau­sed by Ca­li­for­nia ear­t­h­qua­kes, and is de­si­gned 30 % above the hig­hest ear­t­h­quake stan­dards there are. The on-job design-build de­tails in this home in­clude the spe­cially shaped fine-crafted wood, spe­cially trea­ted steel, in­di­vi­dually cast bronze door trim and lat­ches, semi-sand-blasted doors in im­plied Ju­ras­sic de­signs. Bet­ter than mu­seum qua­lity, there are no bet­ter built-in art works in the world. I pre­dict one day this home will be the entrance to the ad­ja­cent Na­tio­nal de­sert park. This home is de­si­gned for the life style of the ow­ners. To save the na­tu­ral land­scape, the home is se­pa­ra­ted from the sub­ter­ra­nean ga­rage below by a 200 foot rock path that winds up and around the exis­ting boul­ders. For those who pre­fer not wal­king, an electric con­vey­ance car­ries people and goods up and down the path. The site is thus en­han­ced by the de­sign.