Desert Courtyard House
DESERT COURTYARD HOUSE
Wendell Burnette Architects
YEAR
2013
LOCATION
Scottsdale, AZ, United States
CATEGORY
Residential › Private House
Mass, Hollowed Mass, Faceted Mass, Fissured Mass, Mass that cracks open and hinges apart informed how we proceeded to give this home its defining qualities from the courtyard plan, to the split-massing, all the way down to the fittings and fixtures that one touches with the hand or eye.
For instance, the millwork is volumetric, only revealing contents within when a contoured bronze void is touched with the fingertips, allowing the mass to be gently cracked open.
Long fissures in the mill-finish steel plate ceiling reveal light while maintaining the quality of nothingness at night.
Mass and the improbability of delicacy discovered within it is what give the Sonoran Desert its remarkable presence.
As our clients and their guests move from the mass of this landform into our engawa, we hope they will always rediscover with a hint of surprise the preciousness of things.
