Emerging from the desert, canyon house is equal parts landform and a mechanism for viewing.
Stoic on the exterior, canyon house blurs the boundary between inside and outby imprinting the exterior environment onto the interior of the home. Sited to frame the Catalina Mountains to the north and the Tucson Mountains to the southwest, the overriding intent was for the clients to live ‘in the view’ with sensory immersion being the driving concept and effect of the architecture.
Conceptually, canyon house is ordered around an immersive experience that recalls the proto-cinematic effects of 18th and 19th century cycloramas.
The manifestation of the immersive experience is the canyon-like living space at the center of the home. Flanked on the east and west by the service and bedroom wings, and looking north and south, ‘the canyon’ is also defined by a horizontal datum. Below this seven-foot datum, life is organized; above, the interior of the home reaches up to ephemera in the form of a ‘clerestory’ surface.
At the window walls, the panels above the datum afford mountain-top views, while the side wall clerestory captures oblique reflections that shift as the occupants move throughout the house. The effect is for distant panoramas to enter and wrap the interior of the home.
Thresholds from the canyon to the wings of the home shift attention away from the sweeping vistas, towards intimate spaces and individual moments.
canyon house engages perceptions through constructed ambiguities between inside and outside, captured in reflected likenesses that augment the senses.
Material Used :
1. Oko Skin – Facade Cladding
2. Western Windows – Windows and Doors
3. Wet Style – Bathroom Vanities
4. Corian - Countertops
5. Subzero - Refrigerator
6. Double Wall Oven - Dacor
7. Cooktop - Miele
8. Tile - Mutina
9. Astria Rhapsody 54 - Fireplace
10. Keuco – Bath Accessories
