My design philosophy congealed around this house and it involved taking natural materials, whether adobe clay, cedar lath ceilings, pine lodge poles, stucco and glass, natural flagstone and of course copper which is an indigenous material to Arizona. It was a spec house that my business partner and I put together, I designed it and he built it.
The other interesting thing about this lot is that it had an extremely deep arroyo running diagonally right through the middle of it. We basically had to extend the house over the wash with the utility room, breakfast room and the kitchen bridging the arroyo while connecting the garage to the house. We created a water feature that took advantage of the wash and a little sitting area down there in the lower area under those rooms. It was amazing how much cooler it was down there because cold air goes to the lowest point and the air would just funnel through that wash. It was about 8 feet deep and it was a very pleasant place to sit and watch the water and enjoy the natural surroundings.
A walking bridge from the driveway to the front door spanned the arroyo leading to a water feature which created a wonderful entry sequence. I actually lived in the house for a few months and living among all the natural materials really solidified for me the importance of using natural materials in all my projects.
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