Sited on a rocky desert plateau outside of Palm Desert, this residence is tightly nestled within a constellation of boulders, overlooking the Coachella Valley and the San Jacinto Mountain Range beyond. The diagram of the home is a triptych of elements: a floating roof plane, a collection of wooden volumes, and two concrete anchor walls.
Bridge View Residence faced more than the typical obstacles of a desert build including unusually restrictive zoning and setback conditions along with a difficult build site. Abutting a desert wash and steep drop-off in the land, the plot didn’t offer many options for creating a beautiful sprawling home.
Recently completed in February 2019, Axiom Desert House made its debut as a Featured Home at this year’s Palm Springs Modernism Week—turning heads as a stunning, systems-built jewel that is now the private residence of designers Joel and Meelena Turkel, as well as a Living Lab for Turkel Design.
Originally built in the 1960s, the challenge for this project was how to update a mid-century modern house without sacrificing its charm. Situated on a 1.3-acre site perched on a plateau above Coachella Valley, the rugged, inhospitable Santa Rosa Mountains rise immediately from the back yard
The house is resting on platforms made with the same earth of the surroundings that decline gently with the slope of the land. The compacted earth walls that seem to emerge from the sand between rocks and vegetation …
Overlooking the Las Vegas Valley and the surrounding Mojave Desert, Horizon House is designed to reflect the region’s natural topography by using rammed earth as the primary material.
The Ghost Wash House is located along the lower hillside on the north side of Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The site is flanked by two desert washes that move storm water from the top of this urban mountain into the valley below.
The signature feature of the Dancing Light Residence is its floating roof canopy, the underside of which is comprised of tectonic-like forms inspired by the local geology and monsoon cloud formations.
