The Desert House
This luxury holiday apartment has been designed to provide an experience of serenity and calmness. A place to dwell, to recuperate, to listen to the wind, to see the landscape, to experience the sky and universe. Conceived as a retreat of minimalism.
Located in the desert, this sustainable home for adventurous travellers explores the experience of inhabiting a historic landscape as nomadic travellers. Spaces carved into the rock-face, hewn out of the solid stone, evoking memories of past civilisations.
“Entering the rock is a primordial experience”
The darkness of the cool interior a welcome contrast to the heat of the desert. This unique bridge like home is the result of a collaborative process around which the scheme evolved. The testing and explorations of place, drawing on each persons influences of the social, historic and cultural aspects of place. Resulting in a temporary home for the travellers to observe, reflect and wonder.
Project Info
- Location: Desert
- Cost: £Undisclosed
Located in the desert, our luxury sustainable home for adventurous travellers, explores and reveals the experience of inhabiting a historic landscape as nomadic travellers.
- Designation: National Park, Conservation Area
- Collaborators: Allan Murray Design
- Image Credit: Ineffable Tale Studio
Environmental Data
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Energy Efficiency
1 2 3
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Insulation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Airtightness
1 2 3 4 5 6
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Solar PV
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
- Heating/Hot Water
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Solar Thermal
Yes No
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Rain Water Harvest
Yes No
- Ventilation
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Energy Storage
Yes No
This luxuryThisluxury sustainable house unites rocks, land and sky and places humanity within a built form so that we might better understand the uniqueness of the landscape. This is a space to appreciate better the human relationship with earth, sky and the divine.
In future years, removal of the Bridge element will leave only a poetic trace carved into the rock- face, an architectural mnemonic, a memory of this twenty-first century intervention.
A Vierendeel steel truss structural solution creates large open spans with unobstructed views of the landscape. This unique inhabited bridge is constructed from technologically advanced components – nanogel insulation, infra-red heating and cooling and patented glass technologies. Extensive shading and heating analysis combined with the strategic positioning, ensure that the internal environment is not energy intensive and always comfortable. The entire building, its materials, fixtures, and components, can be dismantled, reused and recycled.
Buildings might be for a client, but they’re appreciated by all people and they add to a community - the responsibility goes beyond that to the client.
We’d like to make buildings that stand the test of time, and you can only do that through questioning.
“Life is not about maximizing everything, it’s about giving something back – like light, space, form, serenity, joy. You have to give something back.” - Glenn Murcutt