'Landscape and place has a great influence on us, the border culture US and Mexico, and regionally the great North American Southwest,' explain Dust directors Cade Hayes and Jesús Robles. 'The desert is truly amazing and it is all truly interwoven to all that we do.' The two architects, both natives to the south-western deserts of the US, joined forces to set up their office in 2007 in Tucson. Their latest work, a labour of love currently nearing completion, is Casa Caldera, a family house about two hours from Tucson. The experience of driving through the landscape before arriving to the property is 'part of the story of the project', they explain. An earlier house project, the Tucson Mountain Retreat, is not too far and features a characteristic composition of sunken plinths that act as a staircase, leading the visitor inside. The practice has also turned its hand to furniture design.
www.dustdb.com
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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
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