Hidden Valley house in Arizona designed by Wendell Burnette

Hidden valley house in the Arizona desert

The Phoenix-based architects at Wendell Burnette describe this low-lying desert house as a ‘long pavilion for living’.

(Image credit: Bill Timmerman)

last updated 9 October 2022

Sunken into a saguaro-studded knoll at Cave Creek in Arizona, this house by Wendell Burnette Architects, was designed to help its inhabitants pare their lifestyle back to basics.

The simple construction entails a concrete plinth, topped with a mighty canopy equipped with mechanicals, energy supplies and water storage for the house. The plinth follows the contours of the land developing into a ‘thick’ cave at its lower end, and a shaded terrace at its upper end.

Hidden Valley house in Arizona designed by Wendell Burnette Architects — *Entry to the house via a concrete stair that leads up to the concrete plinth.*

The clients requested a home where they could live simply alongside their collection of animals – birds, Koi fish, Rhodesian Ridgebacks and cat. The plinth is two thirds indoor and one third outdoor, always covered to create a shady space for living within the landscape. The Phoenix-based architects describe the house as a ‘long pavilion for living’.

The upper exterior of the canopy is made of a deep mill finish stainless steel, which mirrors the landscape and sky with its smooth shape and softly reflective materiality. The underside of the canopy is however, lined with a black fabric scrim that absorbs the cool darkness of shadow and covers up the timber truss roof structure inside which the sound and thermal insulation is contained.

The landscape framed from Hidden Valley house in Arizona — *The house frames the surrounding mountainous landscape.*

Interior architectural materials, defined by the simple central cores, include cold-rolled mill finish steel, ebonised sustainable MDF, three different dark finishes of highly sustainable resin-infused paper and a purple/black Wabi-Sabi stucco with vermiculite. These materials are lightweight, yet dense and feel protective in the desert landscape.

Positioned just high enough in the valley to enjoy the distant views of the Phoenix Valley floor, surrounding mountain ranges and reverse sunsets on the Continental Mountain, the house also frames close-ups of its neighbouring ecology and geology such as the teddy bear cholla cactus field growing out of a prominent outcrop of pinkish-red shale stone noticed by the architects along the eastern edge of the site.

Interior view out of the Hidden valley house in the Arizona desert

The exterior of Hidden valley house in the Arizona desert

The bedroom with views out to the desert terrain

Sunset over the mountains from Hidden valley house

The view out from a sheltered dining space

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Wendell Burnette Architects website

TOPICS

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.