Desert home strikes a balance between modernism and nature
High Desert Retreat by Aidlin Darling Design is a desert home that negotiates crisp modernism and clean geometries within an arid, natural setting
![exterior of High Desert Retreat by Aidlin Darling Design](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/DDGE3Y5tzrYCHcjHcq5HBf-415-80.jpg)
In designing this desert home, its author, American architecture studio Aidlin Darling Design, had to negotiate a tricky balance. The architects wanted to create a crisp, sharp and modern home for their clients – a couple who wanted to escape the clutter and noise of urban life – but they also wanted their design to remain discreet and respectful to the nature of the site, a rocky desert plateau outside Palm Desert, California. The result is High Desert Retreat, a house that initiates a dialogue with its surroundings, as it sits, unmistakably contemporary but also cosily and organically nestled, within a constellation of boulders.
The location is striking, bringing together proximity to the City of Angels (and its rich tradition of modernist architecture and Los Angeles houses) and Palm Springs (with its well known Modernism Week and its wealth of architectural attractions); a warm California climate; and a natural context filled with dramatic outcrops and desert plant- and wildlife. Honouring this precious setting, the clients' brief was simple, the architects recall: ‘[We had to] create a modest home that didn’t remove a single pinyon tree, embraced the rustic desert climate, and framed the always changing vistas from within.'
Desert home designed to honour its setting
The Aidlin Darling Design team took a proactive approach to developing their solution, camping on site to take in the experience of living by the Californian desert and its micro-climate. This helped with the architectural direction for the desert home, which became clear as the architects ‘observed and absorbed’ the local conditions: ‘The home would perform as a simple framing device for the occupant to observe the dynamic surrounding terrain. The structure would be exceedingly quiet and crisp in its geometry, intentionally contrasting the organic forms of the desert, and very low to the ground to minimise its presence.'
‘A floating roof plane, a collection of wooden volumes and two concrete anchor walls', became key to the design, as High Desert Retreat's final form was born. The roof provides ample shading and protection from the harsh sun, inside and out, while its low, linear profile underlines the vistas and the terrain's verticality. The materials, concrete and blackened wood siding out of specially treated pine wood, are dark and gently contrast with the desert hues. Meanwhile, the two parallel concrete walls in the design frame both interior and exterior views, directing the eye towards the hero Coachella Valley vista below.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
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).
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
The Mercury Prize nominees for 2024 have been revealed
Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party and Beth Gibbons are amongst this year's nominees
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published