On a dusty desert highway in Twentynine Palms, bordering the iconic Joshua Tree National Park in California, Homestead Modern unveils a new home, Morning Dove, which is now available for private rentals. The brand has built a reputation for offering exclusive, design-centric accommodations in the Yucca Valley, atypical rental properties for unique getaways, of which past examples include Landing House. Designed by architect and builder Beau Campbell and his wife, interior designer Tracey Stehle-Cavaniola, Morning Dove sits on 20 acres of private land and is a model of 21st-century desert architecture.
Explore Morning Dove in Twentynine Palms
On the property, you will find two structures – a main house, and a guest house, both featuring rammed-earth construction, the ancient building method that blends sustainable architecture with a wildly distinctive look and feel.
'Rammed earth uses a combination of native materials, a binding agent and colourant to mix into the material by batch to achieve the layered look,' explains Tracey Cavaniola. 'In our case, we took the soil from our property, which we realised is mostly granite, screened it to get the consistency we wanted – a rougher, rustic look – and mixed it with specific-coloured mortars.'
The mixture is then poured into forms and compacted by a tamper. Once the first layer is completed, the forms are moved, and the process is repeated. 'It is an ancient construction method in Europe, New Zealand, Africa, and drier climates. In the past ten years, it has gained momentum in the US and Canada.'
Other striking touches to the property include Earthaus Plaster for a natural mineral finish; custom solid Knotty Alder wood doors sourced from Sun Mountain in Colorado; and recessed lighting from TECH lighting. In the bathrooms, concrete tubs are by Native Trails, the shower tiles are from Porcelanosa, and the powder-room raised vessel sink is from Gem Look Design. The kitchen and vanities are from Reform, designed by world-renowned Norm Architects.
While Twentynine Palms has evolved into an area where a lot of people have renovated single-family homes on plots which were often subdivided into smaller lots, Cavaniola explained that these homes were due to the government's post-Second World War programme to assist veterans coming back to the states with housing and jobs. 'Although renovations have a positive story as well, we decided to buy land instead of digging into a renovation project.'
When Campbell and Cavaniola acquired the land, they deeply invested how to build a home that did not abuse the land or deplete the ethereal surrounding landscape but instead preserved the abundant open space and highlighted a sense of place, which was the duo's primary inspiration. 'It is hard not to be inspired by the colours and textures of the ever-changing desert, even during different times of the day,' adds Cavaniola.
'We knew that we did not want to build a modern home that only put on a facade of belonging, as so many do,' says Cavaniola. 'We were very lucky the property provided us with a composition of earth that allowed us to fulfil the inspiration meticulously.'
-
Gardens & Villas offers the unexpected through ‘deconstructed’ desert living in CaliforniaGardens & Villas, a home in Las Quintas, California, brings contemporary luxury to its desert setting through a collaboration between architects Andrew McClure and Christopher McLean
-
Daniel Obasi discusses Lagos’ Amah members’ club, where vocation and wonder can meetAmah, a new members’ club founded by photographer, art director and stylist Daniel Obasi, is a creative co-working space and meeting point for Lagos’ creative class
-
A closer look at Loewe’s delirious, erotically-charged collaboration with artist Richard Hawkins‘Modern life has become a collage,’ said Jonathan Anderson after his A/W 2024 menswear show, which featured Los Angeles-based artist Richard Hawkins’ collages across sweaters and bags
-
Gardens & Villas offers the unexpected through ‘deconstructed’ desert living in California
Gardens & Villas, a home in Las Quintas, California, brings contemporary luxury to its desert setting through a collaboration between architects Andrew McClure and Christopher McLean
-
First look inside 62 Reade Street, a clock factory turned family home62 Reade Street, a boutique New York residential project by architects ODA, unveils its first apartment interior, styled courtesy of Hovey Design
-
Paul Rudolph at The Met: ‘from Christmas lights to megastructures’‘Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph’ opens at the Met in New York, exploring the modernist master's work through a feast of an exhibition
-
Jewel Box is a Californian project of small scale and big impactJewel Box by Red Dot Studio is the reimagining of a Californian 20th-century gem through a creative addition
-
Germane Barnes exhibition explores notions of classical architecture and identityGermane Barnes exhibition 'Columnar Disorder' opens at the Art Institute of Chicago
-
Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum's newest addition effortlessly complements the institution’s existing complexThe third addition to Joslyn Art Museum is designed by Snøhetta, which opted for voluminous common spaces and illuminating atriums
-
Larry Booth's 'House of Light' showcases an impeccable slice of postmodernist heritageA 1980s Larry Booth-designed Chicago townhouse on a narrow plot is a striking example of his author's work, set alongside the city’s postmodernist archive
-
In a hidden Beverly Hills garden courtyard, fashion, art and architecture meetJohnston Marklee transforms a Beverly Hills storefront into a shared space for the Michael Werner art gallery and fashion institution Mameg, connected through a leafy courtyard
