Slot Canyon Residence, a new home designed by Los Angeles-based architecture and design studio RIOS, walks the delicate tightrope between creating seclusion and privacy for its owners, while opening up towards its striking, arid, Californian landscape. Located in the Las Palmas neighbourhood of Palm Springs, the project was designed to sit 'naturally among the desert landscape and the classic mid-century modernist architecture that has come to define the region'.
Slot Canyon Residence by RIOS
While nodding to the region's strong modernist roots, the new home was not designed as a blind imitation of the style. Its clean lines, harmonious volumes and low slung horizontality pay homage but blends with elements and needs clearly born of the 21st century.
The house was designed as a series of pavilions, which breaks down its generous overall volume. Some of these structures feel more solid and opaque. They are located on the eastern side of the plot and contain bedrooms and bathrooms. Others, on the opposite side of the arrangement, are airy and open, housing living spaces and wrapped in swathes of glazing and spilling out to terraces and a swimming pool.
The landscaping and connections between these pavilions (created with the help of landscape experts at Bennett Puterbaugh) form a key part of the home's identity too. Bridges and arroyos link different volumes, allowing local vegetation and natural vistas to seep in. Meanwhile, an expressive floating roof with an inverted vaulted ceiling crafts a space primed for entertaining in the main living area, highlighting that this is a private, but still very open space with a strong social character.
-
Modernism for sale: a Norman Jaffe-designed icon on Shelter Island hits the marketThe Osofsky House epitomised the glamour of high-end 70s modernism on Long Island. Now updated and refurbished, it’s back on the market for the first time in over two decades
-
Discover Locus and its ‘eco-localism' - an alternative way of thinking about architectureLocus, an architecture firm in Mexico City, has a portfolio of projects which share an attitude rather than an obvious visual language
-
MoMA celebrates African portraiture in a far-reaching exhibitionIn 'Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination' at MoMA, New York, studies African creativity in photography in front of and behind the camera
-
Rent this dream desert house in Joshua Tree shaped by an LA-based artist and musicianCasamia is a modern pavilion on a desert site in California, designed by the motion graphic artist Giancarlo Rondani
-
Step inside this resilient, river-facing cabin for a life with ‘less stuff’A tough little cabin designed by architects Wittman Estes, with a big view of the Pacific Northwest's Wenatchee River, is the perfect cosy retreat
-
Remembering Robert A.M. Stern, an architect who discovered possibility in the pastIt's easy to dismiss the late architect as a traditionalist. But Stern was, in fact, a design rebel whose buildings were as distinctly grand and buttoned-up as his chalk-striped suits
-
Own an early John Lautner, perched in LA’s Echo Park hillsThe restored and updated Jules Salkin Residence by John Lautner is a unique piece of Californian design heritage, an early private house by the Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte that points to his future iconic status
-
The Stahl House – an icon of mid-century modernism – is for sale in Los AngelesAfter 65 years in the hands of the same family, the home, also known as Case Study House #22, has been listed for $25 million
-
Houston's Ismaili Centre is the most dazzling new building in America. Here's a look insideLondon-based architect Farshid Moussavi designed a new building open to all – and in the process, has created a gleaming new monument
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fountainhead will be opened to the public for the first timeThe home, a defining example of the architect’s vision for American design, has been acquired by the Mississippi Museum of Art, which will open it to the public, giving visitors the chance to experience Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius firsthand
-
Clad in terracotta, these new Williamsburg homes blend loft living and an organic feelThe Williamsburg homes inside 103 Grand Street, designed by Brooklyn-based architects Of Possible, bring together elegant interiors and dramatic outdoor space in a slick, stacked volume
