The wind-carved ochre cliffs of the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument in Utah have been indifferent to human presence for uncounted millennia. So when Aman Resorts opened Amangiri here in 2009, it pulled off something remarkable, creating a retreat that practically disappeared into the ancient rock formations around it. Sixteen years on, a new silhouette cleaves to the same creative direction with the building of 12 private residences under the Aman marque.
The first to go on sale is a six-bedroom villa that sits roughly half a mile west of the main resort on nine acres of desert wilderness (the remaining 11 plots, opening progressively, will range from five to 19 acres). The 1,115 sq m property includes a principal suite with a private courtyard and heated pool, a 36m lap pool worked into the topography, a spa with steam room and sauna, and a fitness studio facing the sandstone cliffs. Loggia pavilions flow out from the living and dining areas, dissolving the boundary between inside and the vast desert beyond.
Marwan Al Sayed of LA’s Masastudio – one of Amangiri’s original architects – helmed the villa design. ‘Our approach is a direct response to a magical landscape of stone, wind and water that has shaped this residence into a sanctuary of stillness,’ he says. ‘Each space is composed to support the essential rituals of daily life while harmonising with the passage of light and shade throughout the day.’
At the heart of the villa, Al Sayed has carved out a skylight that pulls desert light through the space by day, framing stars by night. Both practical and meditative, the design is underpinned by an old Navajo prayer: ‘With beauty below me may I walk, With beauty above me may I walk, With beauty all around me may I walk.’
Meanwhile, Masastudio’s co-founder, Mies Anderson, drew inspiration from the site’s dunes and sandstone formations, with the materials skimming through pale whites, neutrals and golds through to black accents – colours and forms that, as the Australian designer puts it, allow the villa to feel connected and at one with its surroundings.
In the shadow of worn stone cliffs, old beyond imagining, Amangiri’s new villa makes a compelling case, we think, for never having to check out.
Amangiri is located at 1 Kayenta Rd, Canyon Point, UT 84741, United States
A version of this article appears in the June 2026 Travel Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.