丨美国凤凰城丨Wendell Burnette Architects

- Burnette Residence

Location - Phoenix, Arizona, USA

The house is an extension of the desert garden conceived as an architecture that is in and of the greater landscape. Its rooms edit the surrounding context such that connections are explicitly made to the sensory experiences of our natural world. An unapologetic form extends an existing ubiquitous road scar up as a man-made canyon, touching only the site that was previously disturbed. One can drive or walk into the form – moving up and into an in-between space that connects the severed garden and makes it whole. This entry space extends beyond the visual; it is a series of multi-sensory moments of experience that slow down time. The canyon’s scale and proportions extend the topography of the site, amplify the sound of falling water that fills the evaporative plunge pool, increases the effect of a breeze cooling the skin, while providing circulation and pause between spaces, promoting the whiff of creosote after a rain.

1996 Record House

Location - Phoenix, Arizona, USA

The house is an extension of the desert garden conceived as an architecture that is in and of the greater landscape. Its rooms edit the surrounding context such that connections are explicitly made to the sensory experiences of our natural world. An unapologetic form extends an existing ubiquitous road scar up as a man-made canyon, touching only the site that was previously disturbed. One can drive or walk into the form – moving up and into an in-between space that connects the severed garden and makes it whole. This entry space extends beyond the visual; it is a series of multi-sensory moments of experience that slow down time. The canyon’s scale and proportions extend the topography of the site, amplify the sound of falling water that fills the evaporative plunge pool, increases the effect of a breeze cooling the skin, while providing circulation and pause between spaces, promoting the whiff of creosote after a rain.

Four- and eight-foot-wide masonry monoliths spring up from two parallel lines of two-foot-wide footings that step up the hillside; the space occupied is open-ended and floats between.

The walls constructed with the proprietary post-tensioned R-28 “Integra” masonry system by Superlite represent the constant search for the single-stroke solution. In this case, one that provided the primary structure, the thermal performance needed, and an exterior and interior finish, as well as the spatial definition required to maximize the potentials of the site with sensitivity to the natural environment.