On a desert site of undisturbed native vegetation, the modest retreat is defined by an 8-foot-high concrete wall that supports a steel roof structure and encloses two courtyards.
Everything inside the containment wall functions as living space, making it a 2,900-square-foot, rather than a 730-square-foot (of climate-controlled area), house.
In the traditional post-and-beam model, glass expanses blur the boundary between landscape and building.
In contrast, this retreat is about the walled enclosure marking the building as volume and mass.
What is adapted from mid-century design is the logic and clarity of an unconventional residential structural system — and the virtue of supreme indoor-outdoor living on a small scale.
Location: Palm Springs,USA
Archiect: Jim Jennings Architecture
Year: 2003