Hidden Luxury: Modern Underground High-Desert Home
There is not much to see from a distance: faded red-brown roofs barely rise above the level of the surrounding desert landscape, and blend in with the ground against the blue sky and white-capped mountains in the distance.
Beneath the rusted core-ten steel roof-scape and between textured rammed-earth walls, however, sits a house that is anything but a rustic relic of the Old West. Outside, a minimally-decorated concrete porch features a smooth, modern edgeless pool. Inside flat panes of clear glass sit living, dining and bedroom spaces that are simple, contemporary and well-lit.
Rick Joy is no stranger to local climactic conditions and takes full advantage, using materials that might not work so well in wet climates but that also make the exterior of his structures seem almost a part of their desert surroundings.
