BRICK & WONDER is a curated platform of the highest-quality homes for sale worldwide. Launched by LANG ARCHITECTURE in 2016, Brick & Wonder provides access to homes in the marketplace with design integrity that have the capacity to improve how we feel, think, interact and ultimately live our daily lives. Architizer will make a selection of Brick & Wonder properties to feature every other week.
Rising from a hillside in the Southwestern American city of Tucson is a glowing residential oasis designed by award-winning architect Rick Joy. Nestled amidst the shrubs and cacti, this modernist-inspired home appears as if it has extruded from the landscape. The scorched and weathered Cor-Ten façade of the home creates a natural extension from the arid and rugged landscape of the surrounding Sonoran desert.
Permeated by a horizontal striping of windows, the punctuated façade appears almost to dissolve into the hillside. From inside, these panoramic windows, reminiscent of Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, frame a cinematic portrait of the plains below.
While the front of the house grapples with the steep elevation of the hillside, it extends backwards on a level plane. The protected façade gives way to a living area which is completely open to the elements, opening up beyond a Cor-Ten gateway of sorts to a concrete patio and a glimmering pool.
Situated between the rigid frame of the house and the jagged cliff-face, the pool presents itself as a kind of desert oasis, equipped with a number of formal illusions which heighten the fantastical atmosphere. A narrow bride extending over the glassy pool gives one the impression of walking on water. The side of the pool closest to the home appears to spill over into a descending stairwell.
© Jeff Goldberg/Esto
Encapsulating the mirage-like quality of the home, the structure itself evokes a sense of perpetual motion, floating volumes and planes appearing to shift from three- to two-dimensional, from solid to void, from grounded to weightless.
This compelling oasis is currently featured in a national building museum exhibit through 2017 and is back on the market for the lofty price of $3,999,999. Head over to Brick & Wonder for more information on how to pursue Rick Joy’s stunning desert home.
© Jeff Goldberg/Esto
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