The owners wanted a moderately sized, efficient home, with interconnected spaces, honest materials and natural light. Most importantly, they wanted the house to fit snugly into the coniferous hillside site and enhance their experience of the unique mountain setting.The simple shed roof respects the rural context and the sight lines of neighbors higher on the hill. Inside, sunlit spaces open to each other and to the forest. Exposed masonry walls and concrete floors provide thermal mass to modulate the large daily temperature swings typical of the high desert. The low maintenance materials—integrally colored masonry to blend with the Sedona soil, and weathering metal—age in harmony with the landscape.