Red Rock

Las Vegas, Nevada

With views of Las Vegas to the east and Red Rock Canyon to the west, this site endures strong winds, cold, dry winters and harsh, hot summers with monsoon rainstorms. Protection from the sun and wind, as well as durability and privacy were the simple constraints that shaped the formal direction and materiality of the house.

The house repeats the spare behavior of the desert in material and form. A subtractive process left a wind-protected court to the east and provided an opportunity for an elevated basin of water that mirrors the dimensions of the living space. The distant view of the city profile on the water calls out its ephemeral nature and delicate relationship with water. Entry to the house is gained via a narrow opening in the concrete mass. The threshold, at eye level with the water, leads to a closed and shaded passage that continues to an entry court, open to the sky with a vertical landscape of native plantings.

Over half of the built area is below grade, ventilated, and lit with openings in the structure to introduce sunlight, including several submerged under the basin’s water level. Upper-level sleeping rooms inhabit a screened framework sheathed in perforated weathering steel, extending along the east/west axis to shield the pool from wind and sun. Open to the Red Rock Canyon to the west and the city lights of the east, the cantilevered form balances the sculptural weight of the basin and water. The earth-like ground form, fitted with its layer of weathered steel, is a nod to the geology of the Las Vegas Valley and Red Rock Canyon beyond.