{"id":154086,"date":"2025-06-03T06:15:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/154086\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T06:15:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:15:26","slug":"the-tastemakers-turning-up-the-heat-on-desert-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/154086\/","title":{"rendered":"The tastemakers turning up the heat on desert living"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the bay window in our dining nook, the view down the gently sloping terrain to the road and parallel train tracks is a still one, apart from a frantic lizard hoping to avoid the watchful eyes of a roadrunner. A gust of wind stirs up a dust devil, making the yucca stalks wave. The land is dotted with colour from wild flowers and hummingbirds. This is summer in Marfa. It\u2019s the time of year we cherish most, here in the far west of Texas.<\/p>\n

While much of the state is dripping with humidity, our days are dry. A certain slowness is required. In animals, the search for respite is called aestivation: a period of dormancy, much like hibernation but in the warm season. We humans, meanwhile, cultivate indoor spaces to become cool, calm shelters from the sun during the day; we nurture outdoor alcoves to allow us to be outside as it rises and sets. After all, according to Joan Didion, writing from California\u2019s Death Valley, \u201cstories travel at night on the desert\u201d. These regions, which make up a third of the Earth\u2019s land, might seem inhospitable \u2014 but for those who learn to live with them, they can be magical.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We \u2014 two arts writers and photographers, who met while studying in Austin and were drawn back to Texas after living in Denmark, Germany, Mexico and Cuba \u2014 decided to find others who, like us, welcome the heat. We visited the Patagonian Steppe, Mars-like swaths in Jordan, the India-Pakistan border and the south-western US. The result \u2014 our book Desert by Design \u2014 is an ode to these arid landscapes and the creative minds who inhabit them. These are difficult places to live, and over thousands of years a number of architectural tricks<\/a> have been developed to live in them comfortably; the people we meet have put them to use with style and innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ADemion Clinco\u2019s house near the Santa Catalina Mountains was designed by Judith Chafee in the 1970s \"AnThe interconnected rooms twist around oasis-like courtyards and patios, with views of the Sonoran Desert <\/p>\n

As temperatures rise globally, \u201cwe are going to have to look to homes in regions like these to understand how future generations are going to live\u201d, says Demion Clinco. A Democrat who served in the Arizona House of Representatives, he is also chief executive of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation and counts a 1970s residence designed by Judith Chafee as part of his property portfolio. <\/p>\n

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Areas for sitting and dining are open to the outdoors \u2014 capitalising on cool breezes and the shade as they shift throughout the day. One circular dining space has tall walls but no ceiling; the perfect spot for stargazing<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The American architect, who married a modernist style with a reverence for nature, had immersed herself in the 4-acre site near the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, learning the patterns of the sun and the shade. The result is a network of interconnected rooms that twist around courtyards and patios of varying shape and size, keeping the Sonoran Desert in view without letting it become overwhelmed by sun and heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Partially submerged into the earth, the lower levels stay cool with opposing windows that encourage a cross-breeze. It is precisely this attunement to the local landscape and climate that is its enduring strength, says Clinco; the question for future architects is not just how to live with heat, but how to do so while minimising reliance on air conditioning.<\/p>\n

\"PartA building in the eco-city of Arcosanti, Arizona, which Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri began designing in 1970 \"AnNadia Begin and her husband live in a two-bedroom unit in Arcosanti, where circles are a recurring motif <\/p>\n

Nadia Begin, a resident of the experimental eco-city Arcosanti, in Arizona, agrees; architecture should not fight its surroundings, but be adapted to it \u2014 and that goes for the residents too. Arcosanti might have imposing concrete structures with sci-fi geometries and huge circular windows, but they are built into the hillside; the walls were cast in the ground\u2019s silt so that the texture and tone match. \u201cWe constantly have to develop more sustainable systems, which means that we have to learn to effectively engage with [the environment] around us,\u201d she says. \u201cIsn\u2019t that what the world needs more of?\u201d <\/p>\n

Begin and her husband adopt low-tech cooling tactics such as lime-washing windows to filter the light. \u201cWe are intentionally not isolated from the desert,\u201d she says. The late Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, who began designing Arcosanti in 1970, \u201cconsciously wanted us not to get too comfortable. We should feel cold in winter and warm in summer. We shouldn\u2019t be in a bubble.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soleri had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, and though the two had differing visions, they both believed in organic architecture that harmonises with its surroundings, that takes inspiration from vernacular construction, but reinterprets it in modern materials.<\/p>\n

\"RusticThe Moroccan retreat of architects Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, founders of Studio KO, and Jean-No\u00ebl Schoeffer \"MinimalistThe renovated farmhouse has traditional thick walls and small windows to regulate the temperature inside <\/p>\n

Other architects embrace tried and tested elements just as they are. When Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, of Studio KO, and their mentor Jean-No\u00ebl Schoeffer acquired an old farmhouse 33 kilometres from their Moroccan base, they renovated it as a retreat to suit their modern needs. But they did so, Fournier says, by \u201ccreating with as little impact as possible\u201d, maintaining the traditional insulating thick walls, small windows, network of small rooms and low doorways that all work to regulate temperature.<\/p>\n

Johnny Ortiz-Concha, a chef based in a secluded northern New Mexico village, and his partner, curator Maida Branch, are some of the many people we spoke to who are sanguine about the heat, accepting that living in a desert simply means you will be hot. They live in a traditional earthen home, where they eschew air conditioning and central heating (it can get cold here, too). \u201cExperiencing discomfort is part of existing in the natural world,\u201d Branch says. \u201cIt\u2019s where growth happens.\u201d <\/p>\n

For the couple, the summer heat makes the nights here, and their daily margarita, all the more satisfying. Ortiz-Concha forages rose hips, plums, pine shoots and prickly pear from the surrounding area for his supper club. \u201cDesert plants are harder to get to and tend to produce less [fruit],\u201d he says. \u201cBut they\u2019re so much sweeter because they have to fight to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AChef Johnny Ortiz-Concha and his partner, curator Maida Branch, live in a northern New Mexico village and eschew air conditioning .\u2009.\u2009. \"Cozy.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009\u2018Experiencing discomfort is part of existing in the natural world,\u2019 Branch says. \u2018It\u2019s where growth happens\u2019 <\/p>\n

These environments are far from barren; many are their own small oases amid the sand and rock. In Egypt, near the Libyan border, the home shared by designer-architect India Mahdavi and her friend, environmentalist Mounir Neamatalla, is surrounded by a verdant grove of palm trees. <\/p>\n

Positioned between the salt lakes of Siwa with the dunes of the Sahara beyond, and the western slope of Adr\u00e9re Amellal (the \u201cWhite Mountain\u201d that lent its name to Neamatalla\u2019s eco-hotel), the sandy pink house blends into the environment. Small windows minimise the heat. A number of areas for sitting and dining are open to the outdoors \u2014 capitalising on cool breezes and the shade as they shift throughout the day. One circular dining space has tall walls but no ceiling; the perfect spot for stargazing. The compound is more than a den for midday hibernation; it is built in concert with the desert.<\/p>\n

\"CozyIn Shahira Mehrez\u2019s Cairo penthouse bricks in triangular formations filter daylight and allow a draft to flow through \"Cozy\u2018It is a house for all seasons,\u2019 she says <\/p>\n

Eight hundred kilometres east, in the cacophonous desert metropolis of Cairo, the art scholar and traditional costume collector Shahira Mehrez has also created her own lush enclave in the sky. Collaborating with sustainable architect Hassan Fathy, she modelled her penthouse apartment on the layout of traditional homes where \u201cno space is lost\u201d, with latticework window coverings and a sunken marble bathtub. <\/p>\n

She refers to darker, more intimate corners, like her bedroom, as \u201ccocoons\u201d and says she spends the majority of her time in the courtyard, with its plants, central fountain and pink plaster walls. Here, adobe bricks stacked in triangular formations filter daylight while allowing a draft to flow through. \u201cIt is a house for all seasons,\u201d Mehrez says triumphantly.<\/p>\n

\"SmilingMahdavi and Neamatalla at home\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009 \"Round.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009the walls are made from the Egyptian material known as kershef, a blend of mud, rock salt and other minerals <\/p>\n

Fournier, Marty and Schoeffer used Berber techniques and natural insulating materials such as mud, chalk, palm and eucalyptus in Marrakech, while Mahdavi and Neamatalla\u2019s thick walls are made from the local Egyptian material known as kershef, a blend of mud, rock salt and other minerals, which means the building melds with its surroundings. <\/p>\n

In a micro-desert in the Otago province, New Zealand, Veronica Alkema and Gary Stewart also turned to the ground, utilising rammed earth for thick walls that regulate temperatures in their modern, angular house. \u201cActively engaging with a place, being connected to the way things change season to season, understanding the cycle of nature, has been great for our mental balance,\u201d says Alkema.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeIn southern Colorado, artist Ronald Rael\u2019s mud-based buildings are at once familiar and futuristic \"SunlitThe cool interior of Rael\u2019s house <\/p>\n

But others have a more radical interpretation of traditional methods. In the high altitudes of southern Colorado, artist Ronald Rael engages with the earthen buildings of his ancestral homeland by restoring existing adobe structures and creating contemporary ones with technologies such as 3D printing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I grew up in the 1800s, when electricity and running water were brand new,\u201d Rael says of his rural upbringing. \u201cAnd now I work with robots in the very same place.\u201d His mud-based buildings and sculptural installations are at once familiar \u2014 inspired by indigenous tradition and \u201cthe genius of the past\u201d \u2014 and completely futuristic.<\/p>\n

\"HouseVeronica Alkema and Gary Stewart\u2019s house in Otago province, New Zealand\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. \"Cozy.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009uses rammed earth for its walls <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, Dushyant Bansal and Priyanka Sharma of Studio Raw Material opted for another bountiful natural resource: marble. Both studied at London\u2019s Royal College of Art but were drawn back to their home country by the stone. From centuries-old quarries, the duo harvested a patchwork of castoffs to pave their long central hallway, which connects to spacious rooms with sparse furniture and high ceilings. They show that what is often seen as a barren and inhospitable land can provide great treasures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ManDushyant Bansal used marble in the Rajasthan house he designed with Priyanka Sharma <\/p>\n

It may be like an oven out there, hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement, but in these dry, dusty locales, incomparable beauty, a trove of generational knowledge and a wealth of resources can be found, for those who pay attention. To live stylishly and sustainably, the best solutions are often right under your feet.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDesert by Design\u201d, by Molly Mandell and James Burke (Abrams)<\/p>\n

Find out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @ft_houseandhome<\/a> on Instagram<\/p>\n