Archinect - News

IOAN’s Joshua Tree residence sets natural materials against a desert backdrop

2023-12-12T18:42:00-05:00

Los Angeles-based Industry of All Nations (IOAN) has completed a timber residence set against the backdrop of California’s Joshua Tree National Park. According to the team, the building named The Landing House “masterfully blends into the layout, textures, and color palette of its desert canvas.”

Photo credit: Ye Rin Mok

“The landscape is harsh, and it can take decades for a plant or tree to recover if displaced from its delicate ecosystem,” says Fernando Gerscovich of IAON about the project. “We were determined to minimize disruptions of the natural landscape, so our design focused on integration that wouldn’t disturb the surrounding plants and natural geography of the land.”

Photo credit: Ye Rin Mok

Responding to the many natural features across the five-acre site, which includes Joshua trees and natural boulder formations, the team adopted an approach grounded in “eco-humility,” resulting in a nine-foot-tall structure whose low profil...

NEOM reveals new Leyja resort concepts designed by Mario Cucinella, Chris van Duijn, and Shaun Killa

2023-10-18T18:24:00-04:00

Saudi Arabia’s NEOM megaproject has announced a new planned luxury resort development called Leyja that features designs from teams led by architects Mario Cucinella, Chris van Duijn, and Shaun Killa.

Details on the new aspect of the development are scarce, though the plan is to include three hotels and an experience center placed at nodes along a winding gulch leading inland from the Gulf of Aqaba.

Renderings show the structures being inserted into the 400-meter-high natural rock formations at the site.

The Adventure Hotel concept by Chris van Duijn/OMA. Image courtesy of NEOM

The 'Adventure Hotel,' designed by van Duijn, is stepped vertically as though a staircase leading up the walls of the cliff whose topography is accentuated by its form. The hotel is intended to provide a base for tourists to pursue rock climbing and other "high-octane" activities.

It is joined by an oasis-straddling design from Cucine...

Joshua Tree’s mirrored Invisible House lists for $18 million

2023-01-20T12:11:00-05:00

An eye-catching new landmark of an architecturally changed community is now up for grabs after designer Tomas Osinski’s Invisible House hit the market in Joshua Tree, California, for $18 million.

Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group

The mirror-clad 5,490-square-foot home was completed with the help of owners and film producers Chris and Roberta Hanley in 2019 and has since alternated between an Airbnb rental and film location since completion.

Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group

“The building is more about the desert surroundings than about itself,” Osinski said to Artnet recently, adding that its design “started as a single room and outdoor pool, and organically [became] what it is now.”

Image courtesy Aaron Kirman Group

With a total of three bedrooms and four full baths, the house sits on a 60-acre plot 10 minutes from the town’s unique main drag and is cantilevered on one end with an indoor pool and raw concrete floors encased in the same aviary-friendly bird-proof glass used in commerc...