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...

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...

Are Airbnbs and ultramodern architecture killing the vibe in Joshua Tree, California?

2022-04-14T13:13:00-04:00

Tensions over visitors, some of whom will, inevitably, want to claim a piece of the desert themselves, has been a part of the area’s story for years. But as the pandemic has boosted Joshua Tree’s allure for travelers, transplants and investors, it has magnified old conflicts and created new conundrums.

Numbers of short-term rentals have doubled in Joshua Tree and the neighboring community of Yucca Valley, presenting an existential crisis to some of its inhabitants dismayed at the new boom in development to meet the demands of the market. Even the tree species that the town is named for is under threat by overdevelopment (or so says the Center for Biological Diversity, whose petition is currently under review by the California Fish and Game Commission.)

Part of the draw is the growing number of Instagram-friendly architectural showpieces that have been spun off into midcentury-inspired camp compounds and Disneyfied planned communities. A rental typology may be developing around the trend entirely, characterized by maximized space for lodgings, matte finishes, and materials like mirrored glass and corrugated steel. Their appeal is nevertheless lost on some local desert dwellers, ...

Goin' glamping: HKS completes its Autocamp complex in Joshua Tree, California

2022-02-16T12:46:00-05:00

Just days after the firm’s extraordinary Super Bowl design fully acquitted itself on the national stage, HKS in collaboration with Narrative Design Studio has taken the SoCal spotlight again under the guise of a new, mid-century-inspired modern clubhouse retreat now completed in Joshua Tree, California.

Photo © Matthew Kisiday

Featuring a 55-key resort and 25-acre campsite, the new Autrocamp retreat is defined by its network of courtyards, firepits, passive design elements, pools, and walking paths that combine to enhance the area’s amazing natural desert landscape. Anchored by an arched Quonset hut clubhouse building, the site expands along a shifted axis to provide a seamless indoor-outdoor transition to visitors, who can each enjoy vistas of the surrounding National Park underneath an ample amount of wind and solar protection.

Photo © Matthew Kisiday

Per the architects: “One of the critical design drivers was to incorporate a feeling of both privacy and community on the property. I...

Iconic Joshua Tree "starburst" shipping container home is officially on the market

2020-12-18T16:56:00-05:00

London-based architecture studio Whitaker Studio designs a three-bedroom, three-bath single-family residence near California's Joshua Tree National Park. While soothing desert views are always a plus, what makes this particular home so appealing is its looks and configuration.

The project idea was unveiled in 2017, and since then, visuals for the "starburst house" became a media sensation with its unique shape and clustered shipping container construction. Each shipping container segment ends with windows providing views of the surrounding landscape. Each shipping container is positioned at varying angles as it comes together at the center of the home.

Image courtesy of Whitaker Studio

With its stunningly realistic visuals, the home has not even started construction yet, the house is up for sale and listed at $3.5 million. An ideal desert getaway the studio interest for the property has only continued to increase.

Santa Monica real estate firm engel...

A look back at Arata Isozaki's idiosyncratic Joshua Tree pavilions

2019-03-11T17:01:00-04:00

The recent Pritzker Prize winner was never shy to show his bold and unapologetic design aesthetic, pulling from various architectural practices. Using large forms and volumes, Arata Isozaki works with his environment to create seamless spaces. During a trip to the desert to visit his long-time art critic friend Jerry Sohn, Isozaki was immersed into Southern California's desert landscape. After discussing ideas for a new project with Sohn, the trip's experience allowed for the architect to create three pavilions that use the California desert and the empty sky as his backdrop.

The three totems created by Arata Isozaki for long-term friend Jerry Sohn and his family. Located in Joshua Tree, CA. Image © Iwan Baan

The property is nestled in Southern California's Joshua Tree national park. A space entirely off the grid, the closest "urban setting" is a small town built by Gene Autry and Roy Roger called, Pioneertown. Isozaki used these elements to create three outdoor "bedrooms" that repr...

Artist Rachel Whiteread creates two "ghost" cabins in the desert outside of Los Angeles

2017-07-25T12:15:00-04:00

Rachel Whiteread is known for her architecturally-relevant art practice, in particular her casts of the inside of buildings. One such sculpture, a cast of a Victorian townhouse, helped secure her the Turner Prize, making her the first woman to ever win the illustrious award.

The London-based artist has reprised this strategy for two installations in the California High Desert, which are featured in WSJ. Magazine. Located near Joshua Tree National Park, her concrete sculptures reveal the negative space of small cabins from the 1950s that had been left in the desert.

Photography by Iwan Baan for WSJ. Magazine

These aren’t the only sculptures to have recently touched down in the arid landscape outside of Los Angeles. A slew of artists, including Doug Aitken, gathered together a couple months ago to create Desert X, which was something of a festival of contemporary, site-specific works.

California's 'at-risk' cultural landscapes include Watts Towers

2014-10-29T14:31:00-04:00

Three sites in California — the Watts Towers, Noah Purifoy's Outdoor Desert Museum in Joshua Tree and the "Bay Lights" installation on the Oakland-Bay Bridge — have been named to a list of 11 "at-risk" sites by The Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C. [...] "Landscapes often die quiet deaths when you're dealing with the elements," says foundation President Charles Birnbaum.

Lucid Stead by artist Phillip K. Smith III illuminates Joshua Tree, California

2013-11-22T21:03:00-05:00

Now here's a little weekend inspiration. "Lucid Stead" is an art installation by Phillip K. Smith, III in the beautiful desert landscape of Joshua Tree in California. With some mirrors, LED lights, custom built electronic equipment, and Arduino programming, Smith transformed a 70-year-old homesteader shack into an architecture piece that complements and contrasts with its peaceful environment throughout the entire day.

All images courtesy of Phillip K. Smith, III; photographers: Steve King, Lance Gerber, Lou Mora (see image gallery below for details)

Yucca Crater: Ball-Nogues

2012-01-05T22:52:00-05:00

I've read that it's biodegradable, right? I ask Ball. "It's degradable," he says. "I don't know about bio."

Our friend Katya Tylevich covers Ball Nogues Yucca Crater installation in Joshua Tree National Park, CA. You may recall Katya's UpStarts feature on Ball Nogues that we published here a couple years ago.

Only 2 days remaining to contribute to Ball-Nogues' Yucca Crater

2011-08-24T15:28:40-04:00

If you would like to support Ball-Nogues' latest architectural installation, Yucca Crater, a public artwork and engineered oasis for the High Desert Test Sites series (previously on Archinect), you still have the opportunity for another 2 days, and currently all pledges are being matched by the Artists2Artists fund.

With only a couple of days remaining, Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues are asking for your help in meeting the projected goal by making a tax-deductible donation of any size. If they do not meet their goal by this Friday, September 26th, the project does not receive any funding. Pledge here