The site for this project is particular area of the high desert of California, namely the northern edge condition of the Joshua Tree National Park and it’s proximity to the town of 29 Palms.

The aim is to create a new urban type for this edge condition by questioning the notion of property boundaries and public vs. privatized space. The target area was examined from both sides of dichotomy; on the one side the vigorous investigation of the existing ecological and topographic conditions (performative and formal), and on the other the ubiquitously creeping suburban sprawl that constitutes the pixilated orthogonally configured “edge” of the city.

The project is about the melding of the cellular nature of property and boundary with a branching strategy, which manifests in a densification of the suburban fabric through a building, which acts as a gateway to the park. The cellular nature of the project is explored at multiple scales; urban, building (structure), program and aperture.