‘I can offer a tentative answer to my question regarding the weight of archi- tecture: architecture, at the present time, would do itself a great service by becoming both more real (heavy) and more imaginative (light).’
Adobe Canyon House Patagonia Region, Arizona, 2003 Rick Joy Architects
Daniel Willis. The Emerald City . p 58
t his project used engineered soil and water from a well on the site in a very dry mixture (about 10% moisture content). Foundation and floor slab are concrete; inside the formwork, 10” of earth are compacted down to 5”, and the steel firebox and steel plate window jamb embeds are cast into the walls. Once the wall footings were in place the rammed earthwork, including the setting of forms, took approximately 3 to 4 weeks. The process is relatively simple, and a contractor can direct a group of day labourers how to do the work, and then they build it. The house is perched on the edge of a rippled ridge where water has eroded the land over time. It is approximately 1200 sq. ft. and is only
used for part of the year. Large gates on the porches allow the building to close upon itself when the owners are gone, to complete the box. The larger porch also acts as the carport when the clients are gone. In the main open spaces are the living, dining and bedrooms. The living room looks out toward a beautiful view of the ridge beyond the valley. The kitchen, bathroom and meditation/yoga space, and laundry/storage make up the smaller mole-like corners.
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O n S ite review
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I ssue 10 2003
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