“Sitting lightly on the landscape” is an expression that can be supposed literally and metaphorically; in the prior case it describes how a building physically touches the earth, and in the latter case it is all about reducing a building’s negative influence on the earth through energy use, water use and other factors.
The house of Alan and Mary Levin near Tucson sits lightly on the landscape in both regards. This is very important in the desert Southwest, where water is scarce and the warmth may make air conditioning a necessity 24 hours every day for much of the year.
The design, by Ibarra Rosano Design Architects, sensitively inserted the house into the landscape to respect natural attributes, minimize energy use and provide the Levins everything they asked for and much more.
at a Glance
Location: Close Tucson
Size: 3,500 square feet
That is intriguing: A open metal box frames that the desert landscape from the patio adjacent to the pool.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
We are going to begin the tour at the conclusion — the pool and deck to illustrate the method by which the house sits on the landscape, and to develop anticipation about your house. The deck and spacious frame from the pool hover above the desert landscape, permitting water to flow and animals to pass, and giving the Levins a vantage point above the scrub and sand.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
They wanted the whole house on one level, also Ibarra Rosano realized this in a manner that incorporates the house amazingly well with the landscape. The integration results from the way the architects worked together with the height restrictions.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
This perspective of the house illustrates how it is literally lifted above the landscape at a few points to let the desert leak beneath. The site is split roughly in half with a tributary valley, which had been the driving force behind the architects’ decision to lift the house and divide it into smaller volumes.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The architects’ study model is useful for understanding how the house is laid out in three volumes. From the trunk (to the south) are the carport and garage, linked by a bridge to the living and master bedroom areas in the middle. A library connects that bar to the parallel bar in the foreground, containing the bedrooms to the Levins’ kids: two married daughters with kids of their own. (This quantity can be shut off from the rest of the house if they aren’t visiting, cutting down on electricity use.) The pool is in the front-right corner, adjacent to both inhabited areas.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The front of the house. The driveway results in a car courtroom on the right; on one side is your garage, and on the other is a carport for guests. From here residents and visitors walk to a covered bridge resulting in the house.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The bridge traverses the valley, allowing the movement of water across the site to be maintained — as if the house didn’t even exist, in this regard.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
Looking north, in the exact same way as our perspective of the covered walkway, we can sense the narrow quantity of the first bar, together with the open frame in the distance.
This south face has a bit of an overhang to cut down on the high sun. The expansive glass capitalizes on views toward town — perspectives that the clients were not aware of initially and today particularly like at night.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
We enter the house into the spacious living, kitchen and dining areas, immediately seeing through the pool and deck.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
Along one side of the living area is a long fireplace, under a wood wall where the TV is mounted. This wall overlooks.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
From the dining area we may observe the kitchen’s white oak cabinets and island.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The core of the interior is your kitchen, designed to provide perspectives of both the entry and the outdoor space, and to align with the library that leads to your guest and children’s wing. The Levins wanted a kitchen that has been open without being distracting during cooking; the wood cabinets onto the island aid in this regard.
The painting on the far wall, along with the rest of the artwork in the house, comes from the Library Street Collective in Detroit, a gallery that one of the Levins’ daughters runs with her husband.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The master bath shows much of the exact same minimalist design as the rest of the house, however the blue tile wall and skylight create the space unique.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
This shelf in the master bath’s shower, highlighted by more blue tiles, is a nice touch.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The cube defines a space for dining and loungingroom, but it is flexible enough to allow for a lot of things. The cantilever projects the deck into the landscape whilst still being above it. The architects call it a way to frame the perspective of the distant city lights.
Ibarra Rosano Design Architects
The cube was created to accept a shade, however, Mary Levin likes the view so much through the frame that she didn’t wish to alter it. Of course it helps that the house itself blocks some of the strong western sunlight, allowing the Levins to appreciate the space and the newfound perspective as is.
