A new home by SpaceLineDesign is totally out-of-this-world

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Most Magazine articles on bold residential designs begin with phrases like: “the first thing you notice is … “ or “it all began with blah blah blah … “ But in order to understand the home pictured here, you’ve got to do three things: 1) Forget everything you’ve seen before. 2) embrace your imagination. 3) Have fun.

that’s exactly what the architect and clients in this case did—they went on a search for something completely different and landed here. the architect is Jeff Page, principal of a boutique firm spacelineDesign architects + interiors; the client is a young couple with three children, two dogs, a thriving business, and lots of guts. “they were enthusiastic and wanted to feel inspired by their dream home,” says Page of his clients, who work in the HVac industry. “We produced a full design analysis and concept exploration with extensive hand-renderings, study models, and animated 3-D fly-bys,” says Page. “the result is an incredible expression of modern architecture that responds to their desires and our collective imaginations.”

Programmatically, the home is organized into a 5,600-square-foot main residence with below-grade three-car garage and a detached 750-square-foot office and guest quarters with below-grade six-car garage. there’s a master suite on the second level of the main house, meditation studio that cantilevers off the main structure, an underground dance practice space for the kids, desert footpaths all around, and a sweet foosball table in the main room.

to get in, guests ascend a series of shallow concrete stairs through a garden path arriving at a shaded main entry, where the front door is flanked by a wall-hugging concave water feature and a plate of curved glass that provides a view into the dining room. Page calls this semi-enclosed area “the quiet and calm entry experience that prepares visitors for what’s to come.”

inside the front door, a round stainless steel column holding up the master bedroom and roof comes down from the ceiling but doesn’t touch the floor – instead its

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Right: the south-facing great

room, located over the below-

grade garage, is protected by

a 12-foot roof overhang while

slivers of light are allowed in

to slip in between the overlap-

ping curved roof lines. Below

left: a site-cast concrete arma-

ture supports the cantilevered

meditation room over a desert

wash. The low horizontal window

provides a meditative view while

sitting lotus-style on the glass floor.

Page says: “The room rests on a giant

armature that metaphorically channels

energy from the earth.” Below right:

this view from the street shows the

office/guest house at right and main

house beyond.

Above: the opening in the 14-

inch concete wall was made

by placing Styrofoam in the

concrete form and then

chipping it away once the

concrete set. It was meant

to express the energy of

“breaking through” for the

kids, says Page. Left: rebar

shaped to resemble an ocoti-

llo holds up the staircase land-

ing. Above left: the Moroccan-

themed master bath. Opposite: a

triple-pipe column at center holds

up the entire double overlapping

great room roof, as well as the

multi-stepped layered roofs over

the bar and breakfast areas.

“The meditation room rests on a giant armature that metaphorically channels energy from the earth.”

Take a tour this home with DL’s Editor-in-Chief David Tyda in a short video by clicking on DL-TV at www.desertlivingmag.com.

supported sideways off a solid curved site-cast concrete wall which sweeps up 10 feet almost to the ceiling. “it was tricky for the engineers to get the heavy weight shifted from the floating steel column into the concrete support wall; and also for the concrete contractor to pour a curved wall that gestures to the ceiling without actually touching it.” this is only one example where the ideas of energy transfer and tension created by negative space were worked into the design of this house.

in the main room, cast-in-place tilt-up concrete walls hold up undulating wood ceiling planes which float over one another, creating long, thin spaces for panels of translucent poycarbonate—allowing natural light to sift in and emphasize the architecture. in the

meditation room, a 42-inch circular glass window in the floor allows for views of the desert wash running below. in the hallway leading to the

kids bedrooms and playroom, walls of polished cMU block are stacked to just below the ceiling, so natural light passes

from the exterior walls, through the hallway, and into the bedrooms. “i love the tension that’s created in the negative space between

the block and the ceiling.”one place there isn’t any tension: the

master suite. located at the top of a metal and wood staircase that leads directly and exclusively into the bedroom, this area is meant for lounging and relaxation. the bathroom, which is outfitted with an oversize soaking tub, steam shower, two-way fireplace, and decadent Moroccan design theme, actually measures larger than the bedroom, where a king-size bed snuggles up to a 12-foot long horizontal window framing a vista of the city lights and distant camelback mountain.

so how do the owners like living in this highly expressive piece of architecture? if the Jägermeister machine that was half empty atop their bar is any clue, they’re enjoying every minute of it. n

“My favorite part of this house is where this curved concrete wall almost contacts the ceiling, while delicately holding the weight of the second floor and roof .”