Edward Ogosta Architecture

Location: Yucca Valley, California
Date: 2021

Awards:
Residential Design Architecture Award, Honor level, 2021
Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award 2022

Publications:
Residential Design, June 2021

Project Description:
The Orbital House embodies the essential experience of living in the desert, via an elemental architecture sensitively positioned between earth and sky. The project is situated amidst an extraordinary landscape of nine-million year old geological formations in a saddle-shaped depression in the terrain. Our client requested a serene desert outpost which offers a deep communion with this site, yet does not overwhelm it.

An architecture of primary experiences suggested a pure geometry of primary forms, so the resulting plan is a perfect square within a circle: the square being enclosed dwelling space, and the circle being a large roof disc sheltering the space below like an umbrella. This roof creates several deeply shaded porches that wrap around the entire dwelling and frame distant views, providing a shadowy temperate zone at the building perimeter. Two large roof monitors also draw sunlight into the center of the building, with forms evoking the surrounding geology. Expansive glass sliders dramatically reveal the panoramic landscape, opening to patios and the pool below, where one can swim amidst the cacti and boulders. Atop the circular roof, a wide deck provides a horizontal podium for celestial stargazing. A simple palette of white plastered walls and concrete platforms reinforce the elemental tectonics of the project while referencing the materiality of traditional desert architecture.

With an architecture almost Palladian in its precise geometric clarity, the Orbital House becomes a unique platform for engaging with the desert and arousing a deeper experience of the cosmos.