Desert House, Alice Springs, Australia. Architect: Dunn Hillam Architects, 2014.

Link to image

Link to Set

Built in the shade of it’s own fly-roof, this heavily insulated state-of-the-art green design desert house has no thermal bridging, instead, drawing cool air from the shaded earth below it. The landscape of Alice Springs is awesome. The ancient ridge-lines of the West MacDonnell ranges and the rough terraces of the site itself had equal impact on the design of this house. A tough outer skin shields a glazed inner courtyard which moderates the scale and impact of climate and landscape when necessary. Because the weather is not always awful. In fact, often it is crisp, dry and mildly warm. The nights are clear, the stars are phenomenal. The design aims to make the best of living in this place. The clients love the desert, they love the vast views, they love the warmth. And when the weather turns foul they wanted to deal with that in the smartest way possible, actively seeking to demonstrate an innovative approach to housing not only in the desert but throughout the world.