“The natural landscape is as important as the architecture,“ says Edward M. Jones, of Jones Studio in Phoenix, who built a contemporary house in Scottsdale, Arizona, for Tracy and Lou Ann O’Rourke “The boulders have been there for an eternity, and the saguaros are often very old, so you don’t move them just to build a house,“ says Jones. Curved cast-in-place-concrete walls are clad in titanium-zinc shingles. (May 2005) Via Architectural Digest. More photos at Jones Studio where you can see the house is actually much larger than it appears here (sadly).
Saguaros are often very old — an absolute understatement! They are vastly important to the desert eco-system for a number of reasons. Human desert dwellers have always used saguaro wood as a building material. I love that this design respects this saguaro forest, but it’s also worth noting that they are extremely valuable $$$ and cactus rustlers are paid big money to uproot them for sale in the landscaping industry.