Las Palmas Retreat
Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is an enclave city in which homes serve as buffers between the public street and completely private rear courtyards. The street-facing walls of these homes are a critical component of privacy-making: the wall controls both physical access and visual privacy, but also mitigates the intense heat and light of the desert climate. The shade and thermal mass provided by the walls are vital to modulating temperature. This notion has led to many examples of beautiful breeze block walls that stand as visual icons of the domestic and civic architecture of the city.

Las Palmas Retreat adapts the idea of the ubiquitous breeze block wall through careful modulation and reinterpretation. On the street side of the home, the shadow-block façade entices visitors upon approach. This entry façade unifies the home while hinting at the veiled spaces behind it. The wall offers a gentle filigree of sunlight, the opportunity for shade, and the movement of breezes. Its simple lattice structure provides for the growth of both star and twisted jasmine, drought-tolerant plants that flourish in the desert and perfume the home.

The home's entry sequence passes through increasingly private zones, revealing views through both interior and exterior spaces that stretch across the site. From one zone to the next, the nature and sanctuary of this retreat are fully revealed. The rear private courtyard reveals a second "wall": a thin curtain of gently falling water originating from the deeply cantilevered roof above. The screen of the water, a counterpoint to the solidity of the breeze block wall, provides welcome evaporative cooling and a soothing soundscape that adds to the sensory vocabulary of the home.