Cool Home: Arizona house featured on 'Esquire' off-the-grid, private sanctuary in nature

When a client approached Cade Hayes and Jesús Robles with the idea to create an off-the-grid seasonal house in southern Arizona that wouldn't even have air-conditioning, the architect-and-designer team knew the project would require some inventive problem-solving.

"I think it is pretty rare that someone is willing to live without air-conditioning in Arizona," said Hayes, architect and co-founder of DUST, an architectural alliance founded in Tucson in 2007. "The owner came to us with a pretty cool vision."

Located in the San Rafael Valley, perched on a remote stretch of land about 5,000 feet above sea level, Casa Caldera was created by Hayes and Robles, DUST co-founder and designer, to be a private sanctuary that emphasizes simple, multi-functional design and a return to nature.

Building material blends into natural color palette

Hayes and Robles said the homeowner, a vintner who lives in the house when he harvests his grapes, insisted that the design team create a house that blended into the natural landscape while breaking free of modern conveniences - including electricity.

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"The owner had a desire to stay out of the view of the nearby road," Hayes said. "It was really about ... blending in, staying low, but maximizing experience for the owner."

Robles said these requirements were met by using volcanic concrete, a sustainable building material that begins as a fluid mix of volcanic scoria rock before hardening into a durable solid.

House celebrates natural processes, shuns electronic luxuries

The DUST team worked with Paul Schwam, a Tucson-based architect who has experimented with perfecting LAVA concrete materials for use in construction and architectural design.

Schwam said LAVA, or "light-weight aggregate and vertical application," is meant to harness  volcanic rocks' natural properties to create eco-friendly dwellings.

"Because my material starts as a fluid, evolution and adaptability is kind of built in. It will constantly be updated bit by bit over time depending on the needs of the day," he said. "It lasts a long time, like stone."

In addition to the material's natural color, which blends into the reddish-brown dirt, gray rocks and yellow wild grasses, the LAVA also works as a natural thermostat for the house, Schwam said.

By using porous volcanic material to build the walls and roofs, people can take advantage of the earth's ability to soak in heat energy from the sun, similar to burrow-dwelling rabbits, he said. The natural insulator makes up for a lack of thermostat in Casa Caldera.

For the few things that need electricity, such as the house's lights, the owner uses a portable solar panel, Hayes and Robles said.

Windows, open-air corridor make a small space spacious

When designing a small structure – Casa Caldera is about 900 square feet in total – Hayes and Robles said they had to find ways to make the house feel big.

"Part of that was expanding the idea of the patio, utilizing the roof. Flexibility in this really small Swiss Army knife was key. How can we maximize this?" Robles said. "(We wanted to) give the feeling of an expanse."

The house is comprised of three main parts: a living area, a sleeping area and a semi-outdoor connecting corridor called a zaguán, which is covered and can  be closed off by bi-fold doors.

A wall of windows in the living area and kitchen looks out across the zaguán toward the sleeping area, accessed through a pair of well-camouflaged doors set in the middle of a wood-paneled wall.

In addition to visually expanding the space, the windows have panels that are designed unfold like the petals of an origami lotus to point outward into the corridor, which allows for ventilation.

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Casa Caldera construction brought builders closer to nature

Built on land that has been in the owner's family for two generations, Casa Caldera is located about two hours southeast of Tucson, near the U.S.-Mexico border. Its remote location required Hayes and Robles to stay on-site for a portion of the construction, an experience that allowed them to "keep the flow going," Hayes said.

"I wouldn’t do it for all of the projects. This one, it kind of made sense. It helped being off-grid and in the elements. We kind of lived that, and I think it was kind of key," he said, adding that the pair would stay in a trailer for four days a week for three months.

Robles said living out at the site, experiencing the same conditions in which the owner would live, gave him a deeper appreciation for what originally inspired the house's design.

"Experiencing the place and being there, there’s a little bit of the ephemeral quality," he said. "The wood oak that you are burning for the house, those are the trees surrounding it. Those are the trees being used for the house."

A return to roots

Schwan said he was impressed by what Hayes and Robles were able to do with the LAVA material, and commended their commitment to architecture that works in tandem with nature.

"Guys like Jesús and Cade, their architecture comes from their philosophy. I think their philosophy is quite impressive," he said, emphasizing the efficiency of the designs. "I really like the concept. I like the fact that it is extremely simple, it is very durable."

Hayes said simplicity is something that defines all of DUST's designs – they also have jewelry, furnishings, hardware and public art projects displayed on their website.

"The reliance on mechanical comfort, electricity, air-conditioning ... all those things let people ignore common sense (in architectural design)," he said.

Robles said Casa Caldera shows how DUST thinks differently.

"I think we were responding to the environment first," he said. "The way we look at designing and building is a pragmatic and common-sense response to how to live in the desert."

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