Garcia Residence | Ibarra Rosano Design Architects

The Garcia site is a steep north-facing slope in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains with commanding views of city lights and the surrounding mountains. Our challenge was to design a structure that would appear to grow out of the rocky desert hillside without dominating the landscape. We set the axis of the house parallel with the site contours and created three narrow bays to terrace up the hill, keeping the excavation and fill to a minimum. The terracing platforms contain the three zones of the house: living, circulating and sleeping. We used the middle bay, the entry "gallery", for both circulation and as an extension of the living spaces. It invites the visitor down to the living, dining and kitchen spaces on the lowest platform, while connecting the house to the bedrooms on the upper level. The outstanding city view led us to break the house axis and rotate the main window to frame fantastic views of the Tucson city lights and the Catalina Mountains to the northeast. We introduced south sun to the living spaces by splitting the bedrooms apart, thereby creating a small intimate courtyard with a view up the ridge. The material palette of sandblasted Integra block, steel, birch and concrete is simple, durable and responsive to the desert climate, colors and textures. It is our belief that with good design, extraordinary space can be created with ordinary materials.