Desert rose

RobeRt Stone deSigned a gUeSt HoUSe in tHe CalifoRnian

deSeRt – a Remote RetReat in SHadeS of blaCk.

text Katya Tylevich / Photos Caleb Coppola

RobeRt Stone.

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Architect robert stone and I are planning my visit to Rosa Muerta, a textured and reflec-tive black mirage, which materializes just east of Joshua tree in southern California. In our initial e-mail correspondence, stone tries to illustrate what I’m in for: ‘the house sits out in the middle of the open desert, overgrown with weeds and grasses like an exquisite burned-out Barcelona Pavilion from another, much sexier universe.’ several days later, my car thermometer climbs 17° in under three hours, ultimately perching at 40°C. Congested Los Angeles freeways give way to dirt roads, steep grades and stretches of dry, uninhabited land. the setting is extraterrestrial, to be sure. And when I finally cross the integrated threshold from scorched sand to smooth black concrete, indeed I feel I’ve stepped through the looking glass in Barcelona and into stone’s iridescent, heat-bent and handcrafted galaxy (where I ex-perience an instant drop in temperature under the dramatic overhang). Reflections of Mies van der Rohe bounce, distorted, from the structure’s chrome col-umns. they replicate again in the (outdoor) living room’s low, mirrored canopy, which reflects back at the reflecting pool (also a spa) and makes the desert floor a ceiling. But

with a nod to the columns, stone urges me to consider the chrome details of a Mongoose BMX bike as well. Later, the architect alludes to legwarmers (yes, the ’80s fashion staple) as he explains how the black rope around each column visually disconnects the straight line of the supporting structure, ‘to make it float a little more’. ‘Clearly, I understand what it means to take a chrome column, and it’s the Barcelona Pavilion – but it’s coming out of the dirt,’ stone says. ‘It’s not sitting on a plinth; it’s in the desert. I know what the high references are for these things, but there are also ones that are just close to my heart.’ In this way, rosa Muerta is welded of dichotomous orientation points. It simultane-ously quotes from the architecture of text-books and references the twisted wrought iron of southern California’s barrios. It borrows heavily from the architect’s personal experi-ences growing up in Palm springs. the sunken living room, for instance, is reminiscent of a pool’s shallow end, where stone says he spent much of his young life ‘gabbing with friends while everybody was skating’. stone remarks on the unique view of the world achieved while sitting with his head just above ground level, one arm up, level with the landscape.

‘think of it like language,’ stone says of his aesthetic approach. ‘I can go to Japan and learn how to ask where the train station is, but here I can speak with a kind of poetry and understating that is much more subtle. that’s what I’m after – a way to make architecture that can work culturally in subtle and intricate ways.’ throughout the long conversation, our voices are punctuated by birdsong, the skit-tering of a lizard on concrete, and the distant growl of an engine. ‘I hope you get the dirt bike in the background,’ stone says with a laugh. ‘that really is the context.’ Later, the architect, who writes prolifically of his work, quotes from his notebook: ‘the desert is awe inspiring and serene in its emptiness. But, just as important is the detritus of modern culture, a bleached out Coors can, or a shotgun shell on the ground, that reminds you that nature and culture cannot be separated.’ I arrived at rosa Muerta on the heels of a fashion shoot, the only evidence of which remained in thousands of footsteps still litter-ing the desert sand. rosa Muerta is a public space, but the fingerprints of its visitors readily wash off the metal appliances and custom-cast concrete blocks. Physically, the structure does not allow for someone else’s baggage (save »

01 the houSe can be Rented foR ShoRt StayS oR public gatheRingS.

02 the opening thRough the centRe of the houSe iS aligned with a diS-tant JoShua tRee.

‘the house Is LIke An eXquIsIte BurneD – out BArCeLonA

PAvILIon froM Another, MuCh seXIer unIverse’

— robert stone—

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chRome columnS RiSe fRom the diRt to SuppoRt a ceiling plane with miR-RoR tileS on the undeRSide.

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for some ashes in the fire pit). ‘There’s no parking, no garage, no storage.’ the nearest neighbour is over 180 m away. And so, rosa Muerta has seen celebra-tions that resonated from Joshua tree all the way to Youtube, but it has also hosted a visitor who spent five days meditating and been the site of a marriage proposal. ‘there are probably all these babies named rosa,’ the architect laughs. stone says the space was designed for ‘parties’, but he uses the word as shorthand for the disconnect a visitor might feel in a structure that offers no narrative cues. ‘the aesthetic being completely original to this place, you come out here and have to invent yourself,’ stone says. ‘Who am I in this little black house?’ then, after a moment’s thought, he adds: ‘In America, every community that’s worth a damn has an abandoned house that all the kids know about. And that’s where they go and party. In some ways, I’m making that,’ he says. ‘An open space with no adult supervi-sion.’ «

www.robertstonedesign.com

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01 black-bRaided Rope aRound StainleSS-Steel columnS viSually diSconnectS the StRaight line of the SuppoRting StRuctuRe ‘to make it float a little moRe’, aS the aRchi-tect SayS.

02 the outdooR living Room iS SuR-Rounded by Sliding gateS that open to the deSeRt.

‘I hoPe You get the DIrt BIke In the BACkgrounD.

thAt reALLY Is the ConteXt.’

— robert stone —

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01 the houSe iS equipped with a Sink foR outdooR cooking and cateRing, a baRbecue, a fiRe pit, and a heated and Jetted Spa.

02 the outdooR living Room cutS down into the deSeRt flooR.

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‘In AMerICA, everY CoMMunItYthAt’s Worth A DAMn hAs An

ABAnDoneD house thAt ALL the kIDs knoW ABout’

— robert stone —

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01 outdooR living Room02 Spa03 planteR04 bedRoom05 waShStand06 ShoweR07 kitchen08 utility Room

01 the building includeS hand-made light fixtuReS, cuStom-caSt concRete blockS, wRought-iRon ScReenS, and nail-leSS conStRuction held togetheR by StainleSS-Steel pinS and Rope connectionS inSpiRed by tRaditional JapaneSe building.

02 the ShoweR iS open to the Sky.

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long Section.

plan.

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