Hear Rick Joy explain the concept of single-aperture view he used in designing a multibuilding residence in the Sonoran Desert
Learn from Rick Joy about the concept of single-aperture view that he used in designing a multibuilding residence in the Sonoran Desert west of Tucson, Arizona, from the documentary Rick Joy: Interludes (2009).
Checkerboard Film Foundation (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Transcript
[Music in]
RICK JOY: We're now about two miles west of Tucson, in an area known as the Saguaro National Monument. It's the Sonoran Desert, and it's the only place in the world that these magnificent saguaro cactus live.
When we first walked the site, there was this raw sort of scarred area where some other people before him had considered building. And when we found it, we found that the—the little bowl—natural bowl in the desert over here was a much more interesting and vibrant place to exist in the desert. When we first decided to build down in the bowl, we determined that there was the perfect view for each of the primary program spaces. We divided each of those zones into its own little building with a single aperture toward that view and lighting event.
[Music out]
These saguaro, although they're very—they're magnificent and look very rugged and well balanced, they're very fragile. Building up close to them is tricky. So we hand-dug the footings, and we purposefully elevated the buildings to allow water and animals to coexist here in a more fluent way. But also, the elevation of the steel boxes helps to reinforce this concept of the single-aperture-view light experience. And so, by elevating them you're stepping up into an instrument that frames the experiences of these views and the light shows.
[Music]
RICK JOY: We're now about two miles west of Tucson, in an area known as the Saguaro National Monument. It's the Sonoran Desert, and it's the only place in the world that these magnificent saguaro cactus live.
When we first walked the site, there was this raw sort of scarred area where some other people before him had considered building. And when we found it, we found that the—the little bowl—natural bowl in the desert over here was a much more interesting and vibrant place to exist in the desert. When we first decided to build down in the bowl, we determined that there was the perfect view for each of the primary program spaces. We divided each of those zones into its own little building with a single aperture toward that view and lighting event.
[Music out]
These saguaro, although they're very—they're magnificent and look very rugged and well balanced, they're very fragile. Building up close to them is tricky. So we hand-dug the footings, and we purposefully elevated the buildings to allow water and animals to coexist here in a more fluent way. But also, the elevation of the steel boxes helps to reinforce this concept of the single-aperture-view light experience. And so, by elevating them you're stepping up into an instrument that frames the experiences of these views and the light shows.
[Music]