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The Challenge
A south-facing desert site with extreme diurnal temperature swings (45°C day, 8°C night) and no municipal cooling infrastructure within 40 km. The client required year-round habitability without active HVAC during shoulder seasons.
On the project
A monolithic concrete dwelling carved into the desert cliff. The volume rotates to capture the single moment of dawn light that defines the year.
Set against the eroded sandstone of the Dasht-e Kavir, the house is a single rammed-earth volume cut by three precise apertures. Each aperture is tuned to a different hour: morning prayer, midday silence, evening shadow.
We worked with local craftsmen for fourteen months developing a board-formed concrete mix coloured with desert iron oxide. The walls now read as a continuation of the cliff itself · a geological event with rooms inside.
Cooling is entirely passive. A subterranean cistern feeds a shallow reflecting pool; water cascades through a perforated screen at dusk, dropping the courtyard temperature by nine degrees within an hour.
