Desert Air 24: Pioneertown’s Housing for Extreme Climates

Desert Air 24: Pioneertown’s Housing for Extreme Climates

Work by Isabella Molina-Sanchez (MArch '24) for "Normative Buildings/Extreme Environments", an Advanced Topics Studio taught by Kevin Daly. This studio structures the examination of both housing and a school buildings in extremely exurban settings through two variables. First, students research and adopt a specific construction strategy, and utilize this as the tectonic basis for their work. The second variable is adapting that system to the extremes of the environmental characteristics of the site.

Project Statement:

Desert Air 24 presents a groundbreaking approach to housing in the challenging climate of Joshua Tree's Pioneertown, where scorching summers and freezing winters prevail. Comprising twenty-four unit modules, this innovative project draws inspiration from modular shipping containers and the iconic airstreams ubiquitous in the region, offering durable yet affordable accommodation. Embracing the vibrant hues of neighboring Palm Springs, Desert Air 24 revitalizes its surroundings adjacent to Pioneertown's famed Pappy + Harriet's. Moreover, mindful of the abundant desert flora, the project minimizes its ecological footprint through elevated pilotis, allowing for harmonious integration with the landscape.

Unlike traditional isolated modules, Desert Air 24 promotes interconnectedness and openness. Its design incorporates expansive apertures with operable screens and multi-level porches, fostering engagement with the breathtaking desert vistas and encouraging social interaction among residents. Furthermore, the flexibility of the elevated modules enables adjustments in elevation, facilitating optimal views of the mountains and promoting a sense of community among neighbors.

Through its fusion of functionality, sustainability, and aesthetic appeal, Desert Air 24 challenges conventional notions of desert housing. By demonstrating that extreme climate dwellings can be both resilient and inviting, the project exemplifies a harmonious coexistence between architecture and environment. Ultimately, Desert Air 24 aspires to inspire future developments to prioritize inclusivity, connectivity, and environmental stewardship in their design ethos.

*This studio examines two highly familiar, normative types: multifamily housing and education buildings. The two types share similar formal properties of cellularity, seriality and a fundamental modularity. In California, both low rise types typically foster an essential connection between landscape and constructed environment, with circulation open to the exterior and automobile access adjacent.

These building types share scale and the capacity to grow through aggregation, align domestic and institutional programs, and for young people, comprise the majority of the daily experience of interiority. Housing and education buildings are the working buildings of the American landscape, simultaneously the most memorable and most forgettable places of inhabitation. Housing and school buildings are typically executed as an architecture of low expectations, normative and minimally performative. They are the tee shirts and khakis of the built environment.

While extremely convention driven, these types have the capacity to support improvisation and innovation when driven by tectonic logic and tested against challenging environmental conditions. This is the objective of this studio.

This studio will structure the examination of both housing and a school buildings in extremely exurban settings through two variables. First, students will research and adopt a specific construction strategy; this will be the tectonic basis for your work and the navigational star for your design work. The second variable is adapting that system to the extremes of the environmental characteristics of the site.