XTEN Architecture created this contemporary residence located in La Quinta, California, USA. The 2012 project features floor to ceiling sliding glass walls that open the house to the desert landscape.
Madison House by XTEN Architecture: “The Madisonhouse is perched on a knoll in La Quinta, California, near Palm Springs. In order to shelter the house from extreme desert conditions, the massing and materiality are configured to protect against the sun and strong Northerly winds. The project was conceived as a series of freestanding volumes set beneath and between projecting horizontal slabs. These freestanding volumes in stone, concrete and oak are spaced and configured to create the different scales of indoor-outdoor space that flow between them. While the plan is rational and orthogonal, one traverses the space obliquely, with dynamic diagonal views between the volumes opening space in multiple directions. The volumes mark the space but do not define it, allowing the landscape to become an integral and dynamic part of the house. The exterior walls of the house are designed to blend into the desert landscape. The stone walls are quarried locally, and anchoring the building to its site and to the adjacent mountains.
