Red Rock
Architect: Faulkner Architects
Location: Summerlin, Nevada
Type: House
Year: 2024
Photographs: Joe Fletcher
The following description is courtesy of the architects. Located on a three-quarter-acre parcel with views of the Las Vegas Strip to the east and Red Rock Canyon to the west, this site endures strong winds, cold, dry winters, and harsh, hot summers with monsoon rainstorms. Protection from the sun and wind, as well as durability and privacy were the simple constraints that shaped the formal direction and materiality of the house.
The house repeats the spare behavior of the desert in material and form. A subtractive process left a wind-protected court to the east and provided an opportunity for an elevated basin of water that mirrors the dimensions of the living space. The distant view of the city profile on the water calls out its ephemeral nature and delicate relationship with water. Entry to the house is gained via a narrow opening in the concrete mass. The threshold, at eye level with the water, leads to a closed and shaded passage that ramps up slightly to an entry court, open to the sky and inhabited by a vertical landscape of native plantings. The architecture represents a contextual conversation between the desert landscape and the city.
Locally sourced sand, gravel, and fly ash mix concrete floors and walls in the harsh desert light take on a buff hue that associates with the distant mountains, rising from below grade to build a habitable landscape. Over half of the built area is below grade, ventilated, and lit with openings in the structure to introduce sunlight, including several submerged under the basin’s water level. The mass-heavy housesports a reflective roof, 45 KW photovoltaic array and high-efficiency glazing, mechanical, and lighting systems. Upper level sleeping rooms inhabit a screened framework sheathed in perforated weathering steel and elongated along the east/west axis to shield the pool from wind and sun.
A south-side shaded deck screened with perforated mesh extends over the form to shade the structure and cars below. Open to the Red Rock Canyon to the west and the city lights of the east, the cantilevered form balances the sculptural weight of the basin and water. The earth-like ground form, fitted with its layer of weathered steel, is a nod to the geology of the Las Vegas Valley and Red Rock Canyon beyond.
Project Team
- Architect: Faulkner Architects
- Faulkner Architects design team:
- Gregory Faulkner, FAIA, Principal
- Owen Wright, Project Architect
- Jenna Shropshire, Project Manager
- Breanne Penrod, Architectural Staff Level II
- Faulkner Architects design team:
- Interior Designer: Concept Lighting Lab
- General Contractor: RW Bugbee & Associates
- Landscape Architects: Hugo Sanchez Paisaje and Vangson Consulting
- Structural: CFBR Structural Group
- Civil: Shaw Engineering
- MEP: Energy-1
- Surveyor: Diamondback Land Surveying
- Geotechnical: Geo Tek Residential
- Lighting Designer: Concept Lighting Lab
- Pool Designer: Ozzie Kraft Pools
- Photography: Joe Fletcher
