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| Photo: Joe Fletcher, NY Times |
In yesterday's New York Times, a Home and Garden section slide show celebrates a desert retreat that is pure modernist fantasy. The building, set partially on stilts, looks as if it has just been beamed in from outer space. In the living spaces, pure, unornamented white walls and large sections of glass seem at complete odds with the realities of biological existence. Five hours into the desert east of Reno, it is as remote as possible, yet there is no hint of connection to the local environment--the wood, glass, steel and stucco were obviously not locally sourced. It is the architecture of disconnection or perhaps invisible, technologically-mediated relationship. During planning, design, and construction, the architect and client never met, relying instead on electronic mail. Architectural photography is an art form that disguises as much as it reveals. Visually, connections betwen the house and wider world, if any, are invisible. In the photographs, there is no hint of road or driveway or vehicle--perpetuating the fantasy of space travel. Unlike the desert mystics who retreated into the wilderness to meet God and wrestle with demons, this desert retreat is about the fantasy of becoming a new sort of god--Technological Man--the rational, scientific person reduced to pure mind, pure gaze, disconnected from place, community, and relationship.
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| Photo: Joe Fletcher, New York Times |
New York Times Article on Desert House
