MURDOUGH DESIGN

High Desert Getaway

Terrebonne, Oregon

Situated on a prominent canyon rim with commanding views of Smith Rocks and Sherwood Canyon, the High Desert Getaway celebrates the essential characteristics of its place in the High Desert landscape.

The dramatic home sits at the intersection of varied landscape conditions; the horizontal high desert plain to the west, sheer canyon walls rising from Crooked River below, and dramatic cliff walls and mountains to the north, east and south, which rise dramatically from the canyon’s base. The design interprets and integrates these various conditions and characteristics into the architecture, balancing each to achieve a harmonious and dynamic dialogue with the natural surroundings.

Echoing the prominent canyon rim, the house is organized in a crescent form, encircling an intimate corral-like semi-court on the west, and expanding its taller eastern faces towards expansive vistas of Smith Rocks above and Crooked River below. The house appears to emerge organically from the desert floor, its low-slung stepped massing responding to the shape and form of mountains beyond while the ledgestone walls camouflage the house into the tan canyon cliff walls.

Large jagged and irregular sage-colored slates clad the roofs, like a primitive reptilian skin. The sweeping shed roofs gesture upwards from flat terra firma to the mountains and sky beyond, radiating with the crescent’s arc eastward, from north to south. On the corral, the roofs bow towards the ground plane with deep overhangs sheltering patios and the home’s interiors from the strong western sun.

The entry to the compound circles around the edge of the corral’s edge and provides an intimate counterpoint to the vast expanse and scale of the high desert, mountains, and sky. Entering the house through the thick ledgestone walls, one enters a warm wooden clad interior lined with Douglas Fir paneling and expansive Teak windows. The interiors reflect the sculptural nature of the exterior with large dynamic shifting roof and wall plates in tension, seemingly held together by the taut wood paneling. The interior appears eroded and carved from the strata-like paneling, yet the space is voluminous, modern, and clean.

Movement through the interiors follows the dynamic crescent shaped plan, unfolding and ultimately leading to multiple vantage points throughout the house. The strategic openings frame and reconnect the interiors back to the deep canyon, winding river, aged mountains and the Juniper and Sage covered high desert.

Ultimately, the design aims to make the home an inevitable outgrowth of its place; timeless and rooted to its site, yet also modern and dynamic: forming a deep connection between the inhabitant and nature, as well as an awareness of one’s time and place.

A collaboration with Maryann Thompson Architects - Completed 2010