A family home should be an extension of family life, reflecting the homeowners’ values and creating opportunities for them to engage in activities that bring them joy. This sentiment is perfectly expressed by a new home in Phoenix, Arizona.

The clients are a family of four with a love of hands-on and creative pursuits. The husband is a surgeon, the wife is a ceramic artist, and the kids enjoy playing musical instruments, gardening, raising chickens, and making robots.

“We wanted to build on the essence of these items and make an entire home that reflected their family values,” says Cavin Costello, who co-founded architecture practice The Ranch Mine with his wife Claire. “The design uses a combination of the handmade and materials meant to patina and change over time, in an aesthetic some might consider wabi-sabi. It embraces the journey, the imperfections of handmade objects, and the transitory nature of our world.”

The initial brief was for a contemporary home with natural elements and daylighting, that would be large enough for visits from extended family. There were also some very specific requests—family history dictated that the stove must face east or south, and they wanted to incorporate Foo dogs, or Chinese guardian lions. “As we got to know more about their family and passions, the design developed to be even more specific,” says Costello.

The 1.3-acre site is located close to central Phoenix, in an old estate area that is close to the hustle and bustle of the city and less than half a mile from a busy intersection. To counter the noise and activity of urban life, the home is spread out on the lot to create an oversized courtyard that uses the house as a buffer between private family space and the surroundings. “Courtyard design is a strategy we use on properties of all sizes, as it is ideal for controlling the sun in our desert climate,” explains Costello.

The U-shaped house is broken into its functional elements—a living volume at the front, with a sleeping volume and a utility volume extending out around the courtyard at the rear. Glazed “connectors” between the different volumes invite the landscape inside.

The main living space has double-height glazing that opens out to the covered patio, outdoor kitchen, large fire pit, and pool beyond. These outdoor spaces have been influenced by the idea of centering a home around a hearth as a place of gathering—and the pool and fire pit have been conceived as the center of the home.

“Early on, there was an emphasis on places for the family to gather and socialize, regardless of the season,” says Costello. “Whether it’s 115 degrees or 35 degrees, the family can gather together.”

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In contrast to the large, glazed walls in the living wing, the bedroom wing has smaller openings that frame the olive grove and high windows that look toward the sky. “We wanted to create a home where each interior space has a direct relationship with the exterior, and we wanted to create a lot of different types of connections—not just one big opening,” explains Costello.

Upstairs, a lofted area offers a different perspective of the landscape, with skyline views to the south and views over the Phoenix mountain preserve to the north. A bar runs across the front of the loft, overlooking the main living space.

“We believe everyone has an interesting life, and we want to celebrate their unique identity,” says Costello. “One of the unique parts of this family is that the wife is a ceramic artist. So, we broke down what makes pottery interesting to us, and how we could take those principles to inform a new piece of architecture. The design emerged as a home that is rigid in structure while malleable in use, precise in form while imperfect in texture, and varied in volume while limited in materials.”

The firm selected exterior materials for their durability in the desert climate. Board-formed concrete lends strength and texture, and the stucco was hand-troweled to add character to a simple material. Like the concrete, the corrugated steel siding and roof will evolve over time, developing a patina with age.

The interior palette is equally rich, with an emphasis on honest materials that complement those used on the exterior. The board-formed concrete extends into the living space by way of an enormous floor-to-ceiling fireplace, custom metalwork echoes the corrugated steel used on the exterior, and exposed aggregate concrete floors extend from the interior to the exterior decking to create a more seamless transition between inside and outside.

“Our biggest challenge with Foo was overcoming the fact that buildings are generally, by their nature, static,” says Costello. “We wanted to find a way to activate the house to meet the dynamism of the family and their passions. Firstly, we designed the building to be noticeably affected by time, with materials that would patina and vertical floor-to-ceiling windows that face due south and act like sundials throughout the day. Secondly, the campus-like plan—where you walk through communal spaces, outside and inside, to get to more specific places—creates casual exchanges.”

The resulting home is a celebration not only of the values and passions of the inhabitants, but also the power of honest materiality. “Prior to moving in, I loved the design, materials, and aesthetic of the home,” says the ceramic artist client. “Since moving in, it’s been awe inspiring to watch the house settle into the landscape. Watching the steel patina, seeing the desert sky rise and set over the silhouette of the home, and appreciating the warmth of rooms is everything.”

More from The Ranch Mine:

This Minimalist, Solar-Powered Home Is a True Desert Oasis

This Arizona Home Takes Design Cues From the Mighty Saguaro

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: The Ranch Mine / @theranchmineofficial

Builder: Identity Construction

Structural Engineer: Gary Hart

Civil Engineer: Land Development Group

Landscape Design: The Green Room Landscape Design

Photography: Roehner + Ryan

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A Ceramicist’s Family Home Is Inspired by the Ancient Art of Pottery