This small prefabricated house, Abiquiu house that located in Abiquiu, New Mexico, United States, on a desert site fronting the Rio Chama, not far from Georgia O’Keefe’s famous home on the bluff above, employs simple detailing and standard industrial materials. The house design was designed by Anderson Anderson Architecture for an anthropologist and a concert pianist. In some places the mesh stands away from the house, providing enclosure to exterior living spaces, and in other areas it hugs tight to the steel wall surfaces, providing visual light and shadow textural depth and support for creeping plants growing up from the ground below. Fabricated offsite to minimize site disturbance, the house becomes part of delicate high desert ecosystem.

The owners have a number of animals – dogs, cats, goats, chickens – requiring protection from the local hawks, eagles, coyotes, and rattlesnakes. Wire mesh screen walls protect domestic animals and people from wild animals and from accidental falls from the upper terraces. “It was serendipity that we discovered the town of Abiquiu, New Mexico, after vacationing in Colorado. We were attracted because Georgia O’Keeffe’s home is here, but when we arrived, the beautiful river in the desert landscape stunned us. It was love at first sight. Nearly four years later we moved to New Mexico, thinking we’d have a house built in four to six months. It happened a little differently.

I grew up with Danish design in Copenhagen, and Madeline shares my commitment to modernism. While paging through books and magazines we came across the 2003 design invitational with proposals for the first Dwell Home. We loved the ideas of the brothers Mark and Peter Anderson of Anderson Anderson Architecture. There was a lot we could relate to, especially because the house was designed for a musician: Madeline is an accomplished pianist, and I work for the Santa Fe Opera.

So one day, we picked up the phone, called the Andersons, and said, “This is our situation: We don’t have a lot of money, we have a beautiful site, and we really love what you do. Would you be interested in working with us on the Abiquiu House?” We were surprised that it was a go. When we started collaborating with the Andersons, we talked a lot about our lifestyle. Their questions were not “How many bedrooms? How many baths?” but “How do you want the house to work for you on a daily basis? What are your priorities? What would make this a comfortable living space?” We were not building a house for resale value; it was the house we would spend the rest of our lives in.

Since music is such a huge part of our existence, the Andersons asked us for a discography. Our house was designed to a soundtrack of 14 hours of classical, Gypsy, and Latin music. Mark and Peter also asked for photographs and measurements of the furniture we wanted to have in the house. The piano was the centerpiece.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Architecture Design, Home Design. Tags: Abiquiu, anderson anderson, Anderson Anderson Architecture, Architecture, beautiful site, Colorado, Copenhagen, desert ecosystem, desert landscape, desert site, design, furniture, georgia o keefe, georgia o keeffe, Georgia O'Keefe, Georgia O'Keeffe, House, Madeline, Mark Anderson, New Mexico, paging, Peter Anderson, prefabricated, Santa Fe Opera, steel wall surfaces, United States, vacationing in colorado. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.