Native studio Benjamin Corridor Design has connected an adjunct dwelling unit made from concrete block to an present home to accommodate a multi-generational household in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Generally known as Moon Valley Residence, the 1,756-square-foot (163-square-metre) dwelling was designed to deliberately distinction the unique Seventies suburban fundamental residence, set in a golf neighborhood that appears eastward to a rock formation referred to as Lookout Mountain.
Accomplished in 2025, the ADU shares an entry door with the primary home, however maintains self-sufficiency and privateness each spatially and from the curved wall that shields the dwelling from the cul-de-sac.
Constructed with gray concrete masonry models (CMU) as each the outside and inside completed materials, the accent dwelling unit (ADU) attracts inspiration from studio founder Benjamin Corridor’s childhood reminiscences of travelling via the Southwest US along with his father.
“We explored the traditional Native American ruins referred to as Montezuma Citadel – this expertise subconsciously embedded itself into my pondering of this challenge,” the founding father of Benjamin Corridor Design informed Dezeen.
“It was used as a reference on scale, stacking types and easy methods to mitigate the desert’s pure warmth and light-weight by undulating mass and aperture.”
Set decrease than the profile of the primary home, the ADU consists of 4 volumes with apertures strategically carved out to curate views of the environment.
“These 4 rectilinear volumes every determine themselves at completely different elevations,” he mentioned. “On the inside you may really feel the dimensions – compression and launch – of every of the volumes and their relationship with the physique and program of the area.”
This passes to the second quantity, containing a lounge and kitchen with a view of Lookout Mountain. A glazed interstitial quantity results in the sleeping quarters with a visitor suite and a major suite with one other non-public patio.
The primary quantity connects the ADU to the primary home through a wedge-shaped eating area with sliding glass doorways that open to a personal patio.
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The format permits a retired couple to age in place privately whereas instantly related to their kids and grandchildren who occupy the primary home.
Along with strategic spans that allowed for self-supporting masonry ceilings, the continual materials of the CMU block required all the utilities to be contained inside built-in millwork.
“The combination of utilities is rigorously moulded into the cohesive technique that embeds itself into the thickness of masonry and the mailability of concrete,” Corridor mentioned.
“You’ll discover that no shops reside within the masonry and the day-to-day haptic expertise with the structure – mild switches, door pulls, countertop floor – are embedded into the expertise of partaking with the structure.”
Different residential tasks lately accomplished round Phoenix embrace a weathering metal micro-building by Kendle Design, a Corten cabin designed to behave as a telescope by Wendell Burnette Architects and a white ranch home styled after its mid-century fashionable neighbors by The Ranch Mine.
The pictures is by Logan Havens.
Undertaking credit:
Structure: Benjamin Corridor DesignContractor: Uncommon Type BuildersStructural Engineering: Structurology
