Since the project has a modest 350k budget, the design of the house needed to be kept simple, which led to a minimalist design approach and a focus on outdoor living spaces.

The floor plan of the house is “Y” shaped, which was driven by the location of the former structure’s foundation footprint, as well as the desire for each wing of the house to have unobstructed desert views in every direction. The “Y” shape frames an existing Joshua Tree on site, which becomes the centerpiece of the house. The site is dotted with several existing and protected Joshua Trees, and the project was sited carefully to avoid disturbing any of the existing trees. An arborist was consulted to assist in siting the building footprint far away enough from the Joshua Trees, to ensure their health and safety.

The design, with its expansive roof trellis, puts sustainability at the forefront, despite the project's modest budget. It achieves a sustainable design through passive techniques: providing ample shade, using reclaimed materials, recessing west-facing windows 2 feet into the mass, using exclusively native vegetation for landscaping, and limiting solar heat gain on fenestration through its unique form.

The project’s barebones materials palette, consisting of stucco, telephone poles, and Douglas fir, is typical of the surrounding ranch-like neighborhood context. The project's eclectic materials palette using reclaimed and vernacular materials was driven by budget constraints as well as the desire to fit within the neighborhood context. Telephone poles are a common construction material at ranches, but seldom applied to dwellings themselves. In this project, the poles allow the trellis to cost-effectively reach 25 ft high into the air, creating multi-level outdoor spaces to celebrate the beautiful desert setting.