Project Description
2008 RADA
Custom / 3,500 Square Feet Or Less / Merit
“Green! So many projects are serious, and this one is fun,” enthused a judge. He was referring to the strangely clad cube that rises up on the edge of a wide canyon. Its swaying, variegated green stripes evoke the movement of canyon grasses while also making a playful statement about sustainability.
The jury appreciated the subversive humor. “It merges with the site, and then it doesn’t,” said one member. “I like the blasphemous quality of it, setting up a dialogue between the natural and the artificial.”
One of the owners, a graphic artist, spent weeks custom-mixing the paint palette to match leaves that Aleks Istanbullu, AIA, had stripped from a nearby tree. “I had to convince them to do this odd color pattern, but she made it come home,” he says. “We had an owner who cared about what she ended up with and a builder who was meticulous.”