In Las Vegas, one joke runs, it`s against the law to turn off the lights. On the Strip, all the signs glare in megakilowatts. Similarly, out in the posh suburbs, homes that look like Spanish-style birthday cakes advertise money at high voltage.
But the New American Home presented at the National Association of Home Builders convention that ended this week in the gambling mecca conveys a contrary message of tranquility and harmony with nature.
Yes, there is nature in Las Vegas, though most visitors never see it for the cavernous casinos and towering hotels. It unfolds in a stark, arid high-desert flatland (Las Vegas is more than 2,000 feet above sea level)
surrounded by reddish-brown, craggy mountains.
And the New American Home, sponsored by Builder Magazine, Ladies` Home Journal, Popular Science and the National Council of the Housing Industry, attempts to respond to and quietly modify that terrain.
Though the house, the ninth in the series of convention show homes, is in the exclusive Canyon Gate Country Club development west of Las Vegas and has been sold for $876,000, it has lessons relevant to less costly homes, according to Ron Goldman, the architect.
It reflects both the growing importance of sensitivity to the environment and the need to make full use of a home site, said Goldman, whose firm of Goldman/Firth/Boccato Architects is based in Malibu, Calif.
”When I first toured the site and the community, I was struck by the fact that the housing and design didn`t really respond to the character of the site,” he said.
”It didn`t respond to the climate, and the housing didn`t use the property.”
Or, as the builder, Christopher Stuhmer of Las Vegas, put it,
”Everything feels like it was dropped out of a helicopter.”
Goldman`s reaction to the environment was to create a walled compound that in its low, rambling desert-rose stucco-like exterior contains elements of the Santa Fe and Mediterranean styles.
The soft color and rambling irregularity of its exterior, which contrast noticeably with the glaring white walls and boxy forms of its neighbors, are an allusion to the silhouette of the surrounding mountains and the patterns of the sky, he added.
”It`s a contemporary version of high-desert architecture,” said Goldman. ”It`s like a Spanish hacienda. It has an indoor/outdoor feel, it`s relaxed, it`s manana, it`s the good life in the sun.”
Inside the house itself, which is one story with a loft, rooms surround a trellised central courtyard. Outside, a terrace and pool area, secluded by the wall and planted with dry-climate vegetation such as olive trees, make up a space that seems part of the house itself.
In fact, Roger Presburger of the L.A. Group in Calabasas, Calif., the home`s landscape architect, called it ”basically a 20,000-square-foot house of which 5,000 is air-conditioned.”
Getting the most out of a site, noted Goldman, ”is a principle you can use whether you are talking about high-density housing or a half-acre site.” In most housing in the area, said Goldman, yards are generally unused because the weather is either too hot – up to 120 degress – or too cold. The major challenge of the house was to create viable outdoor living and to bring the outside in as well, he added.
The indoor/outdoor flow of the house is symbolized by a rock-lined oblong watercourse that runs through the courtyard at the front of the house, into the living room and out to the rear terrace.
The flow is strengthened by use of common materials inside and outside, such as the desert-rose walls and sandy-colored Mexican tile.
But the effect is achieved primarily by a pattern of public rooms- living room, dining room, family room and kitchen – that are open to each other while remaining distinct, and also open to the outside and courtyard with glass doors and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Goldman refers to the technique as ”layering,” which increases the expansiveness of the space through the use of partial walls.
Though the rooms are in touch with the outside, they are not transparent to the glare of the desert sun because of a careful attention to shade with the use of canopies and overhangs.
Goldman said he wanted to use traditional Mediterranean methods of temperature control such as shade and water to tame the harsh climate. The water flowing in the living room not only absorbs heat, it also has a psychologically cooling effect, he added.
In addition, a curved wall in the courtyard helps direct breezes into the living areas. Thick masonry walls on the south and west sides of the house take in heat during the day and become a radiant heat source at night when the desert air quickly cools.
Although traditional form and a commonality with nature are emphasized in some elements of the house, it also includes some of the latest in housing technology.
The most spectacular feature is a fogging system on the terrace that employs a network of tiny jets hidden among the landscaping around the swimming pool which create a fine mist that spreads over the area.
As the water evaporates, it cools the surrounding air, dropping the temperature about 20 degrees and sometimes twice that, according to Presburger.
Such outdoor air conditioning, which works best in a hot, dry climate, makes it possible to use the pool in temperatures that would otherwise be unbearable, he said.
Other innovations include:
– A series of four separate heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems that subidivide the house into multiple zones for temperature control. Each includes a humidifier, electronic air cleaner and ventilator.
Indoor air pollution is controlled with a carbon dioxide monitor that automatically kicks in the ventilator when the gas level becomes higher than normal. High levels of carbon dioxide occurring in smoky or crowded rooms can cause headaches and drowsiness.
– Engineered wood beams made of strands of wood veneer glued together and cured by microwaves under high pressure. Resembling natural wood, the beams are superstrong and weather-resistant, important in the searing Las Vegas climate.
– Solar-powered outdoor lights that collect the sun`s energy during the day and use it to illuminate the area by night.
– ”Xeriscaping,” a method of dry-climate landscaping that, according to landscape architect Presburger, can cut outdoor water usage by 50 percent from conventional landscaping.
Drought-tolerant plantings and ”hardscaping” with gravel and paving are employed, while remaining grassy areas are irrigated with droplets and fine mists measured out sparingly with the help of soil moisture sensors.
The house is divided into three zones: formal, informal and private. The central zone consists of a dining room to the front of the courtyard and the foyer and living room to the rear. The living room, with its ornamental pool, fireplace with Mexican tile surround and doorways to the terrace, is described by Goldman as a ”seating pavilion.”
The informal areas of kitchen and family room are to the left of the courtyard, and the private area, comprising the master bedroom and two secondary bedrooms, is to the right.
There are two other bedrooms with baths, one in the private area and one occupying the loft space, but they are intended as ”swing rooms,” to be used as office, exercise room, media room, library or den.
”A key ideas is that people don`t like necessarily to put beds in bedrooms,” said Mitchell Rouda, editor of Builder Magazine.
The layering technique blurs the separations of the zones, and the house has a rambling, seamless feel, as if one could wander around and continually find something new.
”There`s a romance and a mystery in the house,” said Goldman. ”You can cross a courtyard to get to the bedrooms.”
Some mystery might also be attached to a series of massive free-standing columns next to the pool area that look like a stucco Stonehenge. Presburger described them as a ”hedge done with architecture” to create a private outdoor area.
Goldman said he intended the house to be appealing from the outside, despite the high, thick wall that surrounds the property.
”A walled compound doesn`t say, `You stay out,` ” he insisted. ”It`s inviting, yet private and secure.”
Inviting it no doubt is to the new owners – a couple in their early 50s with two grown children – especially when contrasted with neighboring homes, which exemplify ”the decorative wallpaper approach to architecture,”
according to Clelio Boccato, a partner of Goldman in the Malibu firm.
”Las Vegas is a screaming city and the 1980s were a screaming time,”
said Builder`s Rouda. ”The `90s are a less screaming time, and this house is not showy on the outside.”
