Located on the side of Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley, Arizona, the Ghost Wash House by Architecture-Infrastructure-Research sits between two desert washes (topographical features that move storm water from higher to lower elevation). This convergence of washes creates a smaller wash (or “ghost wash”) that runs down the center of the Ghost Wash House property.
Admiring the ways in which desert washes “provide a habitat and an ecosystem that facilitates desert life and connectivity,” Architecture-Infrastructure-Research designed the Ghost Wash House to serve a similar function by protecting, connecting, and supporting “the indoor and outdoor life of the residence.”
The epitome of this idea, the Ghost Wash House features a massive floating roof that provides houses self-sustaining infrastructure such as solar power and storm water collection systems. This floating roof possesses many of the same qualities as the nurse tree of the surrounding Sonoran Desert. Just as the nurse tree shields young cacti from the extreme desert sun, the large roof of the Ghost Wash protects and sustains its internal living spaces.