
Marfa Ranch
Sandwiched between the inhospitable Chihuahuan Desert and the majestic Davis Mountains, the Marfa Ranch is situated on a low rise with dramatic views of pristine desert grassland in all directions. The house, which cuts a low profile, comprises eight structures organized around a central courtyard shaded by native mesquites. Built of two-foot-thick rammed earth walls, the home protects its inhabitants from the extremes of the region — heat, cold, and wind — while allowing them to connect with the landscape through lightweight breezeways and porches, a mirador perched above the main bedroom, and an outdoor walkway connecting to a pool and hot tub.
Borrowing from the area’s earliest structures, the rooms of the house are organized around a courtyard, a cool respite from the sun-drenched desert grasslands beyond the walls. The house embraces the expansive landscape with lightweight breezeways and porches made of recycled oil field pipe.
Rammed Earth
The exquisitely detailed and executed rammed earth walls artfully express the natural and the man-made in this ephemeral architectural composition.Paul Danna, FAIA
Texas Architect Design Awards Juror
The courtyard is shaded by the dappled light of native mesquite trees with a small fount of collected rainwater that completes the oasis-like quality of this key outdoor room. To keep the house cool during the hot summers and warm in the winters, the house is built of two-foot-thick walls of rammed earth.
Marfa Ranch
Consultants
- Landscape: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects
- Mechanical: MJ Structures | Positive Energy
- Rammed Earth: Enabler Austin
- Millwork: Flitch
- General Contractor: Pilgrim Building Company
- Photography: Casey Dunn
Awards
- 2022 Texas Society of Architects Design Award
- 2022 Dezeen’s Top 10 Houses of 2022
- 2022 Dezeen Award Rural House of the Year
- 2022 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award