// Ashley Coon
Crevice Garden & Misc.
// Ashley Coon
Crevice Garden & Misc.
CONCEPT
Located in Joshua Tree, CA, this concept provided a general overall design strategy relying on a storyboard for planting, parking, privacy, views, and future house expansion . The clients were undertaking a major renovation and to keep costs manageable in the post-Covid era of large cost increases and long lead times, the idea was to break renovation and landscape design implementation into more digestible smaller phases. As is common in the desert design culture, there's an openness to a DIY ethos due to logistical challenges, lack of available resources, as well as the freedom to experiment.
Construction began with the redwood raised planter that serves as a "screen wall" and channels guests into a more formal entrance area on the south-facing wall of the house and since, the clients have continued to implement portions of the design.
A theme that emerges in the rural desert housing typologies of the Joshua Tree and Morongo Basin area is that there is typically no real "front" or obvious main entrance to older houses. In this case, the planter was the first element that set up each subsequent element and construction could work away from the house as it proceeded. It also establishes buffers, both visually and practically. Over time, what's planted closest to the house can both take advantage of harvesting rainfall from the structures, mitigate the summer sun and provide dappled shade, extended the interior into adjacent "outdoor rooms", and provide small ecosystems that can be directly observed as a backdrop to the interior experience.
The concept outlines a terrace-like approach to dealing with a slope to ease erosion, sequester water, create themed planting zones (such as pollinator and cactus gardens), and to migrate parking out in front, utilizing a covered structure that doubles as a sculptural privacy element. In a bid to increase the livable areas of the house, the existing garage would be converted into more living space for family members, so why not embrace the new parking structure as a part of the new landscape infrastructure?
While a more extensive plan was developed for the back of the property, the front area uses pathways as a narrative feature commonly seen in nature parks where the intent is about meandering and experiencing, rather than quick accessibility. This would extend to the back over time as the design unfolds.
One idea that reappears throughout my design approach is to create a healthy infrastructure that allows for planting, flexibility, and change over timea:
Build the bones first.
As parts of this concept start to take shape, I love watching it organically develop and will continue to update with the latest progress.
Existing Site Conditions
Proposed Concept
Construction Process