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DesertSol

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  2013 Entry in the Solar Decathlon and 2nd Place (overall) Prize Winner. Team Las Vegas’ entry,  DesertSol , is an architectural response to the Mojave Desert climate and a representation of the history that is unique to Las Vegas. The design of DesertSol balances energy efficient strategies with a distinctive spatial and material aesthetics. It is a housing prototype demonstrating that a super-efficient solar-powered home can be beautiful, comfortable, and easy to live in. The following passage from Juhani Pallasmaa’s  The Eyes of the Skin  had a particularly profound impact on the design team: “In recent decades, a new architectural imagery has emerged, which employs reflection, gradations of transparency, overlay and juxtaposition to create a sense of spatial thickness, as well as subtle and changing sensations of movement and light. This new sensibility promises an architecture that can turn the relative immateriality and weightlessness of recent technological construction into a
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Sand Harbor Box Office

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  The Design Build Studio’s mission includes assisting the state’s residents in connecting to the natural resources, wildlife, and ecosystems.  In January 2015, the Design Build Studio began work on a project for the Nevada State Parks Division, a box office for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival.  The Festival is an annual event at Sand Harbor State Park, Lake Tahoe, Nevada.  The project, while small, is in a highly public environment, and serves as an opportunity to showcase the Studio’s capability to work in diverse environmental conditions. Design projects are often determined by form-finding and materials selection, as well as a search for honesty. Honesty, in architectural terms, refers to a careful reading of a place’s history and building culture, and developing a solution that respects the unique qualities that define a particular location. Responding to the legacy of the vernacular built environment in the Lake Tahoe area required careful observation and climatic research be
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Artist Retreat Center

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  UNLV’s Design+Build program is currently contracted with a nonprofit organization in creating an artist’s retreat center in Springdale, Utah, outside Zion National Park. Its unique location at the junction of the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin Desert, and the Colorado Plateau provides an opportunity to focus in a powerful, inspiring landscape. It is a compelling context for a design that foregrounds these experiences, while also challenging residents’ expectations. The building site comprises six acres atop a mesa-like geological formation, with panoramic vistas for the retreat residents, providing a unique opportunity for those who inhabit the mesa to gain deeper insights into the distant landscapes of the American West. Each residential unit will be approximately 400 square feet, with two residential spaces per module. There will be two modules constructed in the first phase of the project, with future phases including artists’ studios and common spaces with opportunities for socia
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