OLD MADRID RANCH

A recently constructed guest house being temporarily occupied by the client sits on 640 acres of land near Madrid with sweeping views of the Ortiz, Jemez, and Sangre de Christo Mountains and contains some of the most beautiful rock in the region.

As designers the majority of our time is spent in an office. With this project, we walked multiple hikes with the client and carefully selected rock that could be relocated to the environs of the guest house without erosive damage to the landscape it occupied. Working with a landscape contractor in the field over multiple days, we created a sculptural composition of stone "fingers" that abstractly lift out of the ground to meet with the house. Some stones delineate gathering spaces while others functionally help mask utilities.

After the stone was set, we climbed onto the roof to photograph "the plan" and created a planting palette composed of succulents, native and ornamental grasses.