Marfa Suite featured on Dwell.com
Completed winter 2020, the Marfa Suite located in Marfa, Texas was featured on Dwell.com’s story West Texas Couple get a Compressed Earth Block Addition that syncs with the landscape. Tucson-based D U S T Architects returns to Texas to design a compact stand-alone retreat for a home in the Chihuahuan Desert.
“Cade and my connection to West Texas is personal,” says Robles. “We both graduated from Texas Tech, and Cade was born and grew up a few hours north. This desert and landscape is familiar—it’s home.”
“We sited the new building with reference and some deference as an independent component,” says Hayes. “The owners have been curating a magical Chihuahuan Desert garden with a myriad of local flora, so the new suite also helps define that garden space between the two buildings.”
“The material was an easy choice for us,” explains Hayes. “Earthen materials offer the weight of the real, a warm color, and an overall sense of connection with the land.”
For Hayes and Robles, the project also brought them back to their original desert roots. “Our time spent in West Texas and the Chihuahua landscape is hugely influential to Dust as part of our origin story,” says Robles. “Our extended Texas ‘family’ has always welcomed and inspired us, and it’s hard to imagine moving through the craft of making a space in Marfa without tapping into those memories and experiences.”