D U S T is an alliance of architects, craftspeople, artists, designers, and builders with practices rooted in the master-builder tradition: a collective of people grounded firmly in the tactile, in pursuit of the intangible.
The studio explores ideas and ethics rooted in a reverent intimacy with craft and place. Ideas unfold in the creative space of intersections and find form through a respect for material and an unwavering attention to craft by skilled hands.
The seeds of this practice were planted in the late 1990s on the vast plains of the Llano Estacado in West Texas; the studio was born in Tucson, Arizona in 2007 as a collaboration between Cade Hayes and Jesús Robles.
Their architecture stands as both a concrete marker on the landscape, and as a frame focused on the essential, where ephemeral moments can find their place in the timeless realm of memory.
D U S T provides full Architecture, Planning, and Construction services.
Cade Manning Hayes Founding Principal
AIA
Registered Architect: Arizona, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho cade@dustarchitects.com 520.270.4205
Cade brings over 22 years of experience executing projects from master planning, hospitality, cultural, residential, and construction management to every DUST endeavor. Cade believes that great design and architecture transform our lives, shaping our perceptions through lived experiences. Driven by a passion for expanding the studio’s horizons, he explores new typologies while upholding core values: a profound sensitivity to environment and place, the poetic use of materials, and meticulous attention to detail and craft. In addition to practicing, he has led several Design Studios and Fabrication courses at the University of Arizona and Texas Tech University.
Notable Project Experience
Sombra de Santa Fe Residence – Santa Fe, New Mexico. Completed 2023
Marfa Suite – Marfa, Texas. Completed 2019
Paton Center for Hummingbirds Pavilion. Patagonia, Arizona. Completed 2017
Casa Caldera – San Rafael Valley, Arizona. Completed 2015
Amangiri Resort and Spa – Canyon Point, Utah (under Studio Rick Joy)
Desert Nomad House – Tucson, Arizona (under Studio Rick Joy)
Adobe Canyon House – Sonoita, Arizona (under Studio Rick Joy)
Tree House Residence – Napa Valley California (under Studio Rick Joy)
Ventana Canyon House – Tucson, Arizona (under Studio Rick Joy)
Jesús Edmundo Robles, Jr. Founding Principal
Associate AIA
Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Arizona College of Architecture
Contracting Licenses: AZ ROC 266829, 277848 jesus@dustarchitects.com 520.358.1818
With over 20 years of experience, Jesús leads projects of varying scales and complexities from design to managing and executing their construction. Through the arts, advocacy, ecological awareness, and shared common values, he believes that it is our responsibility as architects, artists, designers, builders, thinkers, community members, and humans to consider a more equitable and just set of environments. Jesús is a licensed residential and commercial contractor in Arizona. He is also an Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona with a focus on poetics and spatial qualities reflecting cultural histories and landscapes. Previous work experience includes Studio Rick Joy and Sebastian Mariscal Studio.
Notable Project Experience
Sombra de Santa Fe Residence – Santa Fe, New Mexico. Completed 2023.
Marfa Suite – Marfa, Texas. Completed 2019.
Paton Center for Hummingbirds Pavilion. Patagonia, Arizona. Completed 2017.
Casa Caldera – San Rafael Valley, Arizona. Completed 2015.
Lava House – Tucson, Arizona (under Paul Weiner | Design-Build Collaborative, Inc.) Completed 2013.
Natalia’s experience spans over 16 years, and comprises a wide variety of project typologies, scales, and regions. She has overseen the full development of projects from initial design concepts through their construction and has directed the collaboration and coordination of large teams for multi-faceted projects. She is passionate about designing spaces that are both conceptual and sensitive in spirit while honoring the connection to the surrounding environment and cultural roots. Her previous work experience includes over a decade with Studio Rick Joy, where she played a key role in designing and managing the studio’s work and team.
Notable Project Experience
One&Only Resort at Mandarina – Nayarit, Mexico (under Studio Rick Joy) Completed 2020.
Tennyson 205 – Mexico City, Mexico (under Studio Rick Joy) Completed 2019.
Princeton University Transit Hall, Market, and Plaza – Princeton, New Jersey (under Studio Rick Joy) Completed 2018.
Princeton University Restaurant and Café – Princeton, New Jersey (under Studio Rick Joy) Completed 2018.
Bayhouse Residence – Northeast USA (under Studio Rick Joy) Completed 2018.
Le Cabanon Residence – Turks and Caicos (under Studio Rick Joy) Completed 2016.
Interfaith Peace Chapel – Dallas, Texas (under Cunningham Architects, local architect for Philip Johnson) Completed 2010
Jerrick Lee Tsosie Designer
Associate AIA jerrick@dustarchitects.com
Originally from Rock Point, Arizona, Jerrick grew up on the Navajo reservation. Living in a rural area of Arizona, he found himself becoming interested in the outdoors and spent most of his time being curious about the land around him.
Jerrick moved to Tucson, Arizona to study architecture in 2015 at the University of Arizona College of Architecture, and graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor in Architecture.
Over the course of two summers in 2017 and 2018, he took part in Dalhousie Costal Studio’s design build projects in Nova Scotia, Canada, working as a builder for a gridshell pavilion for Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This experience expanded his learning, working in a different climate and with different materials than typical in Arizona. He very much has a drive to be hands on and work with real materials in his architectural practice. Jerrick has also previously worked with Space Bureau for almost two years in Tucson, designing retail and residential projects.
Jacob Downard Designer jacob@dustarchitects.com
Born and raised in Flagstaff Az, Jacob grew up spending most of his time exploring his surroundings and experiencing nature in an aptitude of mediums. From building countless forts in the Coconino national forest at a young age, to long distance adventure cycling and backcountry skiing. He is a strong believer that humans thrive with connections to nature, and is always seeking the next landscape, familiar or unfamiliar.
After early experience in various creative realms from fabrication to photography, Jacob found himself in the Bachelor of Architecture program at the University of Arizona to broaden his creative pursuits after he received the advice “if you can design a building, you can design almost anything.” Jacob quickly fell in love with the practice of architecture… despite the late nights.
Finishing up his 5th year of school, he is excited to open the next chapter of his life cultivating his life in Tucson. Working with DUST has been a dream come true, to be involved in work that is rooted in place, practice of craft and moments of calm in our modern day.
Artina Qehaja Designer artina@dustarchitects.com
Originally from the Balkan Peninsula, Artina’s architectural approach is shaped by Ancient Mediterranean culture. Walking the streets of the Ancient Agora and the temples of the Acropolis shaped her views on beauty and symmetry.
In 2013, she moved to Milan, Italy to study Architecture, earning her Masters degree at the Politecnico di Milano. During this period, she collaborated closely with Californian architectural historian Richard Ingersoll, assisting with research and editorial work.
Before joining DUST, she worked and received mentorship in Milan, absorbing the Italian design approach with a focus on residential and retail architecture. This exposure included diverse projects, allowing her involvement in all design phases.
In 2020, she collaborated with UNHCR, designing a rammed-earth transit center in the Saharan desert in response to one of the biggest refugee crises recorded in history.
The desert continues to be a subject of fascination and she aims to contribute to DUST’s Modern Vernacular philosophy by creating spaces that enhance feelings of closeness and well-being rooted to place.
Originally from Santiago, Chile, Agustin earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
Growing up by the Andes mountains, he turned his attention to the landscape, its cultures, and the precarious building techniques that exist throughout South America. He is interested in how low-tech architecture, local processes, and vernacular techniques can provide a high experiential impact.
He has worked on various residential and cultural projects, expanding internationally through design and art. His collaborations include working for artist-curator Jan Frank in New York city, as well as Studio Rick Joy in Tucson and in his native city Santiago, Chile with Matias Zegers.
Tania Verdugo Operations tania@dustarchitects.com
Originally from Sonora, MX, Tania keeps the studio moving.
Tania is a graphic and visual artist, self-taught in the mediums of watercolor, graphite, and digital. Tania is an all-around badass as you can find her foraging the land when she isn’t creating. She’s inspired by everyday human emotions, and our relationship between humans and nature.
Origins
We have learned to move through our world as keen observers and listeners – continually looking for those moments that move us to our core. Those guiding the way have been our mentors, elders, nature, and the poets and artists of our time.
We listen first, and then respond –to the elements, to the marks and lessons left by those who have lived here before, to the spirit and culture of place, and to our fellow dreamers: the clients.
We understand architecture and its construction as a reflection of human survival, culture, and evolution. We look to our environment for clues and refer to the means and methods of cultures past, present, and evolving into the future. As architects and designers, even more so as builders, we revere and understand the importance of our craft and the craftsperson. This is rooted in the idea that it’s the people who put their hands, minds, and hearts to a project that give it its true form and beauty.
Our process allows for a communion with the world we inhabit, a discovery of situations and meanings that root the work in an intimate connection with the environment, both natural and built. Part of our creative process stems from what we think of as infinite roots: capturing a moment in light and shadow, the feeling of mud stuck to your hand, the smell of the desert after a rain. Many of these experiences we turn into memory, and then from memory back into life.
We invest in what we consider to be an active partner in this work: time. Our work is patient, unfolding in moments of pause, the space between action. We trust time to continue this work, long after our hands have left a project – as the client begins their own process of discovery through the lens of our work.
Through our work, we challenge norms, question values, seek the virtuous, and look to engage our senses with the world around us, stretching our eyes past the horizon.
We measure the integrity of our work by the quiet pleasures and experiences enjoyed by all those who encounter it. As we work, we connect to the project as individuals; our hope is that an architecture born from intimate connection will provide for a profound relationship between the building and the individual who encounters it.
We strive to touch this earth lightly, sowing the seeds of reverence as we go. We believe architecture lies in the realm of memory and the experienced. Through the intimacy of spaces and moments lived, we strive to blur the lines between the built and natural environments, dream state and reality, time and space.