Life under the desert sun : dust storms, steam baths and outhouses for the unencumbered desert dweller

Abstract

Yesterday's desert is today your new home, is tomorrow's strip mall. The West remains the American 'way out' a chance to reinvent oneself, 'to make it'. Yet, the desert landscape is fraught with the politics of displacement, exploitation, and imposition, carrying with it a socio-political dimension. Our collective imprint on this uniquely American geographic region is staggering. Going west- symbolizing the quest for freedom and opportunity is 'seen' as the place to reinvent oneself regardless of the obvious damage that occurs when we choose to also relocate our un-revised modalities for living-our lifestyle- within this context. This thesis seeks to investigate a particular condition: the proliferation of the single-family suburban house within the American Desert context in conjunction with aesthetics of the American Dream, desire, and leisure. Life Under the Desert Sun proposes the re-invention of suburban living in the American Desert based on two metrics: [1] an embrace of arid living via a reduction in the water consumptive lifestyle due to a lack of water availability and [2] the logic, success, and desirability of the mass produced single-family home. This condition of spreading suburban housing within 'affordable' desert regions houses over 20 Million Americans. The proposal focuses on the area of southern California within the Antelope Valley at the edge of both the Los Angeles Metro Area and the Mohave Desert, as the region is now facing an extreme drought condition, for the fifth year.