Organically Grown: A Hand-built Home in the Southwest

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Phil and Sherry spent $88 per square foot on their 1,700-square-foot home. Mostly adobe, the structure also utilizes straw bales, stone, and native timber.
Phil and Sherry spent $88 per square foot on their 1,700-square-foot home. Mostly adobe, the structure also utilizes straw bales, stone, and native timber.
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Phil and Sherry chose nontoxic, plant-based paints from Bioshield (800-621-2591, www.bioshield.com) for the interior walls throughout the home.
Phil and Sherry chose nontoxic, plant-based paints from Bioshield (800-621-2591, www.bioshield.com) for the interior walls throughout the home.
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Built-in, banco seating next to a kiva-style corner fireplace creates a cozy bedroom environment.
Built-in, banco seating next to a kiva-style corner fireplace creates a cozy bedroom environment.
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Large windows framed by adobe bricks provide excellent views and maximize passive solar gain.
Large windows framed by adobe bricks provide excellent views and maximize passive solar gain.
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Unexpected additions to the family made the house a happier, if more cramped, dwelling. From left: Phil (holding Rowan), Sherry (holding Kali), and Piper.
Unexpected additions to the family made the house a happier, if more cramped, dwelling. From left: Phil (holding Rowan), Sherry (holding Kali), and Piper.
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The playroom, originally planned as a greenhouse, is a sunny spot for the children’s activities.
The playroom, originally planned as a greenhouse, is a sunny spot for the children’s activities.
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To offset costs, the couple shopped for bargains on Mexican tiles and slate floors.
To offset costs, the couple shopped for bargains on Mexican tiles and slate floors.
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Vigas from salvaged or sustainably harvested wood support the copper roof over the upper level, which doubles as a rainwater collection system.
Vigas from salvaged or sustainably harvested wood support the copper roof over the upper level, which doubles as a rainwater collection system.

“We live what we do,” says Sherry Luna. “For us, it’s about saving the earth.” She and her husband, Philip Ostrom, own New Harvest Organics, the largest Arizona-based marketer of organic produce. Their home is a “nest” that expresses their ecological values. Perched on a hilltop with vistas of rugged red cliffs and gentle green oak trees, the hand-built house of sun-baked adobe, stone, straw bale, and native timber blends seamlessly into the dramatic terrain.

“It was challenging to marry straw bale with adobe with concrete blocks with stone,” explains Phil. But besides integrating diverse materials, designing the house challenged the couple to integrate opposing ideas. Sherry wanted the house sheltered by the earth, but they both wanted windows to reveal the breathtaking views and take advantage of solar gain. Phil wanted a round house. Sherry wanted straight walls. Phil likes small spaces. Sherry hates clutter and wanted expansive rooms for entertaining. Both wanted to integrate the house into the surrounding landscape.

The pair, who has integrated their lives for seventeen years, met the challenge. The curved face of the house mirrors the topography of the hillside. In front, pillars of adobe bricks frame large arched windows while the back nestles into the earth. A few steps down from the open kitchen and great room, a cozy bedroom wing is tucked under a living sod roof supported by vigas arranged like the spokes of a wheel. On the upper level, a copper roof collects rainwater and channels it into underground cisterns. Graywater from sinks and showers irrigates the organic fruit orchard.

A grand adventure

Manifesting this vision was an adventure that spanned four years of ups, downs, twists, turns, and life-changing surprises. After a decade of searching for the perfect place to settle down, Sherry and Phil bought five and half acres crisscrossed by two creeks near Patagonia, Arizona, a town of 980 people surrounded by wilderness. It’s an hour’s drive south of Tucson and eighteen miles north of the Mexican border.

  • Published on Nov 1, 2002
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