The high Mojave Desert has long been known as an incubator for avant-garde architecture, attracting design visionaries who feel free to indulge their wildest fantasies in the wide-open spaces it provides. There are the hobbit-like Bonita Domes beehive structures in Joshua Tree, inspired by designs created by architect Nader Kahlili at the Cal Earth Institute. There is the EcoTechDesign prototype hybrid house, also known as the Tim Palen Studio at Shadow Mountain, an off the grid, repurposed shipping container home. There is Robert Stone’s Acido Dorado house, a high-fashion hideaway fit for James Bond, complete with gold-mirrored ceilings and heart-shaped concrete-block cutout. Not to mention Lloyd Russell’s Rimrock Ranch, shaded by a steel-framed canopy, and the off-grid, minimalist iT House, a prefab structure named one of the Best Homes in America by Dwell magazine. These are all well documented.

Completely undocumented, and among the most eccentric and ambitious homes being built in the high desert, is environmental designer Rex Beasley’s FountainHead. Inspired by the utopian ideals of Buckminster Fuller (whom Beasley once met) and named for staunch individualist Ayn Rand’s controversial novel, the home rises out of the Morongo Valley landscape just north of Palm Springs. Built on a sprawling 15-acres, not only is the home way off the grid, its also way, way off the traditional Architectural Digest beaten path, with Beasley exploring unorthodox—some might say renegade—green-building technologies that slash building costs and turn conventional design philosophies on their heads. The angular, avant garde aesthetic goes against the grain of contemporary building trends and leaves the rare passerby either enamored or confused. Same goes for Beasley himself, a force of nature whose personal philosophy blends elements of conservative libertarianism with community-minded post-apocalyptic feminism.

The home, which he has been building for two years, affords the owner the freedom to move rooms from inside to outside on hydraulic beds “in order to conserve and maximize use of space,” says Beasley. It also has a space age-ish ability to harvest and reuse energy: hydronic cooling systems that harvest water naturally cooled during the night to power AC during the day, hydronic heating that provides unlimited free hot water, and self-cleaning aquaponic ponds and waterfalls that supply clean drinking water. “I was disgusted with the wasteful excesses of a spoiled society,” says Beasley, explaining the origins of his vision. “At least if the world falls apart, my homes keep on rolling on, with heat and cooling until the end of time.” If FountainHead delivers all that it promises, you may want to note the coordinates of this post-apocalyptic outpost.

But Beasley’s approach has made him somewhat of a controversial figure among some builders and architects. He openly scoffs at LEED regulations and criticizes the prevailing architectural culture for being “male-based, resistant to change, and dogmatic.” Like many experimental designers, he’s frustrated at the establishment’s inherent snobbery. Which is why the desert is perfect for an inventor like Beasley, whose ideas may be too weird, too good, too untested or too ahead of the curve for some of his peers. Fortunately, gaining approval has never been one of this architect’s main goals in life.
He is very proud of FountainHead’s solar-powered artesian well, 360 feet deep with water at 165 feet, and totally off the grid. “This well draws from robust aquifers fed by the San Gorgonio snowpack and delivers water to a 2500 gallon holding tank,” he explains. “The tank is housed in its own solar shed. Most wells are 220 volt systems powered by the local utility company. If there is no electricity from the utility company, then there is no water from the well, and if a generator is hooked up to it, it is noisy and vulnerable to fuel outage. What I’ve built is off-the-grid unlimited water, not vulnerable to outside power outages, thanks to the pump operating on solar power.”

Ah, unlimited water…in the desert? Only 10” of rain falls annually in this part of the world, often passing in flash floods and not soaking into the ground. To support water percolating into the ground, Beasley has built a series of water paths and natural washes covering seven acres to facilitate the water’s travel, marshaling rainwater to soaking fields and a collection pond for later.

The home has a pool that will empty each evening, so pool parties will be dry in that sense. “The pool is for more than recreation,” he explains. “It is also a water battery storing potential energy. This will mean no night swimming but it will save on your energy bills.” Here’s how this works: the water in the swimming pool is released each evening when electricity is no longer being generated by the sun, but is still needed to power the home. The water will gently flow high overhead, from the pool across to the house through a 12”-diameter clear acrylic tube. It will make its way to an open stream in the library at the west side of the house, passing through the glass to the outdoors, and then turning to travel along the west railing of the deck, which hangs high above the desert floor. At the southeastern corner of the deck, the water will be allowed to fall to the desert floor creating a waterfall. “The water will appear to have to vanished into the sand,” says Beasley, “however, hidden in the desert floor and not visible are turbines, which, when hit by the water, spin to create electricity. The pool water is now serving a double purpose by acting as a battery. And the ‘stored energy of the raised water’ that was produced earlier in the day is now converted to another form of energy—electricity.”

There is not enough space here to fully detail some of the other ideas Beasley is bringing to life at FountainHead: A living area that floats on air, turning out to nature or into the main structure. A home theatre that moves from one room to another in seconds. A working fireplace that glides to three different rooms at the push of a button. A lake with sandy beach and aquaponic water purification linking to the house pool via a 100’ streambed and solar pumps, and populated with plant life that makes the water drinkable. A 30’-high, 800-square-foot interior tropical garden that sits on the north portion of the home away from the hot southern exposure.

Rex Beasley’s vision and enthusiasm are infectious, and when he unveils the completed home later in 2013, it will represent a lifetime’s worth of going against the grain. “Architecture has fallen behind the rest of (wo)mankind’s evolution,” he writes in an email. “And FountainHead demonstrates this dramatically. This is reality. FountainHead may change the world in ways that genuinely matter.”

We can only hope.

Down with LEEDs?

Rex Beasley is creating a highly innovative house that is as gentle as possible on the land. So why does he consider LEEDs certification—which he seems likely to win with ease—to be not only not useful, but “mostly a roadblock”? Find out here. See more about Beasley’s work here.

More about sustainable living… 

~ Grey Water, Green Plants

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