Seven concrete rooms in the dunes, arranged so that the wind moves the sand around them and not into them.
Tarfaya sits where the Sahara reaches the Atlantic. The wind blows from the north-east for most of the year, and the dunes move a few metres every season.
The house is a cluster rather than a building: seven volumes for sleeping, cooking and gathering, set around three sheltered courtyards, with a water tower at the centre.
Openings are small and deep. Each room frames the sand rather than the sky, so the interiors stay dark and cool at midday.
The tower
The tower holds the water for the whole house and gives the cluster a point to be found from far away. At its foot, the central courtyard stays in shade all afternoon.
The sand
The rooms are set low, half-sunk into the dunes. Where the sand gathers against a wall, it is left there: it insulates, and it is part of the house.
Drawing
Site plan
Light
Deep window reveals cut the hard desert light into a few controlled shapes. The courtyards are the only bright spaces; the rooms around them stay in half-light.
Material
Concrete cast with sand taken from the site, so the walls weather to the colour of the dunes. Cedar shutters, bronze handles, lime-washed ceilings.
Water
Rain is rare here. The tower stores water brought by truck and from a small desalination unit, and feeds the house by gravity.
