What Happens When a Punk Rocker Designs a Desert Home?

Rosa Muerta happens. An all black, open-concept mind-trip available to rent for those looking for something different. The layout is dead simple: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room (with a fire pit and foot spa), all black of course. You’re exposed to the elements and a short jaunt from Joshua Tree National Park. At $200/night, you too can have a hand at glamping(glamorous camping).

A former punk-rocker and studio artist, LA-based architect, Robert Stone, built Rosa Muerta by himself over a period of three years. Learning from his father, a spec-home builder, Robert realized his vision from concept to execution.

“Black is a foil,” Stone explains. “People are the color — they’re what bring it to life.”

1,300 Square Feet of All Black Everything

Robert Stone on himself:

Robert Stone is an architect from Los Angeles who has spent the last few years solo building party houses out in the desert of Joshua Tree. He grew up in Palm Springs and has always harbored an idea for a new desert aesthetic that combines the modernist houses of his hometown with high end inspiration from 90’s Gucci to Minimalist Art, and low-end inspiration from lowrider cars to burned out building shells. The first completed house in this style is Rosa Muerta (dead rose), a modernist pavilion and “glamping” (glamour camping) site that is available for vacation rental.

SOURCES

- First seen on LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/features/la-hm-rosamuerta4-2009apr04,0,4533543.story

- Additional article on Apartment Therapy: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/house-call/house-call-rosa-muerta-los-angeles-069892

- For reservations and booking, check out PRETTY VACANT PROPERTIES

Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the US Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act (Public Law 103-433), it had previously been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It covers a land area of 789,745 acres (319,598 ha). A large part of the park is designated to wilderness area; some 429,690 acres (173,890 ha). Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation.

The higher, drier, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert is the special habitat of the Joshua tree (see Yucca brevifolia), from which the park gets its name. In addition to Joshua tree forests, the western part of the park includes some of the most interesting geologic displays found in California’s deserts

- via Wikipedia

http://twistedsifter.com/2009/12/rosa-muerta-robert-stone-joshua-tree/

Everything on the house was built or highly customized by the owner. “I learned to weld building lowriders”.

The black monochrome color scheme emphasizes the surrounding colors of the desert and accentuates the varying textures of the construction and finishes.

The floors step down further into the bedroom, bath, and kitchen area.