The Windhover Contemplative Center is a one-story, 4,000-square-foot spiritual refuge on the Stanford University campus. It was designed by the architecture firm Aidlin Darling Design and named after a series of paintings by artist Nathan Oliveira.
About the Architect
Aidlin Darling Design is an architecture firm based in San Francisco, California, founded in 1998. It was established by two partners, Joshua Aidlin and David Darling.
They earned their Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the University of Cincinnati, where they met as students. Their collaboration began with woodworking and furniture-making projects, which later developed into their architectural practice.
They see design as a multisensory experience, where the way something feels, smells, and sounds is as important as how it looks.
About the Architecture
The building is situated beside a natural oak grove. Visitors enter through a long private garden, where a bamboo grove at the entrance separates the building from the outside world.
The building primarily uses rammed earth, stained oak wood, glass, and water elements to create a sensory and contemplative atmosphere. Inside the center, thick rammed earth walls and dark wood surfaces create a strong contrast with the light-filled eastern wall.
Water and landscape elements are integrated throughout the project: fountains within the interior and courtyards create a calm atmosphere, while a quiet reflecting pool and garden on the south side mirror the surrounding trees.
The outdoor meditation spaces blend seamlessly with the daily use of the center, reinforcing the connection between nature, art, and contemplation. The courtyards and the expansive glass curtain wall on the east allow visitors to view the paintings without entering the building, creating a peaceful place for the Stanford community both day and night.
About the Material
The rammed earth walls, ranging from 18 inches to 2 feet thick, were hand-tamped pneumatically in 6–8 inch lifts. The pressure was carefully controlled to create a variegated texture that reflects the construction process.
The soil beneath the building initially produced a rich brown color, similar to the sandstone buildings of Stanford’s original campus. While beautiful, the pure site soil proved too dominant for the artwork. Ultimately, a five-part blend was developed, with 20% of the material sourced directly from the site. The remaining ingredients included coarse sand, “birdseye” gravel, powdered rhyolite, decomposed granite, and Portland cement.
Oliveria’s Windhover Dyptich, 36 feet long and six feet high, hangs on 234,000 pounds of rammed earth-a wall twenty feet tall by sixty feet long. A wall this tall requires two form set-ups. With a stacked form you need to give careful consideration to the location of the stack point. Notice the cold joint runs right through the center of the painting.
DUST: Tucson Mountain Retreat
The project was designed by DUST (Design, Undertaking, Space, Territory), led by architects Cade Hayes and Jesús Robles. Completed in 2012 in the Tucson Mountains, Arizona, the approximately 2,300-square-foot residence reflects the studio’s commitment to material authenticity and desert-responsive architecture.
The Tucson Mountain Retreat is located along more than 900 feet of shared boundary with Saguaro National Park, embedded within the rugged and ecologically sensitive Sonoran Desert. Surrounded by dense stands of towering saguaro cacti, the site conveys a profound sense of stillness and geological permanence. The architecture responds not as an object placed upon the land, but as a form shaped by its climate, light, and topography.
Conceived as an experiential rammed earth residence, the project approaches the desert landscape with restraint and reciprocity. The muted tones and layered texture of rammed earth define a restrained program that opens generously toward the horizon. Circulation sequences deliberately extend outdoors, folding landscape into daily life. Shifting desert light, filtered views, and seasonal changes become active participants in the spatial experience.
The clients—a physician from San Diego and his wife—sought both reconnection to the desert landscape and a space that supports music as an integral part of daily life. The program includes living spaces, bedrooms, and a dedicated music studio. A clear separation strategy organizes these functions to enhance site integration while ensuring acoustic isolation between the studio and private areas.
The structural system integrates load-bearing rammed earth walls with concrete and steel elements, while large operable glazing systems frame expansive views of Saguaro National Park and facilitate cross-ventilation.
Arrival is marked by a sequence of fractal concrete cubes that offer an open-ended path toward two separate entries: midway up the ascent, a narrow slit marks the bedroom entry, while a dark square void defines the main entry.
Rammed earth walls traverse the plan, dividing it into three primary zones while providing thermal mass and acoustic buffering. The central living space, open to both north and south, acts as the core of the house and as a transitional buffer between the music studio to the west and the sleeping quarters to the east.
Material and sensory engagement are central to the design. Spanish cedar introduces warmth and scent in the bedrooms, while charred wood surfaces in the bathroom core evoke the cracked textures of a drought-stricken desert floor.
Each programmatic component is accessed via exterior passages, encouraging repeated engagement with the landscape.
Above, a spiral stair leads to a roof deck oriented toward expansive desert views and night skies.
When large sliding glass panels retract, the house dissolves into a shaded, ramada-like pavilion, animated by wind, scent, and the changing desert light.
Donald Judd and Adobe
Donald Clarence Judd (1928–1994) was an American artist best known for his role in the development of Minimalism. His work has had lasting influence on art, architecture, and design.
Judd was born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. He studied philosophy and art history at Columbia University and later painting at the Art Students League in New York. He worked as a painter until the early 1960s, when he began producing three-dimensional works that challenged conventional definitions of sculpture. These works emphasized repetition, clarity, and structural logic rather than representation.
By the early 1970s Judd had become dissatisfied with the temporary nature of gallery exhibitions. He believed art needed a permanent and carefully defined setting. In 1971 he moved to Marfa, Texas, where he began purchasing buildings and land in order to establish long-term installations under his own direction.
In Marfa, adobe was part of the existing building environment. Rather than bringing industrial construction methods from New York, Judd worked with local builders, reused salvaged adobe bricks, and sometimes produced bricks on site.
For Judd, permanence was not only about duration but about spatial stability. Works were meant to remain in fixed positions, in spaces with consistent proportions and light. Adobe, as a load-bearing and materially durable construction system, allowed the architecture itself to remain stable over time. The walls were not temporary partitions but structural enclosures, creating fixed spatial conditions for installation.
One of the clearest examples of this approach is La Mansana de Chinati, commonly known as “The Block,” located in downtown Marfa. Judd began to install work in the east building of the Block in 1973. Instead of demolishing the three existing buildings, he altered them to suit the purposes of living and working. He constructed a 9-foot adobe wall on the south side of the property using existing adobe bricks from the former Toltec Motel and Virginia Hotel.
Between 1973 and 1979 the remainder of the exterior wall enclosing the property was constructed, totaling 1,441 feet and approximately 30,000 bricks. Within this perimeter, a second U-shaped wall further articulated the courtyard. Together, these walls establish a sequence of outdoor rooms and reshape the relationship between street and interior space. Openings are carefully proportioned, and the thickness of the walls creates deep recesses and strong shadow lines.
© 2024 Judd Foundation / JASPER, Tokyo E5493
The Block accommodates residence, studio space, a library, and open courtyard areas. Domestic life and artistic production are not separated but integrated within a continuous spatial framework. Adobe functions simultaneously as structure, boundary, and climatic mediator in the desert environment. The geometry remains restrained—rectilinear volumes, planar walls, orthogonal alignments—yet the earthen material introduces weight and physical presence distinct from Judd’s earlier industrial works.
Another important project is the adaptation of what is now called the Chamberlain Building in central Marfa. Here Judd transformed former warehouse structures to house the permanent installation of works by John Chamberlain. Although the existing buildings were not constructed entirely of adobe, Judd introduced adobe elements to clarify enclosure and spatial hierarchy, including the construction of a new west-end wall. Roofs were rebuilt, skylights installed, and openings adjusted to refine the quality and distribution of light.
Across his projects in Marfa, adobe was used as a structural and spatial material rather than as decorative reference. It serves as a means of achieving permanence and spatial definition. Its thickness reinforces enclosure; its method of construction shows labor and process; its mass anchors the buildings to the desert landscape. These interventions create measured and continuous spatial fields in which art, habitation, and landscape coexist.
Toronjos House
Casa Toronjos | Houses
Architect: PPAA
Location: Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico, Mexico
Year: 2024
Area: 312 m² (3358 ft²)
Construction: Adobe
PPAA (Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados) founded in 2018 by Pablo Pérez Palacios. (Mexico City, 1980)
Pablo is an architect from the Universidad Iberoamericana from Mexico City and the Polytechnic University from Catalonia, Barcelona. He has a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design by the Columbia University in New York.
“… architecture of ideas and not form.” Their studio focuses on simple, clear ideas shaped by context, using void as an active space, developing concepts through drawing, and allowing time to test and strengthen the connection between architecture and place.
Toronjos house is a single-story vacation home designed to harmonize with its natural surroundings. Conceptually, it is an extension of the landscape, prioritizing a minimal footprint and a fully sustainable design.
The house acts as a sanctuary for contemplation where nature is centered. Staggered walls and large openings create protection while framing views and letting the landscape pass through the space. This allows natural light and ventilation while maintaining a close and continuous relationship with the outdoors.
The design centers on relaxation and enjoyment. Semi-outoor social spaces and hammock areas encourage pause and connection with nature. The goal of Toronjos is to experience and preserve the natural landscape.
The project was constructed by adobe and wooden beams, which were left exposed to add warmth. The floor was handcrafted with adobe produced on-site, and the walls are finished with an adobe plaster that harmonizes with the surrounding color palette.
Not only using local labor and materials, the commitment of sustainability is embodied in every aspects: it collects rainwater and supports the site’s ecosystem, turns the house into a sustainable system.
The modulation follows the maximum 3-meter span allowed for mud brick construction without steel reinforcement. The adobe is produced on site, minimizing transport and supporting a local micro-economy through local materials and labor. Toronjos house responds directly to its site and conditions.
Toronjos is, essentially, architecture that doesn’t dominate. It blends seamlessly with the landscape, enhancing it and becoming a natural extension of it. The building doesn’t seek to stand out, but rather to disappear among the vegetation, water, and earth, embodying a way of living in harmony with the environment.
Toronjos | PPAA https://www.ppaa.mx/en/ongoing-en/toronjos-2/
Casa Toronjos ArchDaily https://www.archdaily.mx/mx/1036313/casa-toronjos-ppaa
David Easton’s Rammed Earth Works
Californian David Easton (1948-2021) was a pioneer in the use of rammed earth in contemporary construction. David Easton first learned of rammed earth through a book titled “Build Your House of Earth” by G.F. Middleton. Trained as both an engineer and architect at Stanford University, Easton was surprised to learn that the “moist soil compacted directly into movable forms wielding immediately load-supporting walls,” claiming it “seemed too good to be true” [1].
Enamored by the little literature and research available on rammed earth, Easton set out to perfect the methods and applications of the material and founded his company, Rammed Earth Works, in 1976. In the 50 years since, Easton and Rammed Earth Works have worked on hundreds of both residential and commercial projects across the nation, cementing themselves as one of the world’s leading firms in the research and application of rammed earth construction technologies [2]. Easton’s company has also helped push the envelope to make the building codes around the nation be more accepting of rammed earth construction and developed various rammed earth technologies such as PISE (pneumatically impacted stabilized earth), Terratile, and the Easton (California) Forming System for rammed earth and cast elements [3].
In 1996, Easton published The Rammed Earth House, an exploration of the history and modern use of rammed earth construction with beautiful photographs taken by Cynthia Wright of both modern and historical examples [4]. Easton has since revised The Rammed Earth House, and in the years since its initial publication, it has been widely accepted as one of the most informative and influential works on rammed earth, showing an ancient building technique that is exactly suitable for today’s resource-conscious and environmentally friendly building needs.
One of David Easton’s most notable rammed earth projects is the Windhover Contemplative Center at Stanford University. This project, designed to be a spiritual refuge on the college campus, was created in collaboration with architects Aidlin Darling and Andrea Cochran, as well as artist Nathan Oliveira.
The project contains three large rammed earth walls designed to be a backdrop to Oliveria’s paintings. In the center of the largest wall, a 234,000 pound rammed earth wall 20 feet tall and 60 feet long, sits a large diptych painted by Oliveira.
The project was extremely labor extensive: each wall was built “in 42 six-inch lifts pounded to four-inch courses by eight men on rammers.”
Sources:
- Block, David. “Looking at the Legacy of Legendary Earth Builder David Easton: February 25, 1948 — February 12, 2021.” Medium, 6 June 2021, davidyblock.medium.com/looking-at-the-legacy-of-legendary-earth-builder-david-easton-february-25-1948-february-12-b63e8c7677be. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
- English, Mark, AIA. “David Easton – 45 Years of Rammed Earth.” The Architects’ Take, 16 Nov. 2018,thearchitectstake.com/interviews/david-easton-45-years-of-rammed-earth-construction/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
- Rammed Earth Works. “About Us.” Rammed Earth Works, www.rammedearthworks.com/about-us. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
- Aidlin Darling Design. “Windhover Contemplative Center.” Aidlin Darling Design, aidlindarlingdesign.com/projects/windhover-contemplative-center/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
Luis Barragán and Adobe
Luis Barragan was a Pritzker Architecture Prize winning Mexican architect known for exceptional work in combining modern architectural concepts with traditional ideas and earthen materials. He was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1902 and he passed away in Mexico City in 1988. Even though his works were in the field of architecture, Barragan did not receive a formal degree in architecture, instead he attended Escuela Libre de Ingenieros in Guadalajara and obtained a degree in civil engineering. As a result, the majority of Barragan’s architectural knowledge and skills were self-taught, taking inspiration from the buildings and landscapes that he saw when he traveled to other countries such as France and Spain.
Part of what makes Luis Barragan’s buildings and works so noteworthy is his use of traditional Mexican ideas of materiality, like working with adobe, wood, stone and clay as well as taking inspiration from Mexican cultural ideas of light in the home, the presence of nature, and the dynamic relationship between life and death. In a sense his architectural philosophy involved viewing the buildings and built environment in more than a conventional use based way, instead focusing on the emotions and presence that are invoked by architecture in tandem with modern and contemporary ideas. Barragan’s philosophy, or the reason he made his works based on these ideas of nature and tradition was because he wanted the people and other professionals to think about concepts like art, serenity, light, and beauty because to him they went hand-in-hand with the architectural field.
The Pulitzer Architecture Prize was awarded to Barragan in 1980 for the many exceptional buildings he designed during his lifetime. Some of his more known and prominent works include Casa Prieto Lopez (also known as Casa Pedregal), Cuadra San Cristobal, and Casa Estudio Luis Barragan.
While not made from adobe bricks, Casa Prieto Lopez showcases his deep range of natural and earthen materials, given that he used the lava rock already present at the location where the house was to be built. This use of local earthen materials provides that sense of harmony between the natural and the built environment that Barragan strived for in his works.
Cuadra San Cristóbal is located in Mexico City, in an area called Los Clubes, where the geometrical design and emotions conveyed through the shapes of the walls exemplifies the power that natural materials carry when used in modern architecture. Cuadra San Cristobal is in part made with rammed earth and other earth materials displayed in various bright colors that bring in light and serenity into the space.
Perhaps Luis Barragan’s most well known work is his Casa Estudio Luis Barragan, located in Mexico City on General Francisco Ramírez Street. The influence of this building was deemed important enough to be recognized by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 2004. The house was built in 1947 and has three floors and a private garden, being 1,161 m2 and occupies two lots adjacent to each other.
The house was designed and constructed to be Barragan’s private residence and studio, which gives the impression that everything was tailored to his interests, where he could add ideas and concepts that he had seen throughout his travels and what he incorporated into previous designs. One of these concepts incorporated into the house/studio was the dynamic play between light, shadow, and structure made possible by the use of earthen materials, like thick adobe bricks in construction. Some of the colors present in this house, such as the bright oranges and pink, combine with the geometric shapes of the walls, particularly in the use of right angles and cubic shapes which according to some is the representation of an introspective and spiritual symbolism. The use of earth materials, like adobe bricks and rammed earth, in Casa Estudio Luis Barragan showcases a different level of understanding of the natural world, much like traditional architecture did in the past. With the incorporation of these materials, the thick blocks can provide shadow, regulate heat and cold temperatures, and the shapes that these blocks are arranged in, provide a form in which light expands the room.
When receiving the Pulitzer Prize, Luis Barragan said, “It is essential to an architect to know how to see—to see in such a way that vision is not overpowered by rational analysis.” When observing his various works and the philosophy through which he carried out his designs, it’s evident that Barragan focuses on the art of seeing, not just the built environment and the final product, but the emotional connection that one has with the design alongside the dynamic relationship between nature, materiality, and the man-made environment. His works inspire the thinking of the connection between life and death, earth and materiality, and nature and the built world, exemplifying how important it is for one to consider the modern and contemporary with, instead of separate from the traditional earth materials and cultural traditions from various places in the world.
References
Barragan Foundation. (n.d.). Home. Home | Barragan Foundation. https://www.barragan-foundation.org/
Bathurst, M. (2018). Casa Luis Barragán: Architecture of Solitude. Readcereal.com. https://www.readcereal.com/articles/casa-luis-barragan
Fida, H. (n.d.). Luis Barragan: 15 iconic projects everyone must know. Rethinking the Future. https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/know-your-architects/a743-luis-barragan-15-iconic-projects/
Fundación de Arquitectura Tapatía Luis Barragán A. C. (n.d.). La Casa Luis Barragán. CASA LUIS BARRAGÁN. https://www.casaluisbarragan.org/
González, C. (2022, September 29). Luis Barragán, Maestro de la Luz y del Color. CasaDecor. https://casadecor.es/blog/personajes/luis-barragan-maestro-de-luz-y-color/
Pritzker Prize. (n.d.). Luis Barragán: The Pritzker Architecture Prize. Luis Barragán | The Pritzker Architecture Prize. https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/1980#laureate-page-362
Sun at Six. (2021, December 1). Casa Pedregal by Luis Barragan. https://www.sunatsix.com/blogs/news/luis-barragan?srsltid=AfmBOoo2-PPUqLb-dNASCS4qQ_AnlE3elW93dc0WLQWy0jOiHYgWJwdS
UNESCO. (2004). Luis Barragán House and Studio. UNESCO World Heritage Convention. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1136/
Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture
Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. A new book, Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture by Albert Narath , examines this new wave of architectural experimentation taking place in the United States, detailing how an ancient tradition became a point of convergence for issues of environmentalism, architecture, technology, and Indigenous resistance.
Utilized for centuries by the Pueblo people of the American Southwest and by Spanish colonialists, adobe construction found renewed interest as various groups contended with the troubled legacies of modern architecture and an increasingly urgent need for sustainable design practices. In this period of critical experimentation, design networks that included architects, historians, counterculture communities, government weapons labs, and Indigenous activists all looked to adobe as a means to address pressing environmental and political issues.
Albert Narath charts the unique capacities of adobe construction across a wide range of contexts, consistently troubling simple distinctions between traditional and modern technologies, high design and vernacular architecture. Drawing insightful parallels between architecture, environmentalism, and movements for Indigenous sovereignty, Solar Adobe stresses the importance of considering the history of the built environment in conjunction with architecture’s larger impact on the natural world.
The Politics of Adobe Architecture
The Metropolis Magazine article, “The Politics of Adobe Architecture“, discusses recent scholarship on earth architecture in America that highlights larger issues concerning power, extraction, and Indigenous resistance to the settler state and capitalism.
Observatory in the desert…in Wurster Hall
The observatory in the desert was a project brought on by the Contemporary Architects Association that sought to revive tradition of clay and mud construction in the Esfahan Village in Iran with a beautiful communal piece. This work is described thoroughly in the following post. What is there not to love about this project? In this work of art, meticulously arranged mud bricks and rammed earth walls make a seamless experience.
Our group, Eryn King, Lucy Knopf and Camilla Faustinelli were blown away by this project when it was presented by one of the students in the class Earthen Material Practices in Contemporary Art and Architecture . We just had to recreate it.
The final pushed groups to build a model at 1/2” = 1’ scale, focusing on a specific building technique with earth we had studied.
Our group decided to focus on the mud brick.
For such an endeavor, we decided to change the design a bit. Because we weren’t going to focus on rammed earth walls, we made all of the construction using mud bricks even if the interior circle is supposed to be a rammed earth wall in the actual project.
Construction process:
- Collecting the mud : Mud for the bricks was collected in the San Pablo coastline area, as well as a backyard in Elmwood, Berkeley.
- Making the bricks: Mud was pressed into silicone molds, then left to dry in the sun for several days.
- Building: With a concrete base, we stacked the bricks in a 45 degree angle on the outside, and not angled on the inside to act as the rammed earth wall on the actual project. This is where texture and consistency of our collected dry mud came to play, making some pieces more fragile than others.
Building this observatory was a meticulous project, but it’s incredible how making something makes you understand why it’s so special. What a beautiful project. Our group hopes to one day see the project in person.
Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Mauricio Rocha
Architects: Mauricio Rocha, Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha
Area: 91,493 ft²
Year Built: 2001
City/State: Iztapalapa, Mexico City
Country: Mexico
Located in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired is designed to address the unique sensory and social needs of its users.
The center was established as part of the government’s initiative to address the pressing need for services in one of the city’s most densely populated and underserved districts. Iztapalapa not only has one of the highest populations in Mexico City but also the largest concentration of visually impaired residents making this essentially very critical.
Constructed from volcanic rock, the boundary wall encloses the complex on all sides, acting as both an acoustic barrier and a retaining wall for earth relocated from nearby areas. While its exterior is minimal and unadorned, the interior facade transforms into varied banks that shift in shape, height, and orientation, forming a series of intimate courtyards. These enclosed outdoor spaces enhance sensory experiences, offering quiet, reflective areas for users within the bustling district.
Materiality is vital in this project as it enhances spatial perception, activating the senses as sources of experience and information. Organized into rectangular prisms with concrete frames and flat roofs, each section varies in size, light intensity, and material weight to make spaces easily identifiable. Rammed earth was also chosen for its contrasting textures to the volcanic rock to provide tactile cues that aid navigation.
The floor plan functions as a series of “filters” extending from the entrance, beginning with administrative offices, a cafeteria, and utility spaces. This layout, combined with sensory materials, allows users to navigate intuitively.. Overall, this thoughtful space prioritizes accessibility and engagement, creating an environment that fosters independence, and comfort.
References:
“Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired / Taller de Arquitectura-Mauricio Rocha” 11 Aug 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed 17 Mar 2026.