Abiquiu House

Abiquiu House is a retirement residence for an anthropologist and a concert pianist on a desert site bordering the Rio Chama in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The brief called for a home that could accommodate the owners' numerous pets, offering them protection from local wildlife common to the area. Prefabrication formed a central strategy for both efficiency and budget management, with structural insulated panels used for walls and long-span prefabricated wood trusses for the roof and floors. The house is sited near the historic home of Georgia O’Keeffe, lending further regional context to the design approach. A distinguishing feature of the project is the integrated use of chain link as both a protective measure and a design tool. Instead of typical dog runs, chain link was adopted as a main material, forming barriers for domestic animals and serving as railings for terraces. The chain link is suspended as screens or tightly attached to the building’s steel-clad facades, providing not only functional protection but also layering visual and textural complexity. In places, these chain link areas act as trellises, fostering vegetation growth and contributing to a softened exterior profile.

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