Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran, founding partners of the Los Angeles?based architecture firm Woods + Dangaran are infinitely familiar with the language of high-end Californian architecture.

The projects we have covered of their portfolio include a masterful renovation of a mid-century modernist masterpiece by Craig Ellwood and a new-build for a client that can demand the best among the best in the high-end Trousdale Estates in Carla Ridge Beverly Hills.

Desert Palisades, the stunning Palm Springs weekend home Woods and Dangaran have completed just recently is perhaps the most dramatic of their projects. Especially when viewed from the valley side and from below, the house seems almost alien, something that has rather theatrically and forcefully descended from space and chosen this inhospitable rockscape as its current position. It seems strangely temporary and permanent at the same time. It doesn?t belong but still feels breathtakingly grand and perfect for this hostile terrain.
The client in this case is Woods himself and his young family, so no one was going to stop the architects, even if their plans at some point seemed impossible or too unusual. This cliff-hanger of a rock star is indeed not immediately recognisable as a classic Californian modernist house but it still oozes desert modernism and Miesian singularity, precision and decisiveness.

The more domestic Palm Springs features of this 3,800 square-foot (353 sq.metre) recreational residence are exposed ...