CASA KAFKA

Currently under construction, “Casa Kafka” is nestled in a 4-acre parcel of high desert terrain. It sits on a plateau facing, to the north, the Little San Bernardino Mountains, capped by indomitable San Gorgonio; and, to the south, the northern edge of Joshua Tree National Park.

“Casa Kafka” is but one element of the surrounding property, Rancho Platino. It features experimental designs and “avant-gardens,” including a Parc De La Villette -inspired belvedere, annex, walled-in garden, orchards, and an ornamental bridge.

The design of “Casa Kafka” is based on Albrecht Dürer’s mechanisms for drawing in perspective from models, most famously represented in his 1535 drawing of an apparatus for drawing a foreshortened lute. In the device, a thread running though a frame divided into square sections records the vertical and horizontal coordinates of whatever lies in the artist’s line of sight. The result is a “costruzione legittima,” a technique of diagramming three-dimensional objects and depth relationships on a two-dimensional surface.

In this case, Dürer’s apparatus is introduced to take advantage of the divergent desert vistas. It is fleshed out in literal space, and split in two, both visually and tactually, encapsulating the viewpoint of the occupant as both observer and observed. The resulting schizo (hence “Kafkaesque”) structure functions as dual live-in camera obscuras — one private (bedroom, master bathroom, study) and one public (kitchen, living room, guest quarters), connected by an external walkway. This optical duplicity is also referenced by the addition of a tower-cum-belvedere, which symbolizes — as it does in the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico — the role of forced perspective in capturing and framing the presence of idealized vistas. Inside the arrow-like belvedere is an outdoor powder room, while on top is a crow’s-nest landing accessible by outside steps. The residence is ensconced in a courtyard garden encircled by a coyote-proof wall that further frames the distant desertscapes.