Larry Kraus proved his skills as an amateur architect with his design for his  "Tropical House"  in Hawaii.  Next he applied his abilities to the challenge of the California high desert.  Darwin, at near 5000 feet elevation, can reach 110^o in summer and 0^o in winter.  A well thought-out "underground" or "earth-sheltered" home can offer a moderate interior temperature through all seasons.
  

Also, the roof pitch maximizes interior heating from the lower-angled Winter sun, and minimizes overheating from the intense high-angled Summer sun.

The 16" thick concrete-and-stone exterior and interior walls provide "Thermal mass" that  cools slowly in winter and heats slowly in summer.  Thus the house needs neither supplemental heating nor cooling year around.

Building it was one of the great experiences of my life.

All photographs and text are the property of Tam McPartland and are protected under United States and international copyright laws.  All rights are reserved and the images and/or text may not be digitized, reproduced, stored, manipulated, and/or incorporated into other works without the written permission of the photographer, Tam McPartland.