Circle H-H

Maricopa County, Arizona

Residential 5,417 SF

Interiors KQ Architects

After working 20 years in Europe, the couple was returning to their hometown in central Arizona with their three children. Their dream was to involve themselves fully in the equestrian property and build a new home that would also support their love of music. The original barn was to be preserved. Besides sleeping and living spaces, a guest house for the friends made over the years, and a large home office, the “great room” must be adaptable as a “salon” for piano and string recitals associated with nearby Arizona State University and the Tempe Center for the Arts.

The courtyard solution provides privacy for the family, creates a symbiotic relationship among domestic, artistic and equestrian lives, and embraces the rural environment.

The entry patio is one of our favorite spaces in the house. Mostly we experience it visually from inside, but it is like entering another world when you walk through the front gate. It is just magical to see the piano in the magnificent glass room. Your eye is drawn first to the pool in the private courtyard, and then the barn in the distance. It is very intimate and reveals the size of the property at the same moment.

— Catherine Hayden