Designed by Richard Neutra in 1946, his concept was to build a “machine in the landscape, juxtaposing a foreign-made construct onto a wild, unrefined, natural setting”. In the years since, the encroaching neighborhood replaced the area’s desert landscape with non-indigenous plantings, obliterating Neutra’s vision.

An integral aspect of the restoration of the Kaufmann House was the recreation of the tension between house and landscape. Using plants native to the Southwest desert, the surrounding residential environment was obscured and the sense of the home extending through the raw desert was re-established.