Desert Rain House: Sustainable Lessons in the Oregon Desert
Last Updated: Mar 19, 2025There are about 25,000 LEED-certified homes in the United States, according to the U.S. Green Building Council’s project directory. While LEED homes certainly outperform conventional homes, they do not go nearly as far as the requirements of the Living Building Challenge—a certification program that stretches our imagination to what a truly sustainable home means. Located about three hours south of Portland, in the high desert of Bend, Oregon, meet the Desert Rain House. This home is an example of a sustainable home that adapts to its surrounding environment and takes advantage of the natural elements that Nature provides.
The home was designed by Tozer Design, whose buildings bring together a mix of architecture, art, and ecology to connect person, place, and planet through the buildings we inhabit. According to the architectural firm, the Desert Rain home features “local, building materials and a design rooted to place and supporting Bend’s indigenous flora and fauna.” While the desert might seem like an inhospitable place to many, a flourishing, sustainable home can emerge with the right design and mindset.
Local Materials and Salvaged Wood
On the lot where the Desert Rain House now stands, two older mill homes built almost a century ago were first deconstructed. Since these homes were built by families that worked at a nearby lumber yard, a large portion of the high-quality wood was salvaged and used to construct the 2,236 square foot home, a 489 square foot ADU and the 512 square foot detached garage.
An old barn that was deconstructed during construction provided locally produced salvaged wood, while the rest of the lumber is FSC-certified. For the cabinetry in the kitchen, the design team even went to the extreme of recycling old, and rusted corrugated tin that was on site for unique cabinetry facing that offered a vintage feel.
Table of Contents
- Recycled Water
- Net Zero Energy
- Health and Beauty
The homeowners were aware that the embodied energy of any construction makes up a substantial part of the total ecological footprint. To that end, they conscientiously sourced local building materials to reduce the house's embodied energy rating. For example, instead of opting for a cement stucco on the home's exterior, local clay and soil were used to create a beautiful exterior plaster that was sourced and mixed on-site.
Health and Beauty
In terms of indoor air quality, the clay plaster on the interior walls is 100 percent free of VOCs, while the wood flooring is treated with plant oils and natural wax. Other floors and wood ceilings were left untreated to avoid harmful VOCs inside the home.
The home incorporates biophilic design to connect the house to the surrounding landscape. Large windows open up the home to the yard, planted with native plants, many of which are edible and irrigated by the greywater recycling system.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
