Infill High Residence presented an uncommon opportunity: a project already grounded in a strong architectural vision and conceptual clarity, inviting a landscape response rooted in respect, restraint, and a sense of celebration. Situated within the established community of Las Campanas in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the residence challenged conventional assumptions about desert living. The client envisioned a landscape deeply connected to the region's ecology while embracing trees, water, and outdoor life as essential elements of daily experience. The resulting design transforms an infill site into a quiet oasis where architecture and landscape engage in a continuous dialogue.

At the heart of the project is the belief that landscape should not function as decoration, but as an extension of architecture and a framework for living. The home's perimeter becomes the primary stage for this experience. Courtyards, bridges, and expansive portals soften the threshold between interior and exterior spaces, encouraging year-round outdoor living and creating a seamless relationship between the built form and the surrounding landscape.

These spaces are connected through a carefully choreographed sequence of planted passages, reflective surfaces, and four distinct water features. Water serves not only as an environmental counterpoint to the arid climate, but also as an experiential device. Reflections animate the architecture, gentle sounds soften the desert stillness, and mirrored surfaces create moments of surprise and contemplation. Together, they encourage a slow and deliberate movement around the home, where discovery unfolds gradually rather than all at once.

 

The formal language of the landscape draws inspiration from a restrained architectural vocabulary. Shaping walls, concrete forms, and a limited material palette establish a sense of order and permanence. Many of these elements reflect a Louis Kahn-inspired appreciation for geometry, volume, and light. Sculptural concrete walls define outdoor rooms, frame views, and create a strong spatial rhythm throughout the site.

Materials were selected with equal discipline. Monochromatic concrete and gravel articulate space through texture rather than color, allowing light and shadow to become primary design materials. The planting strategy follows a similarly restrained approach. Rather than relying on a broad variety of species, the landscape uses repetition, massing, and carefully calibrated groupings of native and climate-adapted plants to create richness through pattern and scale. This intentional simplicity allows the landscape to communicate through form, rhythm, and seasonal change.

Central to the composition are a series of concrete-formed water features, outdoor fireplaces, and a gathering fire pit. These elements function as sculptural anchors within the landscape, introducing sound, warmth, reflection, and social interaction. Their presence reinforces the project's balance between monumentality and intimacy, creating spaces that feel simultaneously expansive and deeply personal.

Underlying the project is the broader philosophy of Serquis + Associates, a practice that approaches landscape architecture as a collaborative craft rooted in regional identity, material sensitivity, and long-term relationships with makers, artisans, fabricators, and environmental specialists. For the studio, every project becomes an opportunity to curate a team uniquely suited to the character of the site and the aspirations of the client.

This collaborative process extends beyond design drawings. Stone masons, metal fabricators, lighting specialists, water feature consultants, planting experts, and craftspeople contribute to the realization of landscapes that feel authentic to place. Rather than relying on a fixed palette of products or vendors, the studio develops each project through a tailored process that balances craftsmanship, performance, sustainability, and budget within a cohesive spatial vision.

At Infill High Residence, this approach is evident in every detail. Water, fire, planting, stone, and architecture are treated not as isolated components, but as interconnected parts of a larger environmental composition. Together they create what the studio often describes as the "theater" of landscape architecture: immersive environments where atmosphere, ecology, movement, and human experience are woven into a singular expression of place.

The result is a landscape that transcends the constraints of its infill setting. Through restraint, craftsmanship, and a profound sensitivity to site, Infill High Residence demonstrates how contemporary desert landscapes can be both deeply rooted in their environment and richly expressive, transforming everyday life into an ongoing experience of reflection, connection, and belonging.

As seen in LASN magazine, August 2026.