Desert Vernacular: Green Building and Ecological Design in Scottsdale, Arizona - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 498

TABLE 28.1
NAOS Requirements

Lower
Desert (%)

Upper
Desert (%) Land Slope Hillside (%)

0%-2% 20 25 50

Over 2% up to 5% 25 25 50

Over 5% up to 10% 30 35 50

Over 10% up to 15% 30 45 50

Over 15% up to 25% 30 45 65

Over 25% 30 45 80

Minimum NAOS
after reductions

15 20 40

The amount of NAOS required to be set aside with each develop-
ment is based upon two factors—landform and land slopes.

Factors such as the size, form, or location of certain mature specimen plants, such as
the saguaro cactus ( Carnegiea gigantea ) or ironwood tree ( Olneya tesota ), make finding a
comparable nursery-grown tree for replacement extremely difficult if not impossible
(Figure 28.9). Therefore, leaving such plants in place or salvaging them for incorporation
into landscaping is both environmentally and economically beneficial (see Chapter 23).
Any development project which will affect designated native plants is required to submit
a native plant site plan detailing the existing location and proposed treatment of each
native plant. Protected plants should optimally remain in place. Those plants that must be
moved are required to be salvaged and replanted within the project site. Native vegetation
enhances the projects' aesthetic appeal while conserving the desert habitat.

28.5 Summary
Scottsdale is home to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West School of Architecture. We are
continually inspired by this exemplary desert complex located at the base of the McDowell
Mountains in North Scottsdale (Figure 28.10). Over 50 years ago, Mr. Wright wrote:

I don't see how we can consider ourselves as civilized, cultured people if we live igno-
rant of the nature of our environment; if we do not understand what we do to make it.
Where the buildings that we live in are false, where they do not represent truth and
beauty in any sense, where they are merely stupid or merely copying something that's
not understood. Because believe me, when you understand a thing you will not copy it.
A copycat is a copycat because he does not understand. 22

For thousands of years, humans have devised vernacular solutions based on an informed
nature of the environment. Since the industrial era, much of the sustainable approach for
living in the desert has been ignored. Any building that neglects its setting in a desert
environment unnecessarily relies on excessive energy in the form of nonrenewable resources
to support mechanical cooling and ventilation systems. Such systems enables a building
to “work” in a climate it essentially ignores. The sole reliance on mechanical solutions
does not recognize environmental constraints that can be turned into unique esthetic