Studio Ma office, Phoenix

Studio Ma is an architecture and environmental design practice founded in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2003. Its own offices, shown here, express the practice's position on the relationship between building and desert environment.

The studio's name refers to the Japanese notion of ma, which describes the dynamic relationship between an object and the space around it. The partners cite inspiration in the jagged profiles of the nearby mountains, in the play of light and shadow they produce, and in the filtered light found under the fine leaves and luminous bark of the palo verde.

The building is clad in Kebony Clear. The modified wood was chosen for its performance in a desert climate of intense solar radiation, very low humidity and wide daily temperature swings, conditions under which unmodified timber shrinks and splits. Photography: Bill Timmerman.