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frank lloyd wright an autobiography
rubble trench foundation
The desert offered a new challenge in materials. The architect's primary solution was "desert rubblestone wall" construction, usually shortened to "desert masonry." There are many ways of acheiving this, but all involved placing large stones into forms, then pouring concrete around the stones while leaving most of the face next to the form exposed. in the Bott house (S.404) wet sand was forced between form and stone surface before the concrete was poured. In the Austin house (S.345) crumpled newspaper was used instead of sand to keep stone faces from being covered with concrete. At Taliesin West, the mortar was allowed to seep around the edges of the stone face, and surplus was the chipped away to reveal the stone surface. Often, the stone was washed with acid to bring out its color.