The private nature of country club life affords scarce opportunities for sneak peeks at new builds and the au courant choices within. At Bighorn Golf Club, a team that has worked together for a decade has documented its latest collaboration: a home that intrigues on the exterior and soothes once inside. Their client wishes to remain unnamed, but the photogenic tour alludes to where architecture and design appear headed behind the gates.

Amid a natural desertscape, the 9,800-square-foot home fans across a mountainside lot. Its simple geometric forms and linear steel rooflines nearly graze a mountain outcropping that tumbles in a rocky silhouette down to the property’s edge. A sliver of Palm Desert air moves between the ancient land and one of the community’s latest homes.

“It is all about the way the house connects to the site,” says interior designer David Lucas of Lucas Design. Many of the decisions the team made stemmed from the siting of the structure and the opportunities that presented.

“We wanted to create a really comfortable place to relax and recharge.”

Yet, where more timid homes have tiptoed their way into a rugged landscape, blending with the hillside in a cloak of sandy beige, this one is cool, creamy, and self-assured. It connects through subtler choices: door and window placement to the views, refined materials in understated hues, and moments for artwork that enhance the home without detracting from the setting. “It feels so refreshing in the context of other desert homes,” Lucas says. “It’s a home that is both sophisticated and warm and inviting at the same time.”