How Frank Lloyd Wright tamed the Arizona heat

The big picture: Wright, an OG snowbird who wintered in Arizona from 1929 to 1959, designed a dozen structures around the Valley, including his iconic Taliesin West estate in Scottsdale.

Zoom in: Architecture experts and historians told Bloomberg that Wright practiced "organic architecture," meaning he built structures to complement the surrounding landscape and mimic nature. Examples include:

• Incorporating alternating patterns of light and shadow to create shade, which was inspired by Saguaro cactus pleats;
• Orienting his buildings to work with natural air flow to create cooling drafts;
• Building the David and Gladys Wright House on pillars so the living space caught the natural desert breeze;
• And creating exterior walls via massive slabs of cobbled desert rock to absorb heat and transfer it slowly indoors during cool desert nights.

The bottom line: While Wright's techniques can inspire sustainable design today, Fred Prozzillo, head of preservation for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, noted that sustainability was not Wright's goal.

• "He was just a good architect who used solid building principles during a time when mechanical systems like air conditioning were not as conventional as they are today," he told Bloomberg.