Before I leave Los Angeles and drive the 180 miles — or three hours and twenty minutes — that it takes to get to the Yucca Crater site in Wonder Valley, I speak with Benjamin Ball by phone. "I just hope that you don't try to understand Yucca Crater as a piece of conventional architecture, which seems to be what a lot of journalists want to do," he tells me. "There's an expectation of youthful polish or sexiness, but by now, it's probably a decaying shack." Which has been the plan all along. As Ball put it: "We didn't set out to make something that was going to withstand the elements. It's not something that's everlasting. It's not something that's made to be beautiful in a conventional sense of the word, with respect to design and architecture."
![Designed by Ball-Nogues studio, Yucca Crater is a 30 foot plywood basin (depressed 10 feet into the earth), with an exterior and interior ladder Designed by Ball-Nogues studio, Yucca Crater is a 30 foot plywood basin (depressed 10 feet into the earth), with an exterior and interior ladder](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/01/04/yucca-crater-ball-nogues/big_369255_7117_web_yuccaCrater-20111015-51.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
"It's degradable," he says. "I don't know about bio."
![The piece was created for a specific two-day event called <i>High Desert Test Sites</i>, an initiative that generates physical and conceptual spaces for contemporary art, that took place on 15 and 16 October The piece was created for a specific two-day event called <i>High Desert Test Sites</i>, an initiative that generates physical and conceptual spaces for contemporary art, that took place on 15 and 16 October](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/01/04/yucca-crater-ball-nogues/big_369255_7124_web_yuccaCrater-20111015-21.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
More than anything, our concern was creating a moment, a weekend, a place. Benjamin Ball
![<i>HDTS</i> visitors were invited to climb up and over the Crater and splash into 8 feet of water <i>HDTS</i> visitors were invited to climb up and over the Crater and splash into 8 feet of water](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/01/04/yucca-crater-ball-nogues/big_369255_7152_web_DSC069651.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![Initial project plans had the water heated by solar power and pumped through a wind powered turbine, though that feature was not realized Initial project plans had the water heated by solar power and pumped through a wind powered turbine, though that feature was not realized](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/01/04/yucca-crater-ball-nogues/big_369255_6800_web_yuccaCrater-20111015-41.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
!["Yucca Crater's next morphosis is as unpredictable as that of any other abandoned or wild formation of the desert, be it a vacant swimming pool, a homestead shack, a cactus, or a mirage," explains Benjamin Ball "Yucca Crater's next morphosis is as unpredictable as that of any other abandoned or wild formation of the desert, be it a vacant swimming pool, a homestead shack, a cactus, or a mirage," explains Benjamin Ball](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/01/04/yucca-crater-ball-nogues/big_369255_1978_web_yuccaCrater-20111015-291.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![Yucca Crater's aim ended with the event that took place on 15 and 16 October, and which transformed this quiet stretch of the desert into the site of a bizarro pool party Yucca Crater's aim ended with the event that took place on 15 and 16 October, and which transformed this quiet stretch of the desert into the site of a bizarro pool party](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/01/04/yucca-crater-ball-nogues/big_369255_5409_web_yuccaCrater-20111015-101.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
Ball tells me something I don't hear often: "People can do with it what they want."
Katya Tylevich