“Kindred spirits” is how the four partners at Studio Ma describe themselves, and their affinities can be broadly divided into two camps: their respect for and love of the American Southwest, where they are based, and the drive to produce good design on tight budgets.

With a staff of only eight in their Phoenix office, the partners have been building elegant, substantive projects at many scales for the last decade—all defined by an acute sensitivity to context, the environment, and construction. One of their first projects, Whispering Hope Ranch, is a year-round camp in Arizona’s Ponderosa Pine Forest that serves children and adults with special medical needs. The lodge, cabins, and barns—mostly asymmetrical shedroof volumes with wood frames—sit delicately in the forest, and the master plan takes into account the area’s risk of fires and of summer monsoons.