​Known as The Desert Flower (Ahkon Povi in Tewa language) by its designer and builder John McGowan in the late 70's, this enchanting home is like no other. Hugely inspired by the vision of the early Anasazi ruins of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, Ahkon Povi is laid out in a winding, meandering serpentine manner. One is drawn through its passageways into numerous rooms carefully handcrafted and detailed with natural and anthropological elements, blurring the transition between inner and outer worlds. 

As noted in the book, Santa Fe Style: "The influence of the Anasazi is seen not only in the materials used and in the overall plan, but also in the way that the contours of the house echo the natural shape of the hillside and the curve of weathered wood used in its lintels and beams. Windows and doors are cut to follow the curves of the walls. Few houses maximize the fluid properties of adobe as well as this house. It's a man made cave, and one of the most unusual and intriguing structures in the Santa Fe area."

Ahkon Povi preserves the sense of ceremony and mystery of the early native dwellings.

 

These qualities, inviting one’s sense of wonder and curiosity, intrigued Constance de Polignac, a French princess from Southern Brittany, who acquired the property on a visit to Santa Fe in the early 1990’s. She had spent most of her life searching and connecting with plant medecine from around the world. Between the jungle of the Amazon and Ayahuasca, West Africa and Iboga and the Dine people of New Mexico and Peote, when she saw Ahkon Povi, "the desert flower" (Peote), she knew she was home. She passionately devoted more than 10 years of her life remodeling and improving the property.

In her autobiography, “ Ma Vie En Revolution “, Constance says the following about this intimate relationship with the house:

"Ahkon Povi" nestled in the hollow of the hill, secret and majestic, was discreetly waiting for me...

Our meeting was instantly decisive. We recognized each other, and I felt once again how we are of many people and many histories, how every life is connected to other lives, and how the ancestors still speak. This place was totally integrated with nature, and we were thus led to become partners, to engage in a path of complementarity and complicity as the Anasazi lived in their environment one thousand three hundred years ago. If I agreed to restore Ahkon Povi to its original function, I myself would be initiated and transformed by an art of living that is both secular and to be reinvented. So I began the work. I used only natural materials so that their vibration would coordinate the creative work and contribute to the harmonization of the Whole, beyond time. The walls are made of adobe, the red earth of the desert, the floors are made of stone, the rest is made of wood and slate.

There are no right angles in this house. The curves, in the prolongation of the surrounding nature, soften our mind and leave to its perpetual and fierce excitement no possible clinging.

The energy bounces from one plane to another and dances without risk of deadlock, always generating a more intense dynamic.

Everything has been done by hand.

Each piece is a receptacle for the elements, water, fire, wood and mineral, the senses are thus permanently and discreetly solicited in order to remain awake and appeased. This place is a reflection of who we are: simple and complex, organic and technical, emotional and intellectual. It is high touch and high tech, and the opposites meet to better combine: movement is at the heart of immobility, softness at the heart of strength, suppleness at the heart of power, the feminine at the heart of the masculine.

Fruit of a long contemplation of my interior residence, during 4 and half years , in this arid and consenting ground, I sculpted myself, through an organic conception of architecture, where feminine and art of living are only one, everywhere present.

After this unique build, which had mobilized 45 Mexican and Indian craftsmen, Ahkon Povi was completed.”

​

Constance de Polignac never lived at the house but visited often. Her childhood friend, Johanna Harcourt-Smith, was the caretaker and lived there for 20 years.

Johanna was a British-born author, poet, and psychedelic activist from an aristocratic background. She was involved with Timothy Leary and travelled with him to Afghanistan.

She believed the house had some really strong healing energies and she used it for ceremonies. 

 

Ben and Bonnie Barta acquired the property back in 2019 and spent many years remodeling and bringing it back to life. Ahkon Povi is a piece of art, so it was an inspiration to steward such a precious place. ​

​

​

​

​

​