As kids, Benito and Arjuna Steen helped build their family’s home with straw and clay. Now master carpenters, they’re raising their kids in the same legacy.
Published August 3, 2026 11:01AM
The Steen brothers’ upbringing might sound like paradise or hell, depending on how you feel about getting dirty.
Brothers Benito, Kalin, and Arjuna Steen grew up on a remote family compound in the mountainous “sky islands” of southern Arizona. Their parents, Athena and Bill Steen, were artists and masters of straw bale construction, a clay-based building method similar to adobe. In the ‘80s, the couple purchased a swath of high desert south of Tucson, determined to build their entire family home by hand—and quickly looped the kids into the work.
The boys spent most of their childhoods on the 40-acre homestead, playing with and shaping clay, and helping to repair and expand their family’s home. The property’s remote location meant a lot of family time—and a lot of hard labor. Fortunately, they all seemed to take to the work. Today, Benito and Arjuna live on-site with their own partners and children—and they’ve both gone into the Steen family business.
Benito Steen never intended to go into construction, but he remembers helping out in the shop at age 8, and loving the feeling of working with his hands. Over time, a passion for straw bale construction—and then for carpentry—started to seep into his soul. There was something about going out with the family in the old truck, harvesting clay, and hauling in downed logs from the forest. Something about sawdust hovering in the morning light. Something about the spirit of playful collaboration that seemed to hold every project together like glue.
He gravitated toward the trade, helping with workshops for the family’s education nonprofit—the Canelo Project—and then taking on builds of his own. Now, he can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I get to wake up, and it doesn’t feel like a job—it’s just what I want to be doing all the time,” Steen says.
More than anything, the work has taught Steen the value of being surrounded by materials you don’t just love, but know intimately. Everything you own is more meaningful when you’ve collected it and formed it with your own hands. You appreciate every plank when you know what it took to mill it, and every brick when you know how long it took to shape it. That’s one of the reasons Steen loves teaching workshops so much; the idea of learning construction often intimidates people, but it has the power to unlock something at the soul-level.
These days, Steen’s passion for natural building is all-consuming, which means he’s constantly on the go—doing repairs around the property, prepping for workshops, or working on builds for clients. Most of the latter are deep in the Arizona hills.
“That’s what I’m drawn to—places that are pretty off-grid and out there,” he said. “I’m not trying to build anything in the city.”
Out there, narrow, winding roads are the norm, and towing trailers full of equipment and lumber through that kind of terrain isn’t always easy. Lately, the brothers have relied on a Nissan Frontier to haul wood through the hill country to the furthest corners of Arizona.
“I hate driving big trucks around, but having a small, compact truck that also has a big towing capacity—that’s been huge,” Steen says. It’s been nice to have something powerful enough to get the work done, and reliable enough to get him back to his family in time for dinner.
Living, working, and running a business with your parents and brothers isn’t always easy, Steen says, but it’s something he’s more grateful for by the day.
“When you start to have your own family, there’s another layer of things you appreciate. I love taking my son with me out into the hills, and raising him in the place I was raised,” he says. “It feels like a big hug being surrounded by your family. And having my boy grow up next to my brother’s boy—it brings us all closer.”
Nissan North America, Inc., headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, delivers innovative automotive products and services that inspire and move people. As a global leader in electric vehicles and advanced automotive technology, Nissan offers a full lineup of vehicles, highlighted by the new 2026 Nissan Frontier. Driven by a commitment to sustainable mobility and thrilling performance, Nissan aims to transform the way people live and drive. For more information, please visit Nissan USA.
