the texas cantilever
Construction on this 2400 square foot, modestly budgeted, green design-build project began after completing a large lot subdivision with the City of Austin and required all new utilities during construction.
In addition to a spatially expansive interior with eleven foot ceilings, we incorporated both North facing and South facing roofdecks of 400 square feet each, 800 square feet of covered outdoor living space on the ground floor and two huge cantilevered Master Bedroom window spaces.
In front, there is a street-facing covered front porch off the Master Bedroom and a sculptural storage room on the ground floor that the Clients anointed "il Ferro Tartaruga" (the Steel Turtle) and which is outfitted for a future Jacuzzi. This space is a built experiment of the Firm's research into parametric modeling, planarization routines and digital fabrication. Also all the steel was modeled in 3D allowing it to be all shop cut with no in-field cuts.
In retrospect, a super minimalist approach leveraged the structural engineering into creating extra-ordinary outdoor spaces, while a compact plan allows the indoors to naturally brush up against the building envelope and outside spaces.
A quote from the Client:
"This house is amazing to live in. I do Tai Chi on the decks. I like to look at my work with magnets on the iron tortoise. Tonight I watched the moon from the balcony. I'm very happy here. I feel like I am living in the sky sometimes."
photo: atelier wong
top of stairs