Annie Street
4-Star Green Building Rating from AEGBP
This project represents a great example of an increasingly complex task we, as architects, face in Austin: designing for a tightened budget, for a limited space, and for a sophisticated, demanding, environmentally-conscious client. The team also had to accommodate all the spaces that a contemporary family needs under the tight ‘McMansion’ restrictions. To add to these challenges, we worked around a large protected oak tree -- beautifully but challengingly -- located in the center of this modest-sized lot.
Responding to these demands, we have, with this project, designed a more compact, spatially-rich house -- with no fewer amenities than a suburban house – but one that occupies less space.
Program elements overlap and merge to create hybrid spaces that dynamically connect formally and through daily use. The skewed but elemental form of the exterior relates in scale and shape to the surrounding small bungalows, but is set apart by a material palette that is both domestic and modern.
We designed a modest-sized living room around the best furniture arrangement; we used a cabinet system as room dividers and storage in-lieu of closets, and we integrated a kitchen office under the stair which also shares space with the entry foyer. We crafted the interiors around the 15’-tall ‘McMansion’ interior height limits [per ‘McMansion’, if a space exceeds 15’, floor space has to be counted twice]. For instance, rather than designing a more conventional, double-height space, which would have restricted our allowable usable floor space, we juxtaposed a very private office space above with the living and entry areas below, while still creating a dramatic, but proportionate entry space and experience.
These types of multifunctional spaces have to interlock in more complex, overlapping arrangements, arrangements that lead to rich and dramatic spaces for living and working at home. This complexity is a reflection of our increasingly demanding task for the architect doing projects in Central Austin.
This project represents a great example of an increasingly complex task we, as architects, face in Austin: designing for a tightened budget, for a limited space, and for a sophisticated, demanding, environmentally-conscious client. The team also had to accommodate all the spaces that a contemporary family needs under the tight ‘McMansion’ restrictions. To add to these challenges, we worked around a large protected oak tree -- beautifully but challengingly -- located in the center of this modest-sized lot.
Responding to these demands, we have, with this project, designed a more compact, spatially-rich house -- with no fewer amenities than a suburban house – but one that occupies less space.
Program elements overlap and merge to create hybrid spaces that dynamically connect formally and through daily use. The skewed but elemental form of the exterior relates in scale and shape to the surrounding small bungalows, but is set apart by a material palette that is both domestic and modern.
We designed a modest-sized living room around the best furniture arrangement; we used a cabinet system as room dividers and storage in-lieu of closets, and we integrated a kitchen office under the stair which also shares space with the entry foyer. We crafted the interiors around the 15’-tall ‘McMansion’ interior height limits [per ‘McMansion’, if a space exceeds 15’, floor space has to be counted twice]. For instance, rather than designing a more conventional, double-height space, which would have restricted our allowable usable floor space, we juxtaposed a very private office space above with the living and entry areas below, while still creating a dramatic, but proportionate entry space and experience.
These types of multifunctional spaces have to interlock in more complex, overlapping arrangements, arrangements that lead to rich and dramatic spaces for living and working at home. This complexity is a reflection of our increasingly demanding task for the architect doing projects in Central Austin.
Country: United States
Zip Code: 78704
Others who worked on this project: MINGUELL-MCQUARY, LLC
