Project Details

This 300 square foot guest house is an addition to an 800 square foot home from the 1950s. The existing home employs classic elements of fifties architectural vocabulary: low-lying rooflines, wide overhangs, a four-foot module, cross ventilation in every room (an ingenious system of hoppers and awning windows), “thin” materials like T-111 siding and soffits, and polished black concrete floors. The guest house – a modest, disciplined little structure – echoes these elements and proportions. A new form-giving breezeway links the two structures, adding light and shadow to the composition. Just as the house wings are dark and horizontal, the breezeway is barn red, tall and narrow, and full of light, air, and movement – a contrast that makes these spaces unforgettable.

Recognition: Merit Award, AIA Austin, 1997

Tour: AIA Austin Homes Tour, 1997

Publication: Austin Monthly Home, Fall 2009; House Beautiful, Apr 1998

Sustainability: cross-ventilation; maximizing the use of materials (i.e. using a 4’ module to take advantage of material proportions); and the addition of a ground source heat pump system for the entire compound