SOUTH 5TH RESIDENCE | Austin, Texas, USA | 2017

Architects: Alterstudio Architects
Client: Withheld
General Contractor: Independent
Photographers: Casey Dunn

The South 5th Street Residence slips nonchalantly into the array of eclectic bungalows that line the streets of Austin’s Bouldin neighborhood.

Here, a rare 25' Durand Oak and an unexpectedly steep escarpment created a powerful circumstance for a house that emphasizes view and a dynamic spatial sequence, while at the same time established an abstract backdrop for the serendipity of light and circumstance. The visitor arrives into a verdant courtyard under the majestic oak.

A thin, 4” gabion wall at the street, evergreen plantings and a perforated, Cor-ten corrugated screen to the south, provide varying degrees of privacy and animation for the ensemble. From the courtyard, the house unfolds effortlessly in several directions.

A transparent living room hovers over the tumbling escarpment through which the expansive panorama begins to become visible. Inside, dramatic vistas across the valley created by tributaries to Lake Austin are omnipresent, and the house is alive with activity.

The visceral textures of concrete, mill-finished steel and raw stucco are presented against finely detailed millwork and custom site-glazed window walls—which are framed with rift-sawn white oak and steel to form flitch plate mullions. Great expanses of transparent glass is paired with ventilator doors that open to encourage breezes through the house.

A second living area downstairs provides an intimate enclave that looks into the tree canopy and gives access to the tumbling landscape below. Finally, the house reaches back towards the street, cantilevering over the parking and embraces the goings on of this dynamic neighborhood.

Designed to embrace a lifestyle that easily moves between inside and out, and between intimate conditions and expansive prospects, this very efficient home takes maximum advantage of the pleasures of living in one’s own private enclave in the dense context of modest homes, one-off stores and chic restaurants.