Alterstudio Architecture, LLP of Austin, Texas is a full service architecture and design firm known for its intellect in design, inventiveness, craftsmanship, and details. The work is rooted in deep-seated virtues of architecture – generous space making, shrewd manipulation of day-lighting, and meticulous attention to detail. The heightening of direct human experience and the framing of the complex circumstances of their situations are at the core of each project. We believe that great architecture should deepen our everyday experience at the same time that it elevates our awareness of a larger, changing world.
The practice specializes in precise and creative buildings, landscapes and interiors that sensitively respond to their environment and ecologies of place. Our commitment to enhance and protect both the cultural and natural environments of the communities we serve is evident in the technical craftsmanship of our designs and in the long-term sustainability of our projects. We promote an ecological responsive design that acknowledges the impact of finite resources as a positive contributor in the creation of an ethical architecture. It compels, informs and guides our choices and recommendations during project development strategies, programming, product selection, detailing, specification of materials. Our approach to sustainable design goes beyond logistical and mechanical elements, to create an architecture that is uplifting to its users and in harmony with its cultural context and natural surroundings.
Partners Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino and Tim Whitehill have cultivated a team of outstanding architects and designers that deliver the highest level of project management, service and design. Our approach is client and site specific as we seek to uncover the inherent spirit of place and personality. A collaborative process with clients, builders, consultants, and fabricators further encourages a specialized process and leads to individual and unexpected solutions to each project posed.
The attention to all elements of design has been a constant in the firm’s philosophy. Since 2002, the firm has received over a hundred regional and national awards. The work has also been widely featured in national and international publications including Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect, Texas Architect, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The London Financial Times, as well as the book, Alterstudio Architecture: 6 Houses, which was published in the fall of 2014 by Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
LOCATION: Austin, Texas
https://alterstudio.net/
The Westbrook Residence by Alterstudio Architecture reimagines suburban living in Austin, Texas, offering a refined model that balances modernity with neighborhood tradition. Situated in a post-war suburb undergoing rapid transformation, this 3,494-square-foot home honors the area’s low-slung architectural character while addressing its evolving demographics.
The Tarrytown House injects a tone of modernity into an otherwise traditional, post-war neighborhood, and defines a private landscape as the center of this family home. Caught between a walled garden along the street and a central courtyard behind, the interior opens resolutely to the out-of-doors under a ubiquitous ceiling plane and is minimally contained by custom site-glazed window walls.
We were inspired by the 12,000+ Eichler Homes of Northern California that posed unreconstructed Modern homes built by the post-war developer Joseph Eichler. Accordingly, we turned our attention to the design of a contemporary modern home that could be built affordably and reproduced like so many of the builder plans available in an array of traditional idioms.
The Tumbleweed Residence reflects the owners’ desire to embrace a surrounding expressed in simple materials -steel, concrete block, wood- and celebrates craft and evidence of the hand in the construction.
The Constant Springs Residence by Alterstudio Architecture exemplifies how thoughtful design can create a harmonious balance between urban living and natural refuge. By embracing the surrounding landscape and highlighting the craftsmanship within, this residence offers a unique sanctuary that celebrates both its environment and the family’s lifestyle.
The Sugar Shack Residence slips between a dramatic ravine and an intimate courtyard, both defining and accommodating its adjacent circumstances. Organized linearly, interior spaces negotiate between these two powerful conditions of landscape, and embrace their very different characteristics.
In Austin, Texas, where housing is in high demand, the innovative formation of two condos (a primary residence and an accessory dwelling unit) provides increased density and makes the South 3rd Street Residence affordable.
In the heart of the city and on a 50’ wide infill lot, the South 5th Residence is delineated as a three-story volume that—with an open living room suspended on two piers— deftly negotiates the city of Austin’s zoning regulations and the Oak’s critical root zone, nimbly avoiding tree roots.
