About Charles Davis Smith
Dallas-based photographer Charles Davis Smith weaves his training as an architect and skill with the camera into memorable images that celebrate the architectural experience. A collaborator and artist at his core, he employs a keen understanding of design in the aesthetic and technical approaches to each image. His work has appeared in publications worldwide and has earned a multitude of design awards for his clients.
As an undergraduate architecture student at Texas A&M University, Charles understood the power of images to convey an architect’s design intent, their usefulness as tools of learning and inspiration, and their necessity as stand-ins for the actual experience of a building.
LOCATION: Dallas, Texas
LEARN MORE: csphoto.net
The new RigUp headquarters fills an entire floor of a downtown Austin skyscraper. From the elevator lobby, a large and linear core clad in white oak houses the main functions of the space including telephone booths, kitchenettes, restrooms, and seats for conversations and small gatherings.
The Filtered Frame Dock is a structure that negotiates between the realms of land, water, and sky by framing one’s experience and understanding of the natural environment, above, along, and in the water.
The Control/Shift House is perched on the high side of the site which takes advantage of the view to the southeast. A gradual descending path navigates the change in terrain from the street to the entry of the house.
Situated within a one-acre lot in Austin’s Tarry Trail neighborhood, the back yard of this existing 1933-vintage historical house was underutilized.
The basis of the Hewn House design starts with a cabin’s simple form and materiality: a gable roof, a wood-clad body, a prominent fireplace that acts as the hearth, and integrated indoor-outdoor spaces.
A remodel of an existing 1938 bungalow in an historic central Austin neighborhood, the design aims to preserve the character of the context with a humble front facade, while unfolding and transforming in the back to accommodate small and large social gatherings.
A balance of natural light, simple materials, and flows, are integrated with controlled views and atmospheric variation. This Central Austin house was remodeled in the spirit of the original Mid-Century Modern house, with an open plan, honest natural materials, and a direct connection to nature.
The residence is composed of three rectilinear masses varying in size and tone; each clad in a distinct corrugated metal siding with a subtle change of finish. From the street the residence appears to rest on an island which is accessed only by a bridge.
Royal Crest Residence was designed for a rambunctious family of five. The family wanted all the typical things families want in a home, open kitchen and living room, mudroom, playroom and large covered outdoor space.
Bonita Residence is a small house for a couple that love to entertain and have fun. The couple wanted an industrial, loft look. We searched for an old building to reassemble on the site but the long and narrow site conditions narrowed the search. Instead we used old materials to repurpose in the house, including materials from the dilapidated house and barn that existed on the site.
Taking cues from the original 1-acre site and existing live oak trees, this 8,500 square foot North Dallas house with a traditional “H” layout is very solid, and in some ways, what you expect.
The Ashby Residence is derived from the stereotomic operation of subtracting from and adding to a solid volume to enable specific programmatic relationships and daylight conditions. Sited on a typical 50’x150’ single-family residential lot in Austin, Texas, the design questions the standard house massing and arrangement by stretching along the length of the lot.
