Project: Tumbleweed Residence
Architects: Alterstudio Architecture
Location: Austin, Texas, United States
Year 2018
2018 Texas Society of Architects Design Award
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. Three volumes are assembled to create a composition integral with the landscape that is experienced sequentially both from within and in passing from one to the next. The building masses are simplified and abstracted with clean, white stucco, adopting curves to ease the edges of a sharper modernism.
The abstraction of the stucco volumes contrasts with the tactile, bold materials that define the interior. The craftsmanship integral to the experience of the house is evident- for instance- in the welds of the custom steel windows, the tool marks of the waxed hot-rolled steel panel at the kitchen island, and the hand-turned walnut seats of the bar stools. Thus, inherent material qualities are highlighted through careful craftsmanship.
