An Integration of Cool and Warm Materials

We designed and built this house as a companion to a small, existing bungalow in an established neighborhood in Austin. Its exterior walls are an insulated Concrete Form (ICF) system; a highly insulated material that is made largely of recycled foam and plastic held together with cement and then tied together on site with concrete and steel.

The house is a simple box set in the rear of the site where the lot drops down one story from street level. With the front door on the second level we opened the circulation on to the double height living space below. The public living opens to a private, south facing courtyard on the lower level. The bedrooms are on the two upper levels affording views across the tops of the surrounding tree-covered neighborhood and downtown Austin. In this house we attempted to integrate cool and warm materials allowing them to compliment and strengthen each other: exposed steel, plaster and concrete walls, black stained oak flooring, brown painted and redwood trim, and exposed ceiling joists.