Guest House

Extremely rare winter storm for central Texas left five inches of snow that lasted a week. The pups had never seen snow.

Guest House

Sketch of the design concept for the Guest House. The house is one big 24' x 52' space with a free-standing kitchen/bath core in the middle that divides the large space into a sleeping area and a living/cooking/eating area.

Guest House

Site Plan. A series of freestanding walls are set within the wooded site. The front of the house is itself one of the walls. The walls curate the visitor's procession from the street to the living room. The house is set far back from the street and is hidden within the live oaks and juniper that inhabit the site. As one enters the site on the crushed granite driveway the house is still invisible. Visitors park against a long wall that defines the parking area and screens the well house, water cistern, and propane tank. It guides the visitor toward an opening between walls that leads to a clearing in front of the house.

Guest House

The Guest House has an open floor plan with a free-standing kitchen/bath core that divides the sleeping space from the living/cooking/eating space. The core presents as a free-standing wood cube in the overall space.

Guest House

Study model, front of house. You can see the location of the hidden pivot entry door that's disguised as one of the panels of slatted cedar.

Guest House

Study model showing the interplay of the vertical and horizontal planes.

Guest House

Study model, rear of house.

Guest House

The visitor's first view of the house is its long, linear slatted wood wall with no openings. The front door is completely hidden within the wood facade. CONSTRUCTION PHOTO

Guest House

The entry door is disguised as one of the 4' x 8' panels of slatted cedar boards.

Guest House

The front door is as minimalist as it gets. There is no handle, no lockset, no exposed hinges to indicate its presence. One simply pushes on the right side of the slatted wood panel.

Guest House

Fabricating the steel pivot door that is hidden within the front facade of the house.

Guest House

This construction photo shows the wood slat wall flows through the house from indoors to outdoors. CONSTRUCTION PHOTO

Guest House

This photo shows the level of craftsmanship on the end corners of the slatted wood wall. Beautiful work. CONSTRUCTION PHOTO

Guest House

North patio.

Guest House

Building sections showing the freestanding walnut core that houses the bath, kitchen and mechanical space. It extends through the roof to hide the rooftop ac compressor and the plumbing and range hood roof vents.

Guest House

Design development sketch where we are trying to determine the exterior siding and clerestory window heights. They in turn will determine the interior ceiling height.

Guest House

The house can be seen as a set of vertical and horizontal planes. CONSTRUCTION PHOTO

Guest House

Detail of kitchen.

Guest House

Living room during construction.

Guest House

Interior is almost finished and ready for furniture. Notice how the ceiling plane extends outside in the form of roof overhangs. CONSTRUCTION PHOTO

Guest House

Design sketch to show the client the shower extending outside to an outdoor showerhead dropping out of the roof soffit. The indoor showerhead drops from the 10-foot ceiling above the shower, out of sight from the main bathroom space, so it looks like a waterfall from above.

Guest House

And the realized bath room. Compact washer and dryer are set into the vanity. Full height cabinetry on the left is for household storage and supplies. In a house this small, every inch counts. CONSTRUCTION PHOTO

Guest House

The rear of the house opens to the wild hilltop site and the view of the river valley beyond.

Guest House

This is the view from the living room.

Guest House

It's Eddie's world, we just live in it.

Guest House

The Guest House is featured in the book Architects of the Southwest by Francesc Zamora Mole