Overview

Perched astride a central Austin hilltop, the Barton Hills Residence commands unexpectedly sweeping vistas of the greenbelt below. The home is aligned east/west against the meandering terrain to catch daylight and prevailing breezes, while defining two distinct views: an unobstructed southern expanse and a sheltered northern courtyard. The visitor descends around a sculpted concrete wall that offers only fragmentary hints of the view beyond. Seemingly on grade, one suddenly encounters a breathtaking elevated panorama.

Though indebted to the modernist legacy, a deeper material poetics underlies its nuanced architectural agenda. Steel, rather than ordering, instead provides structural dexterity, where at select moments it takes flight. The exterior wood, stone, Corten steel, and board-formed concrete will mature gracefully along with the surrounding landscape. In the narrative spatial sequence centering the residence, one passes suddenly from ordinary suburbia to a lush natural enclave, encountering an ever-shifting balance of the complex, rugged, and refined.