Located in a small neighborhood west of Austin, Texas, the Madrone house posed one of our most unusual challenges. Inspired by the Mohle Drive Residence, our client wished to expand on its themes but with one wrinkle—he wanted us to work within the confines of a preexisting foundation that had been poured for a house he and his ex-partner had commissioned. That house had been a large Santa Barbara themed structure and its foundation (with its nooks, cranks and bumpouts) was not well suited to the type of clean modern architecture he was showing us. We experimented with a number of space plans and forms before settling on the midcentury-modern inspired scheme you see in these photos.
Built from something akin to a 30% construction drawing set, our client relied on us to collaborate with the builder to take advantage of chance opportunities. The result is something of a family and party house that accommodates true indoor-outdoor living at this striking secluded site. The house is a fusion of influences with bits and pieces of the ultimate realized project contributed by collaborators such as Foursquare Builders and Joel Mozersky. Similarly, our client also requested that we accommodate antique objects and materials from India into the modern architecture.
The project is, in many respects, difficult to square with our larger body of work, but if you are fortunate enough to attend a party at the house, it is difficult to deny the peculiar effectiveness of our client’s greater vision.
