Inspiring home of the week: Modern take on a treehouse in Texas

This modern square house in Austin, Texas is built around a protected Durand oak tree, allowing the inhabitants to connect with the surrounding woodlands.

Local architecture firm Alterstudio designed the residence to disturb as little of the natural environment as possible, mapping out nearby trees and building the house to fit into the clearing that already existed.

The living room is completely transparent due to floor-to-ceiling windows giving those inside a view of a massive expanse of forrest and the tributaries leading to Lake Austin. The frame of the house is constructed from wood and steel and the interior painted with dark grey and earthy tones to blend with the natural environment.

We talked to Kevin Alter from Alterstudio about this one-of-a-kind treehouse:

Please tell us a little about your practice?

Founded in 2004, there are 11 architects on staff, three of which are partners. We don’t maintain any staff other than designers.

Our practice – alterstudio architecture llp – has received more than 100 design awards, including the 2018 national AIA Housing Design Award, 2017 American Architecture Award, 2017 American Architecture Prize, 2017 Residential Architecture Design Award, 2015 AIA Firm Achievement Award, 2013 national AIA Housing Award, and 2011 Residential Architecture Design Award. Our work has also been widely published, including in the book Alterstudio Architecture: 6 Houses, which was published in the fall of 2014 by Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

What is your practice known for?

I believe that we are widely recognised for both our compelling designs and meticulous attention to detail. We focus our attention on the relationship between the material facts of architecture and the social occasions it shelters and invites. The work is rooted in deep seated virtues of architecture – generous space making, shrewd manipulation of daylighting, and meticulous attention to detail. The heightening of direct human experience and the framing of the complex circumstances of their situations, are at the core of each project.

How would you sum up the project in five words?

I’m not sure that I can answer that one – unexpected, stunning, meticulous, dynamic, authentic… or if you want a phrase, perhaps: ‘where light finds a home’.

What was the brief for this project?

The South 5th Street residence slips nonchalantly into the array of eclectic bungalows that line the streets of Austin’s Bouldin neighbourhood. Here, a rare Austin Durand oak and an unexpectedly steep escarpment created a powerful circumstance for a house that emphasises view and a dynamic spatial sequence, while at the same time being an abstract backdrop for the serendipity of light and circumstance. The visitor arrives into a verdant courtyard under the majestic Durand oak. A thin, 4in gabion wall at the street, evergreen plantings, and a perforated, core-ten corrugated screen to the south provide varying degrees of privacy and animation for the ensemble.

From the courtyard, the house unfolds effortlessly and in several directions. A transparent living room hovers over the tumbling escarpment and the expansive panorama begins to become visible. Inside, dramatic vistas across the valley, created by tributaries to Lake Austin are omnipresent, and the house is alive with activity.

The visceral textures of concrete, mill-finished steel and raw stucco are presented against finely detailed millwork and custom, site glazed window walls – which are framed with rift-sawn white oak and steel to form flitch plate mullions. Great expanses of transparent glass are paired with ventilator doors that open to encourage breezes through the house.

A second living area downstairs provides an intimate enclave that looks into the tree canopy and gives access to the tumbling landscape below. Upstairs, perched above the trees, the master suite is filled with light and takes advantage of the valley views.

What did you hope to solve as you designed this home?

We hoped to create a place that would embrace the richness and ambiguity of the real. We tried to create a building that would embrace conflicting desires: the desire for view as well as the necessity for protection from the western sun; the desire for lightness as well as for a robust structure; the desire for mystery as well as a deep pragmatism; the desire for connection as well as the presence of privacy; the desire for permanence as well as the aspiration for serendipity. We wanted a home that would be both dynamic and cozy, far reaching and intimate. We wanted a building that would respond to the complex physical and cultural conditions of its place. We wanted a place that would be worthy of the craftsmanship required to build it.

What makes this space unique?

I think it is unique in all the ways that I just explained. It is simultaneously dynamic and intimate, open and cozy, of the land and flying above it. It is grounded in an authenticity of its place and context but possess a stylishness that is of the moment too.

What was your inspiration for this project?

The clients and the site, their desire for something extraordinary plus the incredible difficulty of the particular site.

What was the toughest issue you encountered when this building was being designed and built?

The site had so many restrictions that it was very hard to do almost anything. Only 50ft wide, with significant code demanded setbacks etc, we also had to deal with a shockingly steep escarpment and stay out of the critical root zone of a protected Durand oak tree, all the while staying on a reasonably modest budget.

What do you wish you could change, in hindsight?

The house was originally designed to include a pool in the courtyard and I still lament its loss

What sort of experience do you hope people using this space have?

I hope that they leave feeling a great appreciation for their place in the world and the particulars of that site, and that the social occasions that take place are that much more poignant as a consequence of the house... and perhaps only after they leave do they remind themselves that the house itself was handsome.