oculus room - getting ready for slab

oculus room

right before concrete pour. looks like any other slab. just you wait. 

oculus room

here the first photo of my addition to a house on cullen in brentwood. the clients wanted a room that brings in light while remaining a quiet nest in central austin. 

view at front finished

here is the final street view. the front is transformed to accommodate an elevator for ease of access. the idea behind the project is to both sculpt ordinary functional pieces and tie into the slight forms the existing home provided.

gallery house

i having been working (as both architect and builder) this past full year on a house remodel (along w other projects) that started with the client wanting to build an elevator to the roof deck because of handicap condition. Here is house back in nov 2011.

I will publish a series of photos to show its progression.

Stairs Panels Deck

stairs and guardrail in front of baltic birch panels

locally harvest cherry planed and ready to go

panels wrapping around to the back

screwed down baltic birch panels in living room 

so the phoenix house is about to be finished and the general contractor is doing a great job making sure construction meets my standards of design.  last week i talked to the welders who were not happy with the assembly.  they wanted to grind the welds down.  i went to the job site this week and i told them they looks perfect.  they kind of shook their heads.  but the beads of the welds were smooth and consistent.

The Phoenix 's steel panel cladding

east wall steel panels at kitchen deck

elevation with steel panels

here is the cladding of cold rolled steel panels as they surround the windows.  the decision to clad the house in 4'x10' steel panels supports the idea of house as an assembly of materials.  i wanted to design something that reflects the sustainable idea of reuse.  the design idea came from a spanish firm call abalos and herreros when they designed a recycle facility with an erector set of columns and joist.  at the end of the buildings's life the structure would be dissassembed and recycled.  at the end of this house's life these panels can be unscrewed from the wall and be reused in other situations or recycled.  think of its afterlife as part of mad max's car.  the remnants from the cut out can be used for smaller elements like planter boxes or awnings.  unlike hardie, they could also easily be recycled.

this process also critiques other sustainable houses who build with trim, hardie siding, wallboard yet when demolished the material goes in the landfill because they cannot be reused.  the interior also has plywood panels on the walls that are attached with screws.