Photo: Dror Baldinger, FAIA, and Mark Schatz, AIA
For a private residence in inner city Houston on a major thoroughfare and corner lot, project goals included opening it to the yard for outdoor living, a challenge given the site is bounded to one side by the major thoroughfare. Additionally, the owner wanted literal and metaphorical brightness and vibrancy to positively reinforce daily family life.
M + a architecture studio specified metal wall panels and exposed structure in its design to create a sense of visual lightness. A low-scale, heavy mass anchors a composition at the north side. The house becomes materially lighter with a two-story curtainwall paralleling the circulation spine and main yard. A second-story mass contains the master bedroom. It is elevated on a pair of columns, which creates a covered patio at the southeast corner and integrates public spaces with the landscape. For the wall cladding, 4,000 square feet of McElroy Metals’ 7.2 Panels with a Galvalume finish were installed.
