Lake house

Fall, 2014

Webber + Studio Architects

A developer from Houston, Texas and his wife commisioned Webber + Studio to design thier vacation home on Lake Travis near Austin, Tex-as. The home was to be a gathering point for the couple and their growing extended family and friends. Since the number of guests would vary greatly given the particular occasion, the home needed to be adaptable in size and accommo-dations without being wastful or inefficent. The design response to this, programmatically, was to create ‘nests’ of suites, connected by private living areas, allowing family and friends scal-ablity in social gatherings for spending time one on one with siblings or childrenwhile still con-nected to a larger whole.

The siting of the lot was long and narrow with a great slope cascading down quickly from the street. The homeowners did not want to do a lot of cutting and filling on the site, yet wanted to maintain relationship both with the street in front and with the neighbors in the backyard. The lower level patio and bridge response al-lowed for this mediation, while also bringing an element of excitement and drama on ap-proach, letting the lake be the visual element element which beckons from every vantage point.