The audience may have hissed at this Longhorn, but the UT Professor, Kevin Alter, shared many decades of architecture in a single lecture. His presentation was communicated clearly from the first picture projection. Alter Studio presented four houses in depth, and briefly shared two houses under construction as the entirety of his 60 minute presentation. I will only discuss the first house he shared.
The houses, hollow yellow circle place markers on an aerial photo of Austin, Texas. A city close to home, and a frequent weekend trip growing up. The first house was from the 50's, and it offered a modest renovation in a hip part of Austin- South Congress. The neighborhood's property value has increased dramatically in the last 30 years given its prime location. The existing house on the site was not torn down, merely renovated and added to increase the square footage. The program divided the private living space and the social space. (Okay, so that's normal) However, they positioned the private space at the front of the residency, and the public space in the back. Typically, you find the social space in the front of the house, like living rooms, and more private spaces, such as bedrooms and bathrooms, in the back of the residence. What makes this spacial program successful, is the placement of the driveway ending in the middle of the house. The entrance is a narrow glass hallway making the user decide immediately which space to enter.
My only critique
The existing house had a porch, and during the renovation, they demolished it. Noticing the relative distance to South Congress, I would be willing to bet that residents in the neighborhood unwind in the backyard to the sound of live music coming coming from the street. Sure, given the whereabouts of the site, criminal activity is bound to occur, and to reduce any break ins, they wanted to front of the house to fit the context of the site while discouraging any loitering around the porch. However, I feel that by removing the porch, a portion of music and that lively Austin energy was lost too. If the clients wanted an isolated entrance, an elevated porch to offer a connection to the beautiful music of the streets would have been a viable solution.
For the next week, the work of six houses designed by Alter Studio will be exhibited in the Wright Gallery.
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