The Modern Texas Prefab won the Jury Award for the category Architecture + Prefab.

The Lake Austin House won the Jury Award for the category Architecture + Stone.

Coincidentally, the two houses also happen to be neighbors.  The houses, designed for two different clients at two different times, blend harmoniously together on one small subdivision in Austin.  This is in part due to having the same architect, as well as the same landscape architect – Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture in Freeport, ME. Maybe good houses make good neighbors?

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Full article here. Excerpt reprinted below.

Serenity Now: Masterminding a Lakeside Dream House in Austin, TX

When the husband-and-wife Cambridge-based architectural team Aamodt/Plumb received the commission to help create a dream house on the banks of Lake Austin in Texas, their challenge was to design a house that would incorporate all the spaces that their clients needed without disturbing the two-plus acre site with mature trees and the most enviable view on the lake. Embracing the views, working around the footprint of the existing trees, and enhancing opportunities for indoor/outdoor living were their guiding directives. The house needed to be warm and inviting, yet sufficiently grand on approach from the entry drive, while casual and comfortable on the lakeside, where most of the family’s time would be spent. The main house is over 10,000 square feet with an additional 7,600 square feet devoted to a swimming pool and spa, outdoor kitchen, and living terraces, plus three waterfront structures—boat house, fishing dock, and swimming dock. A 1,900-square-foot guest house with 4,700 square feet of terrace adds to the composition.

The Design of the Lake Austin House

Again mindful of the existing landscape, the architects decided to shift the volumes of the house around the trees. The resultant shape of the house creates pockets of outdoor space that can be enjoyed from the inside of the home—a garden is nestled next to the formal dining room, a fountain becomes an extension of the library, and the main outdoor living area is located between the two wings of the house. The climate in Austin is quite mild and this configuration provides the clients with a year-round oasis for indoor/ outdoor living.

A house of this size could easily end up with faraway, underused corners but not so at the hands of Mette Aamodt and Andrew Plumb. “It’s a big house,” Aamodt admits, “but it is a house for a family. We didn’t want there to be any far corners of the home.” To achieve this balance the architects devised a unique scissor-like stair that stitches the first and second floors together from both sides of the house. The surprising effect is a quick trip to any part of the house, and a casual sense of intimacy rarely found in houses of this size.

“Aamodt/Plumb has an excellent sense of modern design and can tackle the most complex projects, while still paying attention to the smallest details. They do a great job of creating designs that push a customer’s simple ideas into fabulous architecture,” shares the homeowner. Intended to serve the family for generations, the house is built with timeless, locally-sourced materials. Lueders limestone was used extensively and takes on multiple forms ranging from cut stone pavers to monolithic load-bearing blocks to a special tapered profile that clads the main house. The tapered stone cladding creates a weaving effect on the façade of the house, and its appearance changes throughout the day as the sun creates continuously shifting shadow patterns—much like the surrounding natural landscape. The overall result is a masterful embodiment of serenity now.

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Quality Control: The Exquisite Details of a New Modern House on Lake Austin Provides the Ideal Setting for a Dynamic Couple and Their Children to Enjoy Both Indoors and Out”

For a New York City couple with four children, the prospect of moving back to the wife’s hometown of Austin was an ever-present dream. So when the couple reached a point in their careers that moving was a possibility, they put their plan into action by purchasing a swath of land fronting Lake Austin across from Mount Bonnell. “We envisioned a warm, comfortable open-concept home that lent itself to entertaining and had a strong relationship to the natural beauty outside,” says the wife. To begin, the couple assembled a design team that included Massachusetts-based architects Mette Aamodt and Andrew Plumb, New York designer Jennifer Vaughn Miller, and Maine-based landscape designer Michael Boucher. The group was anchored by builder David Dalgleish, the only team member who permanently lives in Austin. Dalgleish was a crucial choice based on not only his extensive knowledge of waterfront construction, but also his deep relationship with local craftspeople. “One of the things that was going to make this house special was the level of craftsmanship that would go into it,” he says.

Because the couple desired a modern house with clean lines, the craftsmanship they sought was embedded in the details. “The quality is measured by the amount of detail in the project,” Dalgleish says. “It defines the home.” This detailed effort would bring soul to the residence, which was also a requirement. “The design had to have warmth,” says the wife. “We wanted our family to feel totally comfortable in the house and needed materials that could stand up to use and the elements.” Aamodt and Plumb accommodated the couple’s request with a two-story main home clad in limestone, ipe and slate. Nearly every room opens onto a patio, courtyard or balcony, and most look out to the lake. “We found a way to give them every opportunity to go outside,” Aamodt says.

To ensure that plan, the architects worked with Boucher from the beginning. “We developed the outside spaces at the same time the inside rooms were being designed, and we attempted to fit them into the area’s park-like feel while adding a home and guesthouse,” says Boucher, who worked with former project managers Soren Deniord and Seth Kimball. Adds Plumb: “Our goal was to stitch the house and the landscape together so that it wasn’t an abrupt transition from the inside to outside.” The front elevation, for example, includes a limestone walkway that moves under a canopy, along a stone wall and through the front door.

Quality craftsmanship was also the motivation behind every design element inside the home. For all involved, that meant making every detail matter. “The clients wanted to invest in the artisans that would help make the unique elements of the house,” says Dalgleish. To this end, the builder used local craftspeople for every aspect of the residence, from the grain-matched quartersawn walnut overlay kitchen cabinets, to the bronze work on the main staircase handrail and front door, to the shimmering hand-hewn limestone on the façade and the diamond-finish plaster on walls throughout.

“You can see the artisanal quality in the home’s outcome,” says Vaughn Miller, who viewed her own task in a similar manner. “I selected the furniture and art, commissioned lighting, and designed everything down to the trim on the duvets and the welts on the pillows.” Vaughn Miller’s degree in architecture allowed her to work accordingly. “I designed the home with its architectural context in mind, and how the clients would live in the spaces,” she says. “I wanted to enhance the architecture, not detract from it.”

The designer also took her cue from the site and the water, choosing subtle abstract patterns, such as the shadowy wool-and-silk carpet in the living room that shifts color as the light moves across the room’s luminescent plaster walls. Twin living room sofas are upholstered in velvet and backed with textured stone-colored linen pillows. “I used pattern judiciously because this house is about the site and the water,” Vaughn Miller says.

While the house gracefully connects to the outdoors, the homeowners also needed multiple opportunities for entertaining, which Aamodt and Plumb allowed for with expansive terraces outside the living room and by the pool. “It was important to make the house flexible for different styles of entertaining,” Plumb says. “This was accomplished by designing distinctive areas that have their own scale, character and relationship to the landscape. They all hang together as variations on a theme but still feel individually interesting.” Formal gatherings hold court in the dining room, which Vaughn Miller outfitted with a custom table that fits neatly under the ceiling’s grid of walnut beams, while the bar area includes sliding glass doors that directly connect to the pool for more casual entertaining; the swim dock features a cozy seating arrangement where one can take in lake views.

When the busy couple needs some quiet time, the second-floor master bedroom provides an ideal sanctuary. “The view of the lake, framed by the balcony’s guardrail, gives the impression that the room floats on water,” Aamodt says. And that was the objective: to create a residence built upon the couple’s love of the setting, with the workmanship that would give them the best house in which to enjoy it. “These clients committed themselves to the house, to the local artisans, and to Austin,” Dalgleish says. “With them it was a legacy goal. They plan to stay here forever.”

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