Designed by Dick Clark Architecture, this is a luxury house overlooking Lake Travis in central Texas. This very beautiful house with offering an outstanding view of the lake. Envisioned as a home that will accommodate a family as it grows, and play host to friends and extended family, the ideas that inform the design of the house were developed through an unusual process — The family, including their children, all actively participated in design meetings with the team from Dick Clark Architecture. The result is a house that stays true to its purpose as a place where family and friends can spend precious free time enjoying one another and the beauty of the Highland Lakes setting.

Bedrooms are located in the long wing to the west, while more social activities take place in the courtyards or in the kitchen and other living spaces in the east wing of the house. The west wing transitions from opaque to more transparent as it moves toward the lake. The master suite takes advantage of its lakeside view in part through the inclusion of a “perch” for the parents, who occasionally like to be able to withdraw and read a book while still maintaining a view to the activity taking place in the courtyard and lake below.

The most gestural element of the house is a raised, copper clad pavilion with transparent walls facing south toward the neighborhood and north toward the courtyard and lake. The butterfly shape of the roof dramatically casts off rainwater through an oversized scupper, an external reference to the series of seven water features found inside the walls of the retreat. The courtyard offers two points of entry: when the large wooden gate is rolled in to the open position below the pavilion, the house invites visitors to come in through this primary pathway. A second gate is found by following a linear water feature that starts along the east edge of the sandstone wall. Not visible from the street, this entry provides a more intimate arrival into the courtyard.

Exterior walls, made of sandstone, were assembled through a drystack method, in which no mortar was used. The result is a monolithic form in which the warn tones of the stone are ever variable under the changing conditions of natural light.

The kitchen is conceived with the idea that cooking and the enjoyment of meals are participatory activities. A large table extends perpendicularly from the island cooktop, providing a place for informal dining or buffet style service. By creating four distinct (and different sized) seating areas for meal-taking in the living area and kitchen, indoor dining can be easily set for two or an assembled group of twenty, all sharing and interacting in the same space.

Source: Dick Clark Architecture
Visit the Dick Clark Architecture website – here.