Casita Garcia, West University Place, Houston, Texas, 2002-present


CLIENTS AND SITE. This project consists of a small house and a garden designed in relation to an existing main house. The clients of this ensemble are a businessman of Spanish descent and a writer, his long-term companion. The project is located in West University Place, a small municipality, near Rice University, in the middle of Houston, Texas. This neighborhood is largely made up of modest size homes built in the 40’s, with large trees and lush foliage typical of this semi-tropical climate. Many of the homes in the area have been greatly enlarged by the addition of contiguous extensions and/or detached outbuildings. The existing garage at the site was in a state of extreme disrepair in addition to being overly small. The client decided to add space to his home by increasing the size of the garage and adding a studio.

PROGRAM AND DESCRIPTION. Two cars are accommodated in 365 S.F. and the remaining interior volumes on two levels of 800 S.F. were designed to satisfy a broad and open-ended program of use. The living spaces include an entry, shower and dry sauna on the first floor, with a kitchenette, a bathroom with outdoor shower, a main space with a thirteen foot ceiling height and a sleeping loft on the second floor. The immediate use of the studio will be related to exercise, relaxation and writing. In addition to a yoga/exercise studio, or a library/study, the dwelling might also function as a garden pavilion, a guest house, or a potential in-law or teenager suite.

A GARDEN, A COURT AND TWO HOUSES. If the site is approached on foot, one enters by a mechanized gate of ivy or from the house. From the house, one enters from either the garden sitting room located on the east side of the main house or from the utility room off the kitchen to the west side. Either way, one encounters a lawn that is conceived in direct proportional relation to the defining forms of the existing house and the new house.

MEASURE, PROPORTION AND NUMBER. The existing tree in the lawn stands, conceptually at least, as the first spatial volume and the first shelter. The new small house is conceived as its fraternal twin. This doubling continues in the spatial development of the interiors at the smaller scale and at the organization of the yard at the greater. Most of the spaces are related to the proportions of a diagon. The special quality and beauty of a diagon, (a rectangle with proportions of one to the square root of two), is the unique property that when doubled, a larger rectangle of similar proportion obtains. This simple geometric relation of 1:1.41 is used to determine the form of the exterior yard, the new building envelope and the spaces contained within it. This example of mathematical mirroring begins a leitmotif that is reflected first, in the deployment of local symmetries in the composition of the environment and second, in the use of literal glass and mirrors, as one means, among others, to acknowledge the virtual in relation the actual.

ENERGY AND CLEANER LIVING. Houston, Texas is brutally hot and humid and most inhabitants use artificial heating and mainly cooling twelve months of the year. Rarely, if ever, are windows opened in the typical Houstonian home. This is due in part, to the fact that buildings are designed (to a fault) with air conditioning in mind. Low ceilings and small windows with inadequate shading, while rendering air conditioning a bit more efficient, also makes it a requirement. This project attempts to work with the context in such a way that artificial air conditioning might be offset, at least some months of the years. Tall ceilings, high transom windows, shading devices, electric fans and generous openings for cross ventilation are integral to the project. Glazing on the south side is minimized and well shaded by wooden louvered shutters.

An outdoor shower located above the entry keeps hot water out of the interior. Bird houses for purple martins help keep the mosquito population down. Purple martins consume huge numbers of these insects, minimizing the need for pesticides.

MATERIALS. The structure is wood frame. A steel beam is used at the garage door opening to support the weight of a continuous bookcase above. A lower laminated wood beam at the mid-point of the floor allows floor joists to run north south. This allows easy duct placement at this level. The main floor and the loft framing is 2 x 10’s at 16” on center. The west wall is made of 2 x 4 studs at 10” on center. The ceiling framing is 2x8’s at 16” on center. The roof framing runs north south and is supported at the center by a wall positioned over the beam in the garage. Running the rafters north south allows for easy ventilation at the north and south facades. (No ventilation is allowed at the west elevation due to fire rating restrictions).

The exterior finish is traditional cementious stucco over waterproof paper. The interior floors and the exterior shower are of Mexican terra cotta tile, with the exception of a small area of ceramic tile at the bath.

The interiors are shown white but the intention is paint them light green--a green box.

---

ARCHITECTURE


Casita Garcia

Ellis House

Twentieth Century Veterans Memorial

Iceland House

Baton Rouge Cimetiere

Two More Scupper Houses

Dogtrot Scupper House

Shotgun Scupper House

Wall-Highway

Wall-Mask

Wall-Perimeter

Public Space In The New American City

Free Bridge

Goldstein Studio

Another Glass House Competition

Louisiana House

Origlio/Vanderbilt Condominium