The Daugherty Residence achieved a 5-star rating from Austin’s prestigious Green Builder Program. One of our design challenges was to maximize natural daylighting and minimize direct sunlight. First and foremost, the house is arranged so that the main living space faces east with a window wall facing an attractive courtyard. The west wall of the Living Room (not a good direction to face in the Texas climate) has clerestory windows tucked under a deep overhanging roof and a masonry “mass wall” that also encloses a large bookcase. The bedroom wing runs along a strong east-west axis to maximize north and south exposure and minimize western sun. The house incorporates solar panels (located over the garage roof), rainwater collection (for grey water use), commercial-grade high efficiency windows and a tight building envelope with open-cell foam insulation.
The site presented other unique design challenges. It is located on a narrow lot that backs up to a car dealership where a loud air compressor runs during daytime hours. One way we mitigated the noise was by placing the garage in the rear to block the sound. That gave us the opportunity to create a courtyard between the house and the garage, which is rarely used by the owners anyway. Instead, we created a more usable carport to the side of the house, but due to the narrowness of the lot we had to come up with an innovative solution to park a car in a tight space. Our solution was a cantilevered roof, one of the most noticeable features of the home, serving as a design element while also solving the problem of having a narrow building site. The task of maximizing space is achieved on the interior as well, designed specifically to meet the owners’ needs and furniture arrangement so that there is no wasted space. In fact, visitors often comment that the house feels well tailored to the inhabitants and neither too big nor too small.
Finally, of note, the frosted glass garage doors conceal the owner’s collection of 1950’s mini 3-wheel Italian cars that he works on and occasionally drives.
