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© Murphy Mears Architects 2020

Co-Axial House

Single-Family Residence | Houston, TX | 2014

Houston AIA Home Tour 2015

Front walk along main axis, crossing guest parking and autocourt.

 

 

Fit within a modest 1920’s urban-neighborhood-lot, this compact two-story home was designed to accommodate the owners’ interest in entertaining, gardening and music. Exterior materials of face brick, stucco and horizontal HardiePlank siding take contextual cues from nearby houses and Rice University, and frame indoor-outdoor spaces in a house that maintains privacy from the street and openness in the back. The orientation of the home on the narrow deep lot allows the back yard to enjoy prevailing Southeasterly breezes, and be shaded by the two-story wing in the afternoon. The single-story brick wing, with its roof deck and trellis, separates the public from private outdoor spaces. Arriving guests are directed to the front door by the subtle geometry reflected in the auto court and entry that continues into the garden and reflecting pool.

Living and Dining areas share an open space with the Kitchen and are further defined by a free-standing cabinet that frames interior views. A bay window in the Living Room contains the piano and looks East to large raised Corten steel planter boxes. The Kitchen provides quick access to the outdoor dining and food garden. Three galvanized steel trellis structures cantilever off the East facade modulating sunlight at key openings. A fourth trellis shades the Terrace space facing South into the garden and frames the view from the Study.

Multiple axes co-exist to form a procession through the long narrow site and home, providing critical points of inter-connectivity among the varied spaces.

Design Team:
• Architecture: Murphy Mears Architects
• Interior Design: Tokerud & Co. Interior Design
• Landscape Design: Alisa Dawson

 

Entry hall with slightly shifted axis leading through kitchen, dining and living spaces.

 

 

Site plan with common axis through center of site.
Outdoor seating area shaded by a galvanized steel trellis, overlooking the East garden.
 
Semi-open-plan living, dining and kitchen spaces, overlooking the East garden.
 
1st and 2nd Floor Plans
 
Outdoor seating off the main central axis, overlooking the East garden.
 
Axis through kitchen, dining and living spaces, parallel to central site axis.
South living room wall, on axis with the dining room and kitchen.
 
Secondary axis through kitchen, dining and living, along West side of house/site.
 
Central axis, shifted at entry hall, passes along East side of Kitchen and Dining Room.
 
Water feature continues the central site axis through the East garden, towards the Living Room bay window.
Kitchen on cross-axis with sink/window opposite the East garden covered terrace.
 
2nd floor terrace, overlooking 1st floor outdoor seating trellis and East garden beyond.
 
Natural light through the high corner windows over the master shower.
Master bath, lit by afternoon sun through corner windows over the shower and tub area.
 
East garden, parallel to central site axis, overlooked by living, dining, kitchen, outdoor terrace, entry, study, 2nd floor roof terrace and master suite.