It’s a drippy Austin morning when I meet the couple to tour their home, the air hanging with humidity from a late spring shower. By the time we sit down at a bright tangerine table inside their open-air, light-dappled home, the sun has broken through the clouds, the breezes have picked up and a bevy of birds are chirping loudly. There’s technically a roof above our heads, but the operable window wall dividing the open interiors from the natural oasis that unfurls just beyond brings the outdoors inside. A 50-foot sycamore tree, where the couple says a family of owls live, rises above their vegetable garden, and a woodpecker, a few bright green monk parakeets and a crimson cardinal flit and flutter above a wood-and-wire coop that houses a couple of chickens. This unlikely fecund wonderland in the middle of Austin forms the courtyard separating their home from an existing cottage they inherited with the property, which they now use as a guest house, and a rock-surrounded plunge pool where they can take a relaxing dip or turn on the jets to swim against the current for exercise.
When Sainsbury, who is from London, and Goodman, who hails from South Africa, moved to Austin in 2001, they were living in a duplex just a few blocks away on Avenue G and searching for a spot to finally build a home of their own.
“We looked for two years, mainly out in the countryside,” Goodman tells me as Sainsbury steams frothy cappuccinos in their clean-lined, uncluttered kitchen. “We were really interested in building a house but thought that was more likely in the country.”
When the couple of nearly 40 years caught sight of the “for sale” sign in the neighborhood, they wasted no time checking it out and immediately knew it was perfect.
“It was completely ideal,” says Sainsbury of the .29-acre lot. They already loved the vibe and friendly neighbors of Hyde Park, and Sainsbury, a philosophy professor at The University of Texas, would still be able to cycle to work. Through a mutual friend, they met Robert Jackson and Michael McElhaney of Jackson & McElhaney Architects, but they were no strangers to the firm’s award-winning commercial projects including Westcave Preserve, which they had already toured and been impressed by.
The couple shared only a few simple design objectives with the architects –– they wanted a public downstairs space where they could cook with friends, a private upstairs space they could use for working and sleeping and a home with a very strong indoor/outdoor connection.
“This house was a really good exercise in examining what the clients wanted and listening to and thinking about how they live,” says Michael McElhaney, AIA, LEED AP, who collaborated with Robert Jackson to design a monastically simple, light-filled space that matched their desires and fit into the neighborhood. “The downstairs is about entertaining, cooking and being together. When they are upstairs, they are sleeping or working. Without walls going up to the ceiling, they can still be in communication with each other without being in the same space or even on the same floor.”
Jackson and McElhaney sited the house near the street to preserve the existing 1939 cottage at the rear of the property, creating a private courtyard between the two structures. Deep porches on both the first and second floors overlook the tranquil courtyard and allow the home to completely open up to the outside. Downstairs, a NanaWall window system dissolves the boundary between interior and exterior while extending the living and dining areas onto the covered porch and into the backyard. A sprawling deck hovers above the courtyard and runs along the upstairs spaces, creating a place to relax during the day and giving the couple the opportunity to sleep beneath the stars at night by rolling their bed directly outside onto the upstairs deck.
Throughout the fluid design, little preference is given to interior over exterior living, and with Austin’s moderate climate, the couple takes advantage of both throughout the year. Interior doors are obsolete and walls don’t reach the ceiling; rather, a few full-height partitions divide the continuous space and generous windows flood the home with abundant natural light to keep the home open and bright.
“It feels very calm and peaceful and stress free,” says Sainsbury of the design. “I like the fact that we have no doors in the house –– it’s just the two of us so why would we want to hide behind anything?”
The home remains minimal in both palette and materiality. Inside, rapidly renewable bamboo was chosen for the flooring while white walls allow Mother Nature’s sunlight shows to serve as wall art. Outside, a hardy plank exterior is painted a soothing green color, selected by friend and designer Carol Burton. The corrugated metal carport boasts cleverly designed storage rooms that house everything from their bikes and air conditioning system to their wine collection.
Nothing about the design was forced; rather, it evolved organically and made sense with the property. Exterior walls parallel the street while interior partitions align with true north, explains McElhaney, the home’s cardinal axis marked by a solid, stone fireplace that serves as an anchor against which the residents are made aware of the daily and seasonal swing of sunlight. The angle of the bar between the kitchen and living room, along with wood flooring running north/south, subtly reinforce this awareness. The home’s orientation and design shields it from harsh sun and ushers in natural breezes so the need for air conditioning is minimal –– in fact, the home was awarded the highest five-star rating from the Austin Energy Green Building program.
“Victoria and Mark’s design objectives aligned perfectly with the Green Building program,” says McElhaney. “It’s an appropriate reaction to the environment. Much of the home’s configuration was sensible passive design. The basic awareness of the sun and how it traverses one’s property is key.”
For the couple, this home is the one place they never want to leave. They don’t go out to eat much anymore, preferring instead to pick vegetables out of their garden, bake their own bread or barbecue in the courtyard. Even trips away are not as appealing as they once were for the well-traveled couple.
“We wanted to make a place that was like being on vacation all the time,” says Goodman. “We have done a lot of traveling and lived in a lot of places in the world and this feels like home more than any other place. We are reluctant to go away now because we can’t bear being away from here. Even 12 years later, there is absolutely nothing about our home we would change.”
ARCHITECT Jackson & McElhaney Architects
512-472-5132 | www.jacksonmcelhaney.com