texas back house

To meet particular budgetary and spatial/programmatic requirements of the client, the project was developed through an extensive material research phase to come up with a solution that would meet certain performative criteria.
Two of the major requirements for the design were that the building use natural lighting extensively and that the building would enable excess heat from the Texas sun to be dissipated efficiently.
The outer skin of the lower auto space uses a high R-value polycarbonate twin wall material that allows for high light emission with low heat transfer, providing an even light distribution throughout the space. The upper guest apartment was thought of as a box within a box, able to be constructed economically without need for expensive weather membranes and details. The canted roof structure which skirts the entire building uses vertical air circulation that pulls air from perforations in the cooler auto space and draws out the hotter air using a series of apertures at the highest point of the building. A technique of natural ventilation used in plantation houses of the South.