A single family residence in Southwest Austin, Texas. The exterior walls of the house are made out of ICF and the roof is SIPs. The combination of the two materials make an efficient envelope for the house saving in energy costs. The solar orientation of the house was carefully considered before construction or any plans were made. The design takes advantage of the prevailing winds to cool off the house in the summer. The windows on the Southwest side were kept to minimum keeping the hot summer sunshine out of the house. The 10″ thickness of the walls provide mass to the structure and slows down the cooling and heating due to outside weather conditions.
Since the completion in 2002 the owners have added a separate garage, a laundry room, a loft, converted the old garage into a playroom/study and added landscaping using recycled metal, rocks found on the lot and native plants.
The house has a large home office with a separate entry. All roof surfaces are used for rainwater harvesting. The property has two 10,000 gallon storage tanks for the household water and several smaller storage tanks for landscape and garden use.
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