Caliza

Barton Creek · Austin, Texas

$4,250,000 5 Bedrooms 5.5 Bathrooms 5,240 Sq Ft 1.1 Acres Walk through

The approach

The house is entered from the north, along a path set slightly below the lawn.

Caliza is built from cut limestone. The facade carries it in long, shallow courses, which is why the wall reads as horizontal across its full length. The house is single storey throughout.

The canopy over the entrance is a folded steel plate lit from within along its edge. No glass faces the street on this side. The first view of the courtyard arrives only once you are through the door.

Late afternoon light falling in long bands across a white oak floor beside full-height sliding doors.

Every principal room takes glass on two sides.

The plan is one room deep. Light crosses it twice a day — from the courtyard in the morning, from the west lawn in the late afternoon — and the floor keeps a record of both.

A limestone chimney wall running floor to ceiling, with a long horizontal firebox set into it.

The limestone does not stop at the door.

The chimney wall is the same stone as the facade, in the same courses, carried through the glass line without a joint. It is the one element visible from every room in the west wing.

The kitchen

A single slab, book-matched across the hood and the island.

Cabinetry is rift-sawn white oak with no visible hardware. The island runs 4.2 metres and seats six. Appliances are integrated behind matching fronts; the only metal in the room is the tap and the trim on the pantry doors.

The water

The courtyard holds a lap pool and two shallow channels, set flush with the paving.

The channels are 120 millimetres deep and hold their surface still, so the roof line and the sky sit in them for most of the day. The lap pool is 18 metres, unheated, and runs the length of the east wing.

The outdoor kitchen is under the main roof rather than in a separate structure, which keeps the courtyard usable from March to November.