Falling Leaves sits on a ten-acre hillside in West Austin, the place Bercy Fadel shapes a home as three glass pavilions stepping down a limestone bluff. Accomplished in 2022, the venture attracts its roof varieties from the curved movement of oak leaves and makes use of that gesture to attach the house to forest, creek, and open sky.
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About Falling Leaves
Falling Leaves occupies a steep web site in West Austin, utilizing the terrain not as backdrop however because the venture’s main organizer. Bercy Fadel locations three glass pavilions alongside a limestone bluff, so the home reads much less as a single quantity than as a sequence of sheltered factors throughout the bushes.
The roofline offers that sequence its strongest identification. Impressed by the curved movement of oak leaves, the pavilions sit beneath sculpted hyperbolic-paraboloid roofs that angle, elevate, and lengthen outward over glass partitions and decks, giving every a part of the home a definite silhouette towards the wooded hillside.
On the Bluff
A carved lower within the slope varieties the constructing pad and divulges the positioning’s pure stone, tying the home to the limestone terrain described within the venture textual content and visual on the fringe of the out of doors areas. From the method, the pavilions seem elevated amongst trunks and brush, with slender darkish columns and broad roof planes making the constructions appear frivolously set on the hillside.
The stepping association follows the grade moderately than flattening it. One pavilion initiatives towards the cover, one other pulls again to create a extra enclosed zone, and the pool home extends the composition farther down the positioning. This staggered placement retains the land legible, permitting bushes, rock, and modifications in elevation to stay current across the structure.
Glass and Timber
Inside, the fabric language is concise and clearly expressed. Uncovered glulam rafters run beneath heat wooden ceilings, whereas darkish metal frames outline the perimeter and maintain expansive glass on a number of sides. The distinction is sharp however managed: wooden brings depth and heat overhead, and the black construction offers the rooms a transparent edge towards the dense inexperienced panorama outdoors.
The glazing turns the encompassing bushes into the home’s fixed visible area. Within the dwelling areas, nook home windows and full-height partitions open lengthy views by means of the positioning, making the pavilions really feel embedded within the woods moderately than merely dealing with them. Much more personal rooms preserve that direct contact, with massive panes set near the forest ground and trunks.
A Shared Middle
On the middle of the composition, an out of doors courtyard gathers the home round an current limestone boulder. Somewhat than treating the courtyard as leftover area between wings, the venture makes use of it because the frequent floor of the house, a spot the place the separate pavilions meet and the place the panorama is allowed to remain bodily current.
The courtyard additionally clarifies circulation. The bed room wing wraps a quieter backbone, whereas the dwelling areas open extra broadly outward. This stability between sheltered motion and open publicity retains the home from turning into a single uninterrupted glass quantity; it’s as a substitute a set of linked rooms and exterior intervals.
Pool on the Edge
The pool home aligns its linear pool with the rapids beneath, extending the venture’s directional logic towards the creek hall. Decking, paving, and low out of doors seating unfold beneath the deep eaves, whereas the pool itself initiatives as a crisp horizontal aspect on the bluff’s edge. Close by, a hearth function provides one other mounted level throughout the open terrace.
Throughout the venture, roof, glass, and stone work collectively to make the hillside seen at each flip. Falling Leaves succeeds not by dominating its web site, however by setting a collection of rigorously positioned shelters inside it.
Pictures courtesy of Bercy Fadel
Go to Bercy Fadel
– by Matt Watts
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