Commissioned by a young Austin couple who run their own cabinetry shop, Casa Alguna enjoys an interplay between the traditional gabled forms of the surrounding houses along the tree-bordered streets of its North Austin neighborhood, and the expressive geometry of its architectural intervention. To generate the form of a house that was both contextual and explorative, a simple gable was folded, creased, sliced, and split like a piece of origami, an act that brings in light from all sides and organizes the programmatic elements of the plan. In concert with this process of planar manipulation, the exterior is clad in a continuous skin of silvered cedar which undulates, folds, and often becomes diaphanous to allow filtered Texas sunlight into the privatized spaces within.

A central family area is linked to the guest bedroom wing by a sliver created by the entry foyer and a small garden court. The floor level of the main spaces softly follows the modest contours of the site, and the house’s volume wraps a pool that reflects rippling light into each surrounding room. Within the vaulted living room, a sculptural stair leads to the secluded master suite on the upper level.