Alta Vista Residence by Alterstudio Architecture is nestled in Austin’s Travis Heights neighborhood. Designed in 2020, the residence incorporates live oaks and concrete walls for privacy and engagement with the surroundings. The interior features board-formed concrete and rift-sawn white oak, opening up to the outdoors with sliding panels and creating a serene natural enclave within the bustling city. The design counterbalances the area’s rising density with a focus on light, material, and subtlety.

Alta Vista Residence Creates a Serene Urban Enclave
Alterstudio Architecture’s Alta Vista Residence is thoughtfully integrated into Austin’s Travis Heights neighborhood. It situates itself at the edge of the Blunn Creek escarpment, surrounded by several significant Live Oak trees. From the street, a delicate roof defines entry and carport, floating above a vertical-board-formed-concrete wall. This element protects the privacy of the interior while still engaging the neighborhood.
Designing Around Live Oaks
The house foregrounds a magnificent Live Oak, allowing the visitor to enter under its meandering limbs and cross a modest bridge into a carefully choreographed sequence of spaces. Once inside, the interior opens resolutely to the outdoors and into the canopies of two more Live Oaks. Sliding panels disappear into an adjacent wall and open the main room, raised 10 feet (3 meters) off the ground, into a new private landscape.

A 600-square-foot (56 squa...