After buying 10 wooded acres on a steep slope along a creek in Austin, Mary Mandel and Jaime Delgado had to decide exactly where to put their house. "We didn't want to look out over the trees," Mandel says, explaining, "We wanted to be in the trees. We wanted to see owls nesting on branches and red-tailed hawks bathing in the creek and bobcats chasing rabbits. We wanted to have an intimate relationship with nature."
But, Mandel says, "there was only one place where I knew we would be able to achieve that, and it was the most challenging part of the site to build on"-a limestone shelf, known as the rimrock, 20 feet above the creek and more than a quarter mile from the nearest road. Mandel, a California native, took a while to find an architect daring enough to help her realize her vision. "Most preferred a more conservative approach," she recalls.
But then she met Calvin Chen and Thomas Bercy, who started out designing houses in Austin 22 years ago. Though they now devote much of their time to larger buildings (including affordable housing), they continue to design single-family homes. The firm approaches every project as a fresh creative inquiry. "We provide solutions that take into account the site's constraints and its natural qualities," says Chen. This was just what Mandel and Delgado wanted. After hugely successful careers that took them around the world, the couple had decided to move back to the US with their son, Drake, 12, and build a home suited-aesthetically as well as functionally for the next phase of their lives.
Denne historien er fra July - August 2023-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
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Denne historien er fra July - August 2023-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Elements of Style - Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry celebrate 10 years of artistic exploration at Hermès
Last March, Hermès brought its home universe to life in eye-popping fashion at a one-night-only extravaganza staged at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The lavish performance featured dozens of dancers showcasing the French luxury house's furniture, tableware, textiles, and decorative objects in elaborately choreographed vignettes that seemed to riff on the unboxing ritual so popular on social media-a supersized spectacle of conjuring magic from ordinary crates. The event also coincided with the 10th anniversary of Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry's tenure as artistic directors of the Hermès home division.
SEA CHANGE
Trading Manhattan for Brooklyn, designer Robert Stilin soaks up new scenery indoors and out
HELLA, YES
Thirty years into her career, Dutch design star Hella Jongerius proves the best ideas-and objects are those that grow and transform along with us
GREEN GODDESS
From her perch in Lloyd Wright's 1927 home and studio in West Hollywood, Vicki von Holzhausen is spreading the gospel-and refining the science—of eco-friendly, plant-based materials
BOTH SIDES NOW
Celebrated for his fantastical, genderfluid fashions, designer Harris Reed brings the same rule-flouting approach to a petite London apartment
shades of eden
In her magical LA garden, artist Mimi Lauter contemplates the cycle of life and the rapturous power of color
CHARM SCHOOL
In the hands of Ashe Leandro, a historic New York City house gets a delightful makeover
mother nature
Taking inspiration from her own childhood memories, Jennifer Garner crafts a cozy California home and garden where she and her family can put down roots
Finnish Lines
Resurfaced by Hem, a postmodern Nordic icon is back on the shelves
Changed for Good
Blending architectural styles, the new movie Wicked ventures off the beaten yellow-brick path