This urban home sits on a wedge-shaped lot facing two busy streets. A single-story floor plan fills 2,500 square feet of the tight lot, so there isn’t much left for outdoor enjoyment. “We wanted to protect ourselves from the noise and danger of the street,” says homeowner/ architect Michael Antenora, “and capture most of the yard for private spaces rather than public ones.” A fence borders three sides of the house, producing three separate courtyards that can be connected by opening up both ends of a central breezeway. “Rather than closing us in, the fence makes the house feel larger because we’ve extended the living spaces.”
Industrial materials stand up to Texas heat and humidity while Asian-themed detailing lightens the look. “The gate is a large abstraction of a Japanese lantern,” says Antenora. A bronze-painted steel grid sandwiches acrylic sheets resembling rice paper. Construction-grade redwood outlines operable and fixed sections of the enclosure. Since the panels transmit light, the fence glows when the sun sits low on the horizon. And at night, the home’s illumination actually turns the exterior perimeter into one big lantern. Builder: Tallstar Construction, Austin, Texas; Architect: Michael Antenora, Austin; Metalwork: Lost Pines Metalwork, Austin; Photographer: Paul Bardagjy.
