Dakota Mountain

Designed and built by LowDO on a three-acre property in the Texas hill country, the Dakota Mountain Residence is a homestead that pilots sustainability for contemporary lifestyles. A retired couple wanted to build a climate-responsive house tailored for their creative pursuits, and to host their children and grandchildren. The project emerged accordingly as a form of intermittent intra-family co-housing, interlocking two homes into a single block.

2019

Dripping Springs, Texas

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Shelved into the site so as to extend landscape views to the horizon, and aligned to frame both sunrise and sunset, the living quarters are simultaneously binate and integrated.

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Interior and exterior windows, including setback clerestory glazing, and a passway between the main living spaces and the garage-workshop, drive cross-ventilation throughout the building. Wood slat shading devices screen walls and openings to modulate solar heat gain.

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The double roof system features a detached parasol roof that folds to exploit winds across the hill site to passively force extractive cooling. An interiorized micro-courtyard, shielded by this roof, introduces daylight into the building core.

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A shared kitchen and breezeways between living spaces serves as environmental buffer, while covered porches offer views between different parts of the home.

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These passive strategies minimize mechanical air conditioning year-round, while the house uses exclusively water harvested from the roof and stored on-site in a cistern reservoir. The 33,000 gallon cistern collects 3,300 gallons of water for every 1” of rainfall.

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Drawings