小平米居家美學 走進德克薩斯州奧斯汀的一座被大自然包圍的房屋

Hey, Homeworthy, I'm Mary. Welcome to my home in Austin, Texas. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. Before today's episode, click the Join button below to support all of the storytelling we do on this channel. Our growing community of members help to directly fund more videos so we can capture these extraordinary homes from around the world. So join today to receive early and exclusive access to new Homeworthy videos. Hi, my name is Mary Mandel, and I'm a real estate developer, and I'm the co-founder of a project called Sanctuary, which is an eco-luxury fully off-grid community here in Austin, Texas. We're on a amazing 10-acre greenbelt. It is full of amazing features, caves and waterfalls and stalactites and fossils and even dinosaur tracks. And we have recently finished construction on an approximately 3,500-square-foot home with a pool house, four bedrooms and four bathrooms. I had been looking for a home in Austin for quite a while, and I couldn't find anything that I was really, really excited about. So I decided that I wanted to build from the ground up and design a home. So I found the land while living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I called the realtor immediately because it was fairly close to downtown and it said that it was over 10 acres. And so I thought there must have been an issue with the decimal point and that it should have been 1.014 acres instead of over 10 acres. And so I called the realtor. He, you know, checked with the sellers. He called me back and he said, No, this is the real deal. And so immediately we bought tickets to Austin. We literally came out within 24 hours. It happened to be a massive rainstorm while we were out, and we only had a few hours before we had to get back on the flight. So we were trudging through the mud and through the rain. This land was undeveloped. So it was a very, very steep forest, basically. And so we were walking around trying to just see whatever we can see. And we just started noticing all of these incredible caves and a jetty of water in this creek on the property and waterfalls. And so we just immediately before we got on the plane had our agent write up the offer And by the time we landed in Argentina, we had an accepted offer. Welcome to my living room. My favorite part of the living room is actually what you see through all of the glass. So this entire wing is all glass. And the reason for that is there's so much incredible stuff to see. So over here, there's a waterfall and these massive boulders. And then I love the way these big boulders look like they're kind of splaying down the side of the hill. And then on this side, there's this really incredible fern wall that's covered with maidenhair fern all year round and water all year round. And it's just absolutely gorgeous. I really love organic shapes. And so I tried to do that with as much of the furniture pieces as possible. The roof also, since it's shaped as falling oak leaves, is also organic shaped as well. But these chairs in particular, this is from an amazing artist out of Australia named Brody Neal. And they're called the cowrie chairs because they are shaped like the cowrie shells in the ocean. And it's just all one piece of formed bent plywood. And I love those. Very sculptural and very organic. Another piece that I really love is this lighting fixture. This is from an Israeli company called Aqua Creations. And this is a sheath made of wool. And it's really textural. It feels really amazing. And I love things that have texture as well. So one of my other favorite pieces in the living room is this coffee table. I co-designed this with a group out of Italy. And it's a blackened or charred wood. It's using this ancient Japanese technique called shisugi bond. And then it also has a living metal which patinas. And I love mixing metals. And I love living metals that actually change and patina over time. This sofa is a vintage sofa. Also from Italy. It's called the DS6000. And on it is a sheepskin hide that I searched for high and low in northern England. I'm a big fan of all natural and organic materials including woods and metals and hides. So I have a lot of those throughout the house. So the elevation of this living room that we're sitting in right now is at sort of the midpoint of the trees. And so normally you're either at the base on the ground or you're very high above. And you're looking out above over the trees. But what's so unique and so special about this is that we're in the middle of the trees. And so we get this incredible first-hand look of nature happening in the trees. And so we'll see owls right at eye level. Birds' nests. We see a regular blue heron that we see all the time in the creek that's bathing himself. And fishing because there's also fish in the creek. There are bobcats. Recently we saw a bobcat walking down the creek with a dead rabbit hanging out of its mouth. And so we are really in the middle of nature here. So we do a lot of just relaxing and socializing in this room. We play chess with my son here. We listen to records. We brought in a vintage record player recently. And so we listen to music in here all the time. And we just kind of relax and enjoy nature. So what really drove the design of the house was the land itself. I really used the property and the topography and all of the various environmental features to really drive the design. So now we're going to move to the dining area and the kitchen. This slab is a black walnut slab. It's over 12 feet long. We brought this in a big U-Haul from San Francisco. And I had the base custom made and custom designed to actually mimic the natural curves of the live edge. So they're geometric forms. But they're made to mimic the live edge on both sides of the slab. And then these chairs are also living metal. So these also patina. I love the idea of wobby-sobby where things are imperfectly perfect. And they get better with time. So these chairs are always changing and getting more beautiful the more use and love they get. And this bench is also made in Italy. It was done by the same group that did the coffee table. And it's also two slabs of live edge wood that we blackened using this ancient Japanese technique shisugi-ban. And that was something that I carried throughout the house. So all of the siding on the house it's like a charred wood. And so I brought that indoors as well And did that with several of the furniture pieces. And this is one of them. And the lighting fixture I really loved because also the flowing and organic shapes of it just worked really well with a lot of the other pieces and with the roof itself. And one of the things that I love about being in the dining room is I love to be able to look at the ribboning of the roof. And on this corner this roof is at 4 feet tall. And then on this corner it's at 16 feet tall. So it goes from 4 feet to 16 feet. It's really dramatic. And you can really enjoy it when you're sitting at the dining table. So then the other thing I love about being in this room is being able to see the swimming pool here. And because we have the aquarium glass it's just really fun to be able to sit and eat and then be able to enjoy the water and the outdoor seating area. I grew up in mid-century modern homes. And so that type of design always has had a special place in my heart. So I knew when I was designing a home from scratch that I wanted to have an ode to mid-century modern design. Things like the ceilings which are tongue and groove and large wood beams and a lot of glass and a lot of indoor-outdoor connection and clear story windows. Those are all things that I grew up with and that I loved. And so I knew that I wanted to incorporate those in the design. I also, one of my favorite things to play with with design are actual roof structures and the shapes of the roofs. And you can do such beautiful things with roof shapes. And I think it's one of the missed opportunities in a lot of architecture is playing with the roof. So the roofs on this home actually drove the rest of the design. They are hyperbolic paraboloids. And there's three of them, one for each building. And so they have opposite high ends and low ends. So they actually twist in the middle. So the shapes of the roofs were really designed to mimic the look of a falling oak leaf. This property is full of red oaks which are native. And they're all through the creek. And so the idea was that each of the boxes of the homes would be mostly glass so that they would disappear. And then the roofs would be in the shape of a falling oak leaf. So when you were looking at the residence from further up on the site and you were looking down at the residence, it would look almost like leaves kind of falling. And that's why the name of the house is the Falling Leaves House. I really wanted the ceilings to be the hero of the home. And so a lot of the furniture and a lot of the rooms are much more monotone and quiet and minimalist. And that way, your attention is really drawn to the beautiful Douglas fir wood ceilings. And so the kitchen is all done in a matte black. We have a huge island which we love. We entertain a lot. And so we're able to have a lot of food and drinks. On the island, it's actually over 12 feet long and over 6 feet wide. So it's nice and big. And then we have all Gaggenau appliances which are really wonderful to cook with. So since the island is so big, we brought in a 48-inch trough sink. And it comes in really handy. You can use one side for preparing all your like fruits and vegetables and so forth. And then the other side is where everything else goes waiting to be washed. So we did an induction cooktop. And we worked really hard with our craftsmen to get this flush so that you don't feel anything. It's a detail that took a really long time to execute. But I love the details. And so that was something that we spent a lot of time and effort on. And then we did the downdraft in the island so that we didn't have to have anything else coming from the ceilings. We were really trying to keep the ceilings as clean as possible. And so I didn't want anything hanging from it. So we did this downdraft in the island which works really well. And then we did the full set of Gaggenau appliances. So we have the espresso machine. It makes all kinds of different things. It's amazing. And then we did a warming drawer which we actually get so much use out of. We've never had this before. And it's something that we really love. And then we did full-size convection oven. We did a steam oven. And we don't have a microwave. So trying to be a little bit healthier in our food warming. Now instead we use the steam oven for everything. And then we did a vacuuming drawer which is for sous vide cooking. So you vacuum your fish, your vegetables, whatever it is here first. And then you put it in the steam oven. And it's proper sous vide. And then I love really minimalist things. And so I don't really like a lot of hardware. And so Gaggenau makes these incredible refrigerator and freezer units where you can just push and they open without needing handles. And so this is our freezer column. And then this is our refrigeration column. So these bar stools, they are shaped as origami. And so they almost look like they would fold as an origami, you know, paper would. And this is also made out of living metal. So these patina over time. And what's nice is you can really see like how many parties you've had and how many events you've done. Because it starts to change and patina with time and with usage. So we try to be really light on the land and not touch the rim rock wherever possible. And so you can see here, I love to look at this from the kitchen. You can see the entire foundation is floating over the rim rock. And so where the foundation of the home touches the ground is past the point of the rim rock. And then over the rim rock, the entire building floats right over it. I decided to have multiple buildings for the home because I wanted to interact with the creek as much as possible. It's a long creek that runs the entire length of the property. And it's really beautiful. And it's about 20 feet below us. And so in order to have the most interaction with this really incredible creek and landscape, the idea was to splay the different buildings somewhat informally along the edge of the rim rock or along the edge of this creek. And then the middle building juts out vertically and cantilevers over the creek. And so that was kind of the best way to see. Got some really beautiful seeping fern and moss walls and then a waterfall on the other side. And so it was very, very specifically placed so that then you can see both of those things. Now I'm going to show you the primary bedroom. Follow me. So something else that's super cool about our hallway is this transition We made the front door which is right here to be directly across from the entrance of the creek. So you can walk right through the front door through the slider and then go down into the creek. Before we get to the primary bedroom, I want to show you this hallway. It's something that I enjoy so much. So you can really see the parabolic roof. You can see it ribboning down as your eye goes down and then at the very end of the hall your eye ends at this really beautiful red oak tree which has really had this beautiful sculptural twisted trunk. The other thing I love about this hallway is we did this with this all natural limestone plaster. And this plaster, it actually breathes and it filters the air. So if you did it on just a wall or two, it wouldn't make any difference. But if you did it through the whole house, which we did, the actual air quality of the house is so much improved because of the filtering capacity of the plaster. Welcome to our primary bedroom. It's small but mighty. It's a really minimalist space. There's nothing in here that we don't need. It's completely surrounded by glass. And the building itself is cantilevered over the edge of the creek. So while you're laying in bed, you literally feel like you're floating out into the creek. We did a fluted white oak wall as an accent wall. And we also did the blackening Shishigibon technique on the white oak. So I designed this bed. I wanted to have a lot of storage space. I didn't want to have to have any other furniture in the room like nightstands or dressers. And so there's these massive drawers that just like keep going and going and going. And there's four of them. We have two here, two on the other side. And then all of the whole top of the bed also has tons of storage space. And then also the foot of the bed, this also opens up and is also storage. And so you can just fit so much stuff in here. Yeah, the bed is like all storage. We did this also with a blackened walnut as well. And my favorite part of the bedroom is out here from the deck. You can actually see how beautifully the bedroom itself cantilevers over the creek. There's so many things that I love about this home. It was years and years of putting all of my heart and my love into this design and into the build. So it's hard to pick one thing. But if I had to, I would say that it is the interaction with nature and with the creek and the way that it is, the various volumes and shapes are designed in order to best interact with nature. Welcome to the primary bathroom. So my favorite part of this bathroom is a bathtub. It's all one piece hand-carved stone. And we cut the actual building back. Later on in the design process, this building went all the way back to the bedroom. And then later on in design, we actually cut the building back so that when you're sitting in the bathroom, you have glass in front of you, glass on the side of you, and you really have a beautiful view while soaking. I also really love that this whole wall is glass. It's really private. And so it just feels really nice when you're showering to have the glass, be able to see nature. This opens up so you can also hear the water from the creek below, which is really nice too when you're sitting in the bath. So I really tried to use organic shapes as much as possible. So with the tub itself, it's, you know, asymmetrical, curved, more organic in nature. And then I found these sinks that are also asymmetrical and really sort of mimic the shape of the tub and have these kind of beautiful curves. And then the faucets themselves are also, they're hand-blown glass. And so they're imperfect and also organic in shape. They kind of twist. And then you can see the water. There's a vortex right here. And that's where the hot and the cold water are mixing. And so it's kind of fun to see. It's another way to bring the water element into the home. We had the water in the creek. And so we've tried to bring more water into the home as well. And so one way we did that was with the bathroom faucets. So I think what gives this home soul is really the thought and the energy that went into designing and building it. And every little corner and detail was so intentional. And it was intentional in every way, both from an aesthetic and a design standpoint, but also from trying to be as light on the land as possible and trying to conserve nature as much as possible. And so we went through great lengths to save every single tree that we could possibly save. And we really meticulously would just carve only the branches that we needed in order to get the building in. And so the building really is hugged and wrapped by nature. And we have various sitting areas that it really has this feeling of embrace by nature. We also have all of our foundations are floating because the rim rock that's underneath it is thousands of years old. And so we wanted to do everything we could to disturb it as little as possible. And so we really tried to keep nature as intact as possible. And then we went back in after the build. And we did a lot of work to get everything to thrive again and to really feed nature and to make it even healthier than it was before we got here. Now I'd love to show you the pool house. Let's go. This is our pool house. The office is in here as well. And the pool house for us is really multi-use space. We have a lot of guests that come in from out of town. And so this whole back wall here is actually a wall bed and closet and cabinetry space. And then for our friends that stay with us that have kids, then this sofa folds down as well. And it turns into almost a queen-size sofa. So it really sleeps comfortably. At least three or two adults, two kids. It's gotten a ton of use. And this coffee table is a slab that I actually got in Mexico. And then I found this really beautiful stone base for it. So I really tried as much as possible to use all natural and organic materials. For all the furniture pieces, the wall coverings. And so we did that with the table and the base. And then the walls in here are also the natural lime plaster. We did these in a gloss black, which is a hand-done technique to build a gloss in it. But it's also filtering the air just like the plaster in the main house. We also do music production. And so we have all of our equipment in here. And then lots of desk space that wraps around the whole office. And there's a punch out so that the glass and the desk itself sits proud of the building. And this is actually where my favorite view of the entire house is, is from this room. There's these massive boulders that are down here in the creek that are just so beautiful. And when we have a rain, we have a really strong waterfall that comes over these boulders. And then there's incredible maiden hair fern filled the creek and the boulders. And then on this side, we have this gorgeous rim rock. And there's a really big cave under that rim rock. And that's covered with moss, which is really quite unusual for central Texas because of the heat. But somehow the environment here, the moss really thrives. And then I brought in this stone tub This is a really traditional Japanese soaking tub. And so that's right back here. And it's so nice because when you're in there, you just are completely private, separated from everything else. And you can just sit, relax and then look over at the creek. So all of the cabinetry in the house, we don't have hardware on them. And so we used the same kind of very minimalist push to open doors and drawers. And then we tried to integrate the lights as seamlessly as possible. So we put them at the top of this. This is a full steel surround for the desk itself and the punch out outside of the building. And so we integrated the light into that. And I really prefer to have very clean lines, very minimalist instead of having a lot of lights hanging from the ceiling. So it's not a pool house without a pool. So now I'm going to show you our pool area. So in an effort to also bring more of the water element up to the house level, we decided to do an aquarium front on the pool. This was surprisingly really hard to execute. There's only a few companies that actually do this. One is in Florida. They do like all the theme parks. And then the other one's in Vegas who does like the casinos and the big aquariums and the casinos. And so this was one of those things that was like a labor of love to figure out how to get this done. But it turned out really great at night. It's amazing with the lights on. We've set up a table and chairs out here, like really romantic, intimate dinner. And then having the lights in the water is really beautiful atmosphere. I love it out here also because you can hear the water running in the creek below. Always sounds amazing. And then there's all the nature sounds at night. You can hear the frogs. Right now you can hear all the birds chirping. And it's just a really lovely place to sit and hang out. We have our fire pit area here. And we did a sunken fire pit area with lots of cozy pillows around the benches. And then I designed this to work with the geometry of the patio itself. And so it's in a trapezoidal form. And there's plenty of space on it where we'll put like bottles of wine and ice buckets and like charcuterie boards and things like that. And so this is another space that gets a ton of use. I have a minor obsession with boulders and with stones. They're all so unique and they all tell this really incredible story. And so during the build whenever we would find these big boulders in the earth during excavation I would have them save them for me. And then I ended up integrating them all into the design. And so for example this is one of the largest ones that we got. And so we built this up. We leveled it underneath before we did this slab pour. And so we leveled this boulder and then we poured the concrete around it. So the idea is that it looks like it was always there and we just left it where it was and then we poured the concrete around it. We did the same thing with this one here. And then we did the same thing with this one here. And I love the way that the steps, the wood steps are carved around the boulder. So again the idea is that they were here before we were here and then we left them undisturbed and built around them. And there's many, many more examples of that. So we have another one here at the entrance to the patio. We have them by the front door. Each flanking the front door. And then we have this really big one built into the deck and it's pointing to the entrance of the home. So of all of the different pieces of the entire project, this is my absolute favorite one. This is our outdoor dining table and the slab itself was a sentinel tree in the Italian Alps that was struck by lightning. And so we've only used wood that was already down. We did not have any trees cut to make any of our furniture. And so this tree was struck down by lightning. And then this whole opening in the middle is where the lightning bolt hit and cracked the tree. And I didn't want to cover that. I loved it so much. And so instead of covering it, what we did was we created these geometrical forms. They're kind of slats. And so they're open so that you can see where the tree was struck. And they hold, though, the two pieces together to keep the stability. The other thing that's so amazing about this table are the legs. So these legs are hand-blown smoked glass. One of the, like, top master glass blowers in Italy is this 90-year-old man in Venice. And he did these legs by hand. They're made out of borosilicate glass, which is the strongest kind of glass. It's the glass that is in airplanes, like airplane windows and so forth. So they're really strong. But what I loved about it was that you have this really hefty, weighty slab. And then it's, like, seamlessly held by these really light glass legs. And that's why I chose these chairs, which are also from Italy. I chose these as well for, like, the very lightness, smoked glass, translucent look that they provide. OK. So the other thing that I really love about being in this outdoor space is how you really get to see the cantilever here. This is over a 20-foot cantilever. And so we're really floating over the creek here. Home to me is really a personal sanctuary. It's a place that I feel safe and that I feel comfortable and that I feel rejuvenated in. When I come home, it's like a breath of fresh air. When I leave, I actually don't want to leave. It's just a place that I enjoy so much. And I really feel like I'm at home.