• Year
• 2017
• Project
• Sky Crown Terraces
• Type
• Residential
• Area
• 3,020 SF
• Location
• Austin, TX
• Services
• Design | Construction
• Photography
• Andrea Calo
• About

• Sky Crown Terraces comprises two adjacent residences in Austin that reinterpret the vernacular of the American Southwest through a modern architectural language. Monolithic stucco forms, carved courtyards, and habitable flat roofs establish a composition shaped by mass, light, and climate. Influenced by sculptural traditions that privilege subtraction over addition, the homes are conceived as solid volumes carefully hollowed to reveal space, texture, and depth.

  Material contrast defines the experience. Smooth white stucco grounds the lower levels in shade and stillness, while pre-oxidized steel panels wrap the upper floors, responding directly to the intensity of the Texas sun. Vertical courtyards cut through each façade, drawing daylight and vegetation into the center of the homes and shaping interior spaces through shifting light and shadow.

  Roof terraces extend daily life upward, enclosed by perforated steel screens that filter views of sky and landscape. Over time, the steel’s patina stains the stucco below, allowing weather and age to complete the architecture. Sky Crown Terraces embraces this slow transformation, accepting time and exposure as essential elements of the design.

Work Performed by Bercy Chen Studio