This Freedman’s cottage presented a familiar architectural challenge: how to introduce modernity and maximize living space while preserving a home’s humble roots. Expansion was addressed via a series of interconnected spaces.
Project Name: Toyath Residence
Studio Name: Webber + Studio, Architects
Location : Austin, Texas , United States
Photography: Chloe Gilstrap
Guests are drawn from the original inward-looking two-room cottage at the front, through a compressed tube-like space containing the kitchen, and culminating in a voluminous rear addition.
The addition’s symmetry subtly echoes that of the original cottage. The existing structure’s significance as the home of a freed slave was too important to dismiss. This restoration-addition demonstrates that one can be both historically and environmentally responsible while also executing a modern design in a way that enhances both.
That visitors are often struck by the unexpected spaces hidden behind the home’s unassuming historic facade suggests that it is even possible to do so with potency.
