Marfa House

Marfa House is a community of neighborhoods formed under one roof. The design evokes the long, low slung industrial buildings that dot the vast Texas landscape and places is it at scale with the surrounding community.

Deep recesses, courtyards, and a generous green space break the scale down at the curb to feel more residential. The neighborhoods are created by the physical and social connections of the homes and inhabitants within it.

Each neighborhood coalesces around a small courtyard that provides a sheltered green space and a gracious entry to each home. Neighborhoods then spill onto a shared green space that rises eleven feet to the level of the roof to capture the far off desert landscape. 

Marfa, Texas

Competition 2014

Finalist

Based on the multi-family zoning regulations for size of units as well as setbacks and clearances, it is possible to conceive of a collection of buildings that take the equivalent of 10 blocks of single family structures and arrange them on one block with ample spaces for gathering and parking. However, it would not be contextually appropriate to build a 40-foot tall building that fills the block. The design strikes a balance between the “maximum build-out” and enhancing land and resource usage.

The community is a collection of 8 buildings, containing 15 units, that is home to 32 adults and children. The outdoor spaces include a large,central space anchored by a grassy mound that encourages family barbecues and nighttime stargazing as well as interior courtyards organized around shared amenities for groups of units. These include large fireplaces and elevated soaking pools. The remainder of the site is covered in permeable pavers, gravel, and clutches of bamboo and grasses. Beneath the grass mound is a shallow common space for events during inclement weather and for preparing food (water, sinks). Directly adjacent to the common space is a long arbor that provides dappled light and shade for a series of large picnic tables.

The design evokes the long, low slung industrial buildings that dot the vast Texas landscape and places is it at scale with the surrounding community.

Homes are collected around common interior courtyards that are located off the main green space. Guests park along the west side of the community and walk through the courtyards that are marked by brilliantly colored walls featuring local murals created by artists housed within the complex. As the artists circulate in and out of the community, the murals are revised through a common charge arts commission.

The space between the plan types afford outdoor leisure spaces, parking for vehicles convenient to homes, and work spaces. The automobile is central to life in an area as vast as West Texas. It is integrated into the design to create a gracious experience when one arrives. This stands in contrast to the usual lack of consideration of the automobile, which results in vast, unshaded lots or ad-hoc parking in yards and along the edges of streets.

The construction of the homes is based on a series of standardized components that could largely be fabricated off-site and shipped using the “flat-pak” method. Walls are designed in modules and fabricated off-site including all structure, electricals, and rough-in plumbing. Walls are then brought to the site and erected based on the floor plans, whose variations create a diversity of spaces and adjacencies.

The roof is a low-slope metal roof, insulated to the R30 level. The roof pitch is created using low slung, metal tube trusses that “lift the lid” on the homes to draw shaded, in-direct light into the rooms as well provide opportunities for venting warm air in summer through the high clerestory windows that fall between the trusses.

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