Cotton Estes’s design for this Texas house was inspired by the Spanish colonial missions that stretch south along the river, about 7 miles from downtown San Antonio. These historic buildings—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—sit just a quarter-mile from her clients’ property, which is tucked up against the national park that runs the missions’ preservation and eco-restoration efforts. The clients’ own plot of land also borders an acequia that was once used to irrigate the farmland around the missions, and it was this sense of peace and place that drew the clients. After their land was clear-cut in the 1980s, a small forest of mesquite trees grew on the hot, dry site, buzzing with cicadas and other wildlife.
When they hired Cotton, the young couple were just starting a family and trying to envision what their forever home would look like on this tranquil spot. Over the course of design, the scheme became radically smaller, downsized from seven bedrooms to three. “The process of questioning what they need led us to a very distilled program,” she says. “Originally, we were looking at a courtyard type of house. We ended up inverting that.”
Cotton’s design approach resulted in a home that lives much larger than its 2,240 square feet. Taking cues from the missions’ austerity and quality of light, she devised a soaring central living space under a pitched roof. Patio extensions in each cardinal direction separate this “inverted courtyard” from the one-story bedroom and service volumes that rotate around it.
“The living room became the courtyard where the family can come together from the outer reaches of the home and be connected to the outdoors,” she says. “This common space almost feels open air because it has light from four orientations and skylights.” It’s a poetic version of the clustered mission buildings. “There is a disordered grouping of single structures enclosed by a wall,” she says of the missions’ organization. “The quality of light between those buildings is something I was really drawn to in this courtyard typology—how much you invite the outdoors in, and the shape of the space between those individual volumes that manipulates light in different ways.”
Interlocked
The house rises from the land like a small compound, creating a sense that the boxy, stucco-clad bedroom volumes are sliding in and out from the gabled roof. A volume to the right of the entry contains two children’s bedrooms and a bath. Sitting slightly forward on the opposite corner is an office/guest suite facing the entry, along with a laundry, mudroom, and powder room. Another flat-roofed wing on the northwest contains the primary suite at the back of the house.
In the main living “courtyard,” floor to ceiling openings allow the interior functions to flow seamlessly outside. “The mission outposts often feature clear and simple cuts in the masonry where it meets the wood roof framing,” Cotton says. The entry on the south provides a view through the house to the northern fields. Absent of existing trees, this area is being seeded with tall native grasses to help restore the soil. The living room patio overlooks this zone. A dining terrace to the east gets dappled light through the trees, and the shaded dog patio on the west incorporates a storage cabinet.
“The dogs are a big part of the clients’ lives,” Cotton explains. “They foster many dogs at a time. The circulation of dogs and where they are allowed and not allowed was a big consideration in the program. The entire west yard is for the dogs, and the west patio is a protected space to store all their leashes and food and toys; they come and go from the laundry room as they please.”
Light Box
Inside, all is organic harmony. Hydraulic lime plaster coating the 9-foot-tall walls lends a rooted, earthen feel and echoes what builders were using several hundred years ago. Milky and matte with a slight sheen, “the plaster has no chemical additions and is incredibly versatile,” Cotton says. “It takes a lot of artistry to work with, and we worked with an amazing plasterer here who had the touch.”
In the living space, the western red cedar ceiling is stained with a semi-transparent water-based finish. A quarter-inch reveal traces the horizontal joint between the ceiling and walls, as though the wood ceiling is floating off the heavy base. Here, a trio of skylights are pressed into the south wall. “Tall ceilings can become dark and feel vacuous unless they are well-lit from above,” the architect says. “We tried to use wood sparingly, where it really counts. The skylights are to honor the wood and shine a light on it in those tall spaces.”
Subtle detailing also highlights ordinary materials. The living room ceiling’s paneling continues straight up into the skylights, and, under them, narrow slots serve as HVAC supply vents. They reference the slatted wood exterior detailing, which appears on the carport and the gable ends of the metal roof. They’re especially prominent above the dining patio, where a lit cavity behind the gable end brings the pattern into relief at night. “You see something similar when you approach the house at night, when light shows through the side of the carport,” Cotton says. “In daytime it looks like just a vertical wood wall and at night it becomes a lantern. The wood panels connect back to the agrarian vernacular of a masonry base with lighter elements above.”
Nuanced materials tie the interior and exterior together, becoming more refined as they move inside. The exterior’s knotty-grade western red cedar transitions to a finer vertical grain on the interior. The patios’ bush-hammered concrete is scored on a 2-by-4-foot grid for slip resistance. Inside the slab-on-grade home, the scoring expands to 4-by-8, doubling as control joints, and the living area was hand-scattered with 1-inch limestone aggregate during the pour and then polished, lending a richness resembling terrazzo. “Our hope was that no single finish would shout, but would reward closer attention,” Cotton says.
A flat ceiling differentiates the kitchen/dining area from the living room, providing scale and framing the outdoor connection. There, a thick support pillar suggests additional separation; it houses a built-in oven and microwave, keeping them out of the main view. On the far wall is a hidden bar whose white doors fold back to open the cabinet completely. In lieu of upper cabinets, a walk-in pantry allowed for a large window over the working wall. Paired with the white oak kitchen cabinets are quartz countertops with a slight movement that mirrors the plaster walls. The quartz’s high-gloss finish reflects northern light deep into the kitchen.
“The clients’ energy is focused on the common spaces,” Cotton says. Bedrooms are basic by comparison, with built-in reading lights and corner windows, but not much furniture. One constant is the custom lighting—flush-mount, conical ceramic wall sconces with a matte finish on the outside and high gloss inside. Designed by one of the carpenters who has a ceramics degree, they point upward to light the ceilings on the interior, while the outside lights point down in deference to the resident wildlife. “They trace the outlines of those private volumes, like runway lights, directing you outward,” Cotton says.
This house is one of many she has created with builder Mike Long, who is also her life partner. Except for the environmental review that was required, the operation was straightforward given the flat site and plenty of room for staging. “There was not a lot of head-scratching because the mastermind architect resolved all those things,” he jokes. “But the framing had to be spot-on because of the considerable detailing. The person reading the drawings had to be able to see six steps ahead to the finished wall before the framing was completed.”
Indeed, the detailing amplifies the design in ways that delight the owners. “They were surprised positively by the daylight,” Cotton says. “They often will text me photos of the lighting at all different times of day or night and say, look at this! At a glance, it looks plain or austere but is brought to life by the changing light and connection to the outdoors.”
Inspired by neighboring missions, the house evokes a small compound, with bedrooms and patios rotating around a central living space, or courtyard.
The west patio (below right) and entire west yard are dedicated spaces for the clients’ many foster dogs.
Milky plaster lends an earthiness to the walls. The western red cedar ceiling seems to float above them, reminiscent of mission outposts with masonry bases and lighter elements above.
A thick support column houses the ovens, out of view of the living and dining rooms. The bar disappears behind fold-back doors.
The southeast-facing study (left) has a view of arriving visitors. A corridor off the main living space (middle) connects the dog patio on the left to the primary suite (right), which overlooks a native meadow.
Tierra de Paz
San Antonio, Texas
Architect: Cotton Estes, AIA, Cotton Estes Architect, San Antonio, Texas
Builder: Long House Builders, San Antonio
Landscape architect: Justin Davidson, La Paz Landscape, San Antonio
Structural engineer: Spaulding Structural Engineering, San Antonio
Project size: 2,240 square feet
Site size: 2.29 acres
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: Dror Baldinger, FAIA
Key Products
Cabinetry hardware: Emtek, Richelieu
Cladding: Western red cedar, U-Stucco
Cooking ventilation: Bosch
Cooktop: Bosch induction
Countertop: Daltile, Lueders limestone
Entry doors: Weather Shield
Exterior lighting: Schmidt Ceramics + Woodworks
Faucets: Grohe, Waterworks, Hansgrohe
Finishes: Emil Group, bathroom floors and walls
HVAC systems: Trane, American Standard
Icemaker: Scotsman
Insulation: Sto Corp., Carlisle SynTec
Interior lighting: Noguchi, Kuzco, WAC, Juno, Schmidt Ceramics + Woodworks
Ovens: Bosch
Paints/stains/coatings: Benjamin Moore, Bona, Vasari plaster Carrera White Sand
Passage door hardware: Omnia, Casson
Refrigerator/freezer: Fisher & Paykel
Roof windows: VELUX Skylights
Roofing: Berridge Manufacturing Company
Sinks: Ruvati, Scarabeo, Kohler
Thermal and moisture barriers: Huber Products, Sto Corp.
Toilets: Duravit
Ventilation: Panasonic
Window shading systems: Tektrim
Wine and beverage center: N’Finity
Wine refrigerator: Bosch
