Casa Escuda

San Antonio, Texas

General Contractor: Mauze Construction
Structural Engineer: M. Scott Williamson, PE
Landscape Architect: John S. Troy Landscape Architect
Decor: Tobin Smith Architect
Photography: Dror Baldinger, FAIA

Casa Escuda, composed of a series of shields that provide privacy and mitigate solar exposure, is a filter between a neighborhood and a nature preserve. The stout wall of varying courses of limestone references the natural strata of this Texas-quarried material. Fenestrations are modulated by these datum lines, revealing a precise resolution of material, composition and interior experience.

A steel-clad half pipe marks the entry; water from the roof cascades down this element and into a round cistern below before flowing through a runnel at the base of the stone façade. These oxidized elements celebrate water conveyance and distribute this captured resource to the landscape.

Passing through the wall one leaves behind the neighborhood context and enters a secluded realm focused on nature. A series of parallel planes capped by a galvanized blade and a two-story sculpted mass house the programmatic spaces – the main bedroom at the tip of the one-story wing and the children’s rooms elevated on the opposite end. Between these two geometries is a central patio, accessed from the public realm of the home, where crisp walls focus the eye on ephemeral foliage and skyscapes.