A Black House That Lives in the Garden LEED Platinum Modern Home in Texas

#blackhouse #homedesign #architecture
A Black House That Lives in the Garden | LEED Platinum Modern Home in Texas

The Winnwood Residence is a 4,600-square-foot, single-story contemporary home designed to dissolve the boundary between architecture and landscape. Conceived as a solid black plaster mass carved by voids, the house is surrounded on all four sides by lush gardens—one of them a protected conservation park managed by Texas Parks & Wildlife and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Designed for an owner who is both an interior designer and an avid gardener, the residence offers a year-round experience of outdoor living. Every interior view terminates in greenery, ensuring a constant visual connection to nature. Carefully carved exterior voids create sheltered transition zones between inside and outside, reinforcing the home’s intimate relationship with the landscape.

Large sliding glass doors open fully into integrated wall pockets at opposite ends of the house, allowing natural ventilation to flow through the main living spaces. These expansive openings enable the home to breathe, blurring the distinction between interior rooms and the surrounding gardens. During the day, abundant natural light floods the interior through full-height glazing and a large central skylight, often eliminating the need for artificial lighting.

Inside, the architecture is intentionally restrained. Smooth, reflective plaster surfaces subtly capture and mirror the changing colors of daylight, vegetation, and sky. This minimal interior palette allows the landscape to become the primary visual and emotional focus of the home. Outside, the black plaster façade acts as a quiet backdrop to nature, absorbing shadow and emphasizing light filtering through trees. Over time, climbing Boston ivy is expected to soften the architecture further, allowing the building to age gracefully within its environment.

Sustainability is seamlessly embedded in the design. Although not initially requested by the client, the project ultimately achieved USGBC LEED for Homes Platinum certification and operates as a Net Positive Energy home. The residence integrates a geothermal heat pump, rooftop photovoltaic solar array, rainwater harvesting system, and drip irrigation for the extensive gardens. Nearly 90 percent of rainwater collected from the roof is stored in an underground tank, reinforcing the home’s commitment to environmental stewardship.

The architecture proposes a new vocabulary—decidedly un-local in form, yet deeply rooted in the Texas lifestyle. It is a house that does not dominate its site, but instead frames and amplifies it. At its core, the Winnwood Residence is as much about light, air, and landscape as it is about walls and structure—an elegant demonstration of how modern architecture can embody both luxury and responsibility.

Architects: 5G Studio Collaborative - https://www.5gstudio.com/
Window/Door Systems: Western Window Systems - https://westernwindowsystems.com/
Structural Engineering: Datum Engineers - https://www.datumengineers.com/
Landscape Architects: Hocker Design Group
Photo: Adam Mørk - https://www.instagram.com/adammork/?h...
MEP Engineering: IEG
Window/Door Systems: Western Window Systems
Manufacturers: VELUX
Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC): ADW Corporation
Floor Tile: American Tile
Manufacturers: Atlas Concorde
Photovoltaic Solar: Axium Solar
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Project Year: 2015
Category: Private Houses
Stories By: 5G Studio Collaborative, Western Window Systems

Drone in D by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

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#LEEDPlatinum
#SustainableDesign
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#IndoorOutdoorLiving
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