Tucked behind an existing home, this addition for a photographer and his family balances the spatial demands of a double-height studio with Austin’s restrictive zoning and heritage tree protections. What began as a detached structure evolved into something more integrated—a quiet intervention stitched to the house via a glass-lined den that acts as a luminous, leafy threshold.

The studio itself rises in contrast, pushing upward until the city’s height rules intervene, slicing the volume and giving the roofline its sculptural profile. A dense, charcoal-colored stucco skin wraps the form, its surface broken by a deliberate pattern of expansion joints that extend across the ground plane to respect the roots of a mature pecan tree.

From the street, the addition barely announces itself. But from the backyard, it becomes a study in contrast—reserved but expressive, grounded but full of lift.

All professional images by Craig Washburn. Design imagery and construction photos by the Derrington Building Studio team unless noted otherwise.