Lake Flato Houses - by Oscar Riera Ojeda (Hardcover)

About the Book

Lake Flato Architects, based in San Antonio and Austin, believe first and foremost that architecture should be rooted in its particular place, responding in a meaningful way to the natural or built environment. Using local materials and partnering with the best local craftsmen, Lake Flato seek to create buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and authentic, artful and crafted. Now more than thirty years since its founding, the firm has grown along with the range and complexity of its projects, yet it still considers the desire to build in partnership with the land to be an approach that remains valid and increasingly resonant. Lake Flato's first projects were houses, and these projects excite the firm still. By exploring the intimate relationship between family, place, and building, Lake Flato create unique living environments that possess a compelling authenticity and beauty.

Book Synopsis

Presenting their new and recent projects, LakeFlato Architects demonstrate the inexhaustible potential of the modern house to enter into a dialogue with nature.

LakeFlato Architects, based in San Antonio and Austin, believe first and foremost that architecture should be rooted in its particular place, responding in a meaningful way to the natural or built environment. Using local materials and partnering with the best local craftsmen, LakeFlato seek to create buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and authentic, artful and crafted.

Now more than thirty years since its founding, the firm has grown along with the range and complexity of its projects, yet it still considers the desire to build in partnership with the land to be an approach that remains valid and increasingly resonant. LakeFlato's first projects were houses, and these projects excite the firm still. By exploring the intimate relationship between family, place, and building, LakeFlato create unique living environments that possess a compelling authenticity and beauty.

Review Quotes

"In October, leading design publisher Rizzoli is publishing a new monograph on Lake Flato's residential work. Titled 'Lake Flato Houses: Respecting the Land' the architecture book will feature a wealth of homes, such as Verde Creek Residence that showcase the firm's careful considerations of place, the environment, and family living." --WALLPAPER

"Lake Flato's architecture offices are in San Antonio and Austin, but they've designed homes for clients all over the country. What's consistent in that wide-ranging oeuvre is a sense of place: In every instance, Flato works to use local materials and employ local artisans. The result is a series of modernist homes that look different from all the others (in a good way) and reflect a city's roots." --ROBB REPORT

"One of our best allies in sustainability is low-carbon construction--an area in which Austin and San Antonio architects LakeFlato have developed expertise over more than 30 years in the business. Through its work, which often taps into regional materials, the studio has proved that a home that is responsibly made can also be visually stunning. Take Horizon House, a residence in Las Vegas: Marrying steel, glass, and rammed-earth construction, the home is sleek and modern, as well as respectful of the environment and local building vernacular. Fittingly, the longtime sustainability advocate Ed Mazria (author of the 2030 Challenge) penned the foreword to this book, which presents 16 projects builtbetween 2014 and 2020." --ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST

"Engendering a dialogue with the natural world has been central to the practice of Texas-based LakeFlato Architects since 1984. And like a living thing, the firm has evolved over the years, developing an ever-keener fluency in the language of the environment. The firm's most recent projects - often spun of local materials worked by local craftsmen - are finely illuminated in LakeFlato Houses: Respecting the Land (Rizzoli New York, 2021)." --ASPIRE

"Take a deeper look at this Texas firm's most recent residential projects built in partnership with the land, rooted in its particular place, and responding in a meaningful way to the natural or built environment. This approach has served them well for the last 30 years and continues even more so today." --SOCIETY TEXAS

"Lake Flato, one of the preeminent sustainable-architecture outfits in the country, is known for high-profile projects including the Austin Central Library and the Pearl Brewery redevelopment as well as for residences, from ranch homes to city-dweller digs, that thoughtfully connect with their surroundings. Lake Flato Houses: Respecting the Land (Rizzoli New York, October 19) unpacks how the pair's ethos--that architecture ought to be firmly rooted in place, using local resources--has been a constant in their careers." --TEXAS MONTHLY

"san antonio and austin-based practice lake flato architects celebrates the publication of its monograph, LAKE FLATO HOUSES: RESPECTING THE LAND. for over thirty years, the studio has shaped unique living environments, driven by the belief that architecture should be rooted in its particular place and respond in a meaningful way to its context, whether natural or built. the newly completed monograph focuses on homes built between 2014 and 2020. it highlights the work's diverse locations and landscapes along with the evolution of client aspirations and construction challenges that the team has overcome. lake flato makes use of local materials and works together with the best regional craftsmen to introduce homes that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible, and authentic yet artfully crafted." --DESIGNBOOM

About the Author

Oscar Riera Ojeda is an editor and designer based in the United States, Hong Kong, and Argentina. He has designed, edited, and published more than 200 architecture, design, and photography books. He is the director of the eponymous boutique architecture publishing house Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers. Helen Thompson is a nationally known writer whose areas of specialty are interior design, architecture, kitchen design, and food. Thompson was formerly a food writer and editor for Texas Monthly magazine, where she worked for 17 years. She was also the Texas city editor for Metropolitan Home magazine and has written and produced articles for Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Living, Western Interiors, Traditional Home, Veranda, Country Home, and many other magazines.