Climate-Resilient Masterpiece Helps 80-Something Couple Age in Place
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VISION House Austin combines passive design, a cutting-edge building envelope, and sustainable products to create a resilient home with easy living features.
In a time of record heat, grid instability, and growing climate uncertainty, one couple in their mid-80s has proven it’s never too late to build the home of your dreams.
Crafted with meticulous attention to climate and comfort, VISION House Austin addresses the demands of the Texas Hill Country—an intelligent fusion of passive design, high-performance materials, and resilient technologies. The home is proof that “aging in place” is more aptly called “thriving in place.”
“Sustainability is not technology; it’s green thinking. This is not about the gizmos,” emphasizes renowned architect Peter Pfeiffer, FAIA, of Barley|Pfeiffer Architecture, who designed the home. “This house was designed to work with nature, not against it. We focused on ventilation, daylighting, house orientation, and a building envelope that makes sense for this specific climate.”
As an example of green thinking solving problems, Pfeiffer included a special proprietary roof design to address the searing Texas sun. The galvalume roof is installed above the roof underlayment to induce ventilation between the two.
“It’s a great radiant barrier,” Pfeiffer explains. “The underside has the radiant barrier coating that only lets about 20% of the heat penetrate through the roof to the airspace below, which is ventilated. So we have a ventilated ‘shading umbrella’ roof, yet a sealed attic below—the best of both worlds.”
A Human Story in a High-Performance Shell
The Georges aren’t your typical first-time custom home clients. Both in their 80s, they approached the project with clear intentions: to build a right-sized, low-maintenance, high-performance home that would carry them comfortably through the rest of their lives.
Their new home features a detached garage to improve indoor air quality, shaded and thermally efficient windows, a radiant barrier metal roof that works like a “shade umbrella,” and a thoughtfully compact footprint that lives large—complete with open spaces, a breezy screened porch, and energy-efficient smart appliances.
“This home reflects four decades of building science and sustainability know-how,” says Pfeiffer. “It doesn’t shout. It performs.”
In its first month, the home’s electric bill came in at negative $73—a result of thoughtful solar panel placement, passive cooling design, airtight ductwork, and a whole-home energy management system.
The Resilient Vision
The VISION House Austin isn’t just a showcase of great architecture. It’s part of Green Builder Media’s broader initiative to demonstrate what’s possible in residential construction.
“The intelligent design enhances energy efficiency by reducing the heating and cooling load. Resilient materials increase the home’s ability to withstand nature’s fury. And an integrated solar + battery storage system ensures that the house will remain functional in the event of an extreme climate event or power outage,” Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman says. “The VISION House Austin demonstrates that sustainable architecture can be affordable and practical for everyday living—and that a home with a lower carbon footprint can lead to a higher quality of life for homeowners.”
COGNITION Smart Data, Green Builder Media’s pioneering suite of market intelligence and data services, uses cutting-edge cognitive learning technology to deliver the insights you need to align products, messaging, and innovation with what homebuyers actually want.
COGNITION is the only market insights platform specifically engineered for the building industry’s sustainability transformation. We track evolving consumer behaviors, emerging technologies, policy shifts, competitive benchmarks, and market demand signals so you can adjust faster, sell smarter, and grow revenue—confidently.
Cati O’Keefe is the editorial director of Green Builder Media. She has 25 years of experience reporting and writing on all aspects of residential housing, building and energy codes, green building, and sustainability.
Climate-Resilient Masterpiece Helps 80-Something Couple Age in Place
VISION House Austin combines passive design, a cutting-edge building envelope, and sustainable products to create a resilient home with easy living features.
In a time of record heat, grid instability, and growing climate uncertainty, one couple in their mid-80s has proven it’s never too late to build the home of your dreams.
Crafted with meticulous attention to climate and comfort, VISION House Austin addresses the demands of the Texas Hill Country—an intelligent fusion of passive design, high-performance materials, and resilient technologies. The home is proof that “aging in place” is more aptly called “thriving in place.”
“Sustainability is not technology; it’s green thinking. This is not about the gizmos,” emphasizes renowned architect Peter Pfeiffer, FAIA, of Barley|Pfeiffer Architecture, who designed the home. “This house was designed to work with nature, not against it. We focused on ventilation, daylighting, house orientation, and a building envelope that makes sense for this specific climate.”
As an example of green thinking solving problems, Pfeiffer included a special proprietary roof design to address the searing Texas sun. The galvalume roof is installed above the roof underlayment to induce ventilation between the two.
“It’s a great radiant barrier,” Pfeiffer explains. “The underside has the radiant barrier coating that only lets about 20% of the heat penetrate through the roof to the airspace below, which is ventilated. So we have a ventilated ‘shading umbrella’ roof, yet a sealed attic below—the best of both worlds.”
A Human Story in a High-Performance Shell
The Georges aren’t your typical first-time custom home clients. Both in their 80s, they approached the project with clear intentions: to build a right-sized, low-maintenance, high-performance home that would carry them comfortably through the rest of their lives.
Their new home features a detached garage to improve indoor air quality, shaded and thermally efficient windows, a radiant barrier metal roof that works like a “shade umbrella,” and a thoughtfully compact footprint that lives large—complete with open spaces, a breezy screened porch, and energy-efficient smart appliances.
“This home reflects four decades of building science and sustainability know-how,” says Pfeiffer. “It doesn’t shout. It performs.”
In its first month, the home’s electric bill came in at negative $73—a result of thoughtful solar panel placement, passive cooling design, airtight ductwork, and a whole-home energy management system.
The Resilient Vision
The VISION House Austin isn’t just a showcase of great architecture. It’s part of Green Builder Media’s broader initiative to demonstrate what’s possible in residential construction.
“The intelligent design enhances energy efficiency by reducing the heating and cooling load. Resilient materials increase the home’s ability to withstand nature’s fury. And an integrated solar + battery storage system ensures that the house will remain functional in the event of an extreme climate event or power outage,” Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman says. “The VISION House Austin demonstrates that sustainable architecture can be affordable and practical for everyday living—and that a home with a lower carbon footprint can lead to a higher quality of life for homeowners.”
Click here to read about VISION House Austin. The site includes photos and a video with important points about the house. Also, see our YouTube mini-documentary “Resilient by Design: Inside the VISION House Austin.”
The VISION House Austin was made possible by the generous support of the following sponsors:
AHF (Armstrong and Crossville)
Andersen Windows and Doors
Builders First Source
Fabral
Field Controls
GE Profile
Henry
James Hardie
Savant
TimberTech
Trane Technologies
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COGNITION is the only market insights platform specifically engineered for the building industry’s sustainability transformation. We track evolving consumer behaviors, emerging technologies, policy shifts, competitive benchmarks, and market demand signals so you can adjust faster, sell smarter, and grow revenue—confidently.
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By Cati O'Keefe
Cati O’Keefe is the editorial director of Green Builder Media. She has 25 years of experience reporting and writing on all aspects of residential housing, building and energy codes, green building, and sustainability.Also Read