8 Austin Houses With Amazing Outdoor Wonderlands — a Home Tour Where Dramatic Landscaping Takes Centerstage

With Austin always a good place for a last-minute weekend getaway, we give you a heads up on this Saturday, April 23’s Austin Outdoor Living Tour, sponsored by Modern Architecture + Design Society. Even if you can’t make to the capitol for the tour, the accompanying images of backyards, pools, pergolas and gardens that make Austin’s outdoor spaces amazing are well worth a look-see.

Tickets for the tour are available here.

Organizers are also inviting Houston and Dallas landscape architects and designers to submit their creations for consideration for upcoming tours.

Casa Vicente

Inspired by the architecture of Luis Barragan, Austin Outdoor Design updated this house’s existing pool with a combination water feature and fire pit that overlooks a beautiful vista in Austin’s Northwest Hills greenbelt. The newly refreshed stucco walls surrounding the area were also inspired by Barragan’s lively palette.

“This outdoor living space celebrates what we as Austinites can enviably enjoy year-round: al-fresco entertainment. Situated above a custom deck, a steel pergola frames the lounging space and mirrors the architecture of the home,” a release notes.

Sandringham

Hatch Works Design Build, Studio 8C and Texas Tiny Pools combined their talents to transform a previously under-utilized backyard. The additions included a carport, a two-unit studio, a stunning outdoor kitchen patio and multiple entertaining areas.

Claire Avenue

While the sloping terrain in this Old West Austin home presented challenges, Colectivo Creative employed a contemporary Mexican eclectic array of materials and textures to create different spaces. Two distinct seating areas are completed by steel frames that afford ceiling fans, a must for those hot Austin summers.

La Casa

Working in Barton Hills, Open Envelope Studio created a sophisticated landscape across the property’s 3,865 square feet that is functional, resilient and sustainable. Meeting the client’s desires, the plan is unified in one design language and that maximizes the use of the three small outdoor spaces: a front, side and backyard.

Avenue H

Hurdles unique to Austin landscape design including a tight impervious cover, electrical lines, a protected tree and accessibility issues made this project in the North Loop area quite the challenge. Texas Tiny Pools, YardZen and Cutters Landscaping were up to the task creating an intimate and functional outdoor space.

The patent-pending custom deck was made in Texas Tiny Pools’ shop of 100 percent aluminum and Azek decking material.

Falcon Hill

Cozy and eccentric Austin flare was employed in the redesign of this yard that included an in-ground pool and outdoor movie theater. Native Edge Landscape embraced the task, employing windmill palms, cacti and yuccas paired with flowering perennials and ornamental grasses, which amplify the Southwestern ambiance.

Cottage Reimagined

It took a village to update this 1935 cottage in Old West Austin due to strict historic preservation requirements. But with the coordination between Barley/Pfeiffer Architecture, Hudson Custom Homes and landscape architect Dunne by Design, the task was accomplished. And the house will be open for touring — and so will the surrounding grounds of this distinctive 1,600-square-foot cottage.

Zilka Modern

A luxury outdoor kitchen and inviting pool begged for a few surrounding updates to further perfect the spaces. Hello, ecotopes which stepped in with embedded pathway planks to link the areas. Botanicals featuring native Texas plants were used to freshen up the poolside grounds and used within a variety of inventive steel planters.