A compelling survey of Texas houses that draw both on the heritage of pioneer ranches and on the twentieth-century design principles of modernism. Helen Thompson and Casey Dunn, the writer/photographer team that produced the exceptionally successful Marfa Modern, join forces again to investigate Texas modernism. The juxtaposition of the sleek European forms with a gritty Texas spirit generated a unique brand of modernism that is very basic to the culture of the state today. Its roots are in the early Texas pioneer houses, whose long, low profiles express an efficiency that is basic to the modern idiom. This Texas-centric style is focused on the relationship of the house to the site, the materials it is made of - most often local stone and wood - and the way the building functions in the harsh Texas climate. Dallas architect David R. Williams was the first to combine modernism with Texas regionalism in the 1930s, and his legacy was sustained by his protégé O'Neil Ford, who practiced in San Antonio from the late 1930s until his death in the mid 1970s. Their approach is seen today in the work of Lake/Flato Architects and a new generation of designers who have emerged from that distinguished firm and continue to elegantly merge modernism with the vocabulary of the Texas ranching heritage. Twenty houses are included from across the state, with examples in major urban centers like Dallas and Austin and in suburban and rural areas, including a number in the evocative Hill Country. ‘Dunn’s photos are inviting and supremely confident, and Thompson’s choices are revealing and fascinating. For anyone intrigued by architectural modernism (or for anyone purchasing a home who needs to steal some great ideas!).’ - Kirkus Reviews ‘Two years after releasing Marfa Modern, a book on the interiors of homes in Marfa, author Helen Thompson and photographer Casey Dunn are at again. This time, the Austin duo details modernism in Texas in Texas Made/Texas Modern. Using 19 projects from around the state, the book examines the relationship of the house to the site, the materials used and how structures function in the harsh climate.’ - Austin Home ‘A gorgeous display of modernist architecture and interior design that's particularly Texan.’ - Shelf Awareness Helen Thompson is a nationally known writer whose areas of specialty are interior design, architecture, kitchen design, and food. Helen 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 for 14 years. While at Metropolitan Home , Helen wrote about houses, restaurants, and gardens and produced many of the features shot in Texas during those years. She has also 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. She is also the author of Marfa Modern, The Big Texas Steakhouse Cookbook , and The Mansion on Turtle Creek Cookbook . Casey Dunn is an Austin-based architectural and landscape photographer whose work has appeared in Dwell , the New York Times Magazine , Interior Design , Architectural Digest , Architectural Record , and Paper City Magazine . When you see a modern house, you know it. Brash, lots of glass, radiating the shock of the new even though it’s been a century since the movement began, the architectural juggernaut powered through a world impatient to shake off the cultural excesses of the nineteenth century. The new aesthetic rejected the grandiosity of Victorian, Beaux-Arts, and neoclassical architecture, a repudiation that signaled a wondrous leap in the direction of the bold and the new. Modernism exuded authority, and it had an unequivocal look. Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, and writer, enumerated five characteristics:    •  Load-bearing columns to replace supporting walls    •  Open floor plans    •  Facades unencumbered by structural constraints    •  Horizontal windows that light rooms equally    •  Roof gardens Modernism was a perfect fit in Texas, where prosperity boomed and new technology begat structural and manufacturing advancements. But, the use of broad expanses of glass, so alluring as a hallmark of the style, was also its most glaring weakness—in Texas, at least. This was clear to two iconoclastic Dallas architects who fervently believed that modernist design in their state should take into account local nuances that the international movement ignored. David Williams and O’Neil Ford co-opted the modernist movement with their own version of what modern should look like in a state where topography, climate, and culture are powerful. The land and the climate were so compelling, in fact, that it made no sense to these two contrarians to create buildings that did not acknowledge their influence.