"But today, nature gets a small thrill. A Cadillac Escalade penetrates the pastoral scene, its gleaming black steel in sleek contrast to the native flora and fauna."

"At the wheel, vintage-fashion dealer and Park Cities ex-pat Robin Cook navigates the twists and turns with the kind of speed (full-throttle) and confidence that come only from knowing your way around a place."

"She should. Cook and her husband, retired builder Terry Wegner, recently completed their dream home here, part of a new eco-modern development they've founded called Rural Hip."

"Cook taps the brakes and slows to a near stop, waiting respectfully for a squirrel to cross the road before she calmly resumes driving."

"The boxy outline of Cook and Wegner's home is at odds with what your brain expects to see here: a low-slung ranch or prairie-style farmhouse."

"But as your eyes adjust to the angular lines, the modular shape recedes into its surroundings, thanks to its deliberate composition of natural materials, earth-toned finishes and walls of glass that reflect sky and trees."

"Rural Hip is an apt description of Cook and Wegner's emerging naturalist, utopian enclave. The couple's home is the first built on land sectioned into 11 five-acre parcels. Future owners can work with modernist architects such as Marlon Blackwell and Clifford Welch to customize any of five preapproved shelter designs. Three lots have already been sold."

"Wegner refers to the concept as "ruburbia," a term coined by writer J.D. Reed in a 1983 "

" magazine essay describing a new kind of rural-suburbia, one based on clusters of homes nestled on large, private lots surrounded by nature."

"As a builder, Wegner has always been on the leading edge. His résumé includes a stint with Trammell Crow, and projects ranging from the Escada and Ferragamo boutiques in Highland Park Village, to a modern home with Dallas architect Gary Cunningham, even work in Paris and London."

"For their Athens home, Wegner worked with 38-year-old Austin-based designer Chris Krager, whose KRDB firm drew national attention in 2003 when its first project made the cover of "

""This house is about nature," Krager says from his office in Austin. "Every room is designed to engage the landscape in a different way, from how the living room spills out onto the patio to the treehouse-like master bedroom. The windows actually frame the views as if they were art.""

"Of course, building a home in the country comes with practical concerns. To solve these, and incorporate Wegner's request for "green" or sustainable building materials, Krager turned to technology."

""We used metal-clad SIPs to create a more efficient thermal envelope," he says. Translation: The home is built from three- and six-inch-thick "structurally insulated panels," which resist rot, mold and infestation and are as energy-efficient as a giant refrigerator. And they're strong, says Wegner, citing a house built with SIPs in Lake Charles, La., that withstood hurricane-force winds in 2005."

"Also keeping things comfortable and eco-friendly here are a geothermal heating and cooling system, a rechargeable aquifer buried 600 feet below ground, and a driveway and entry road composed of crushed iron ore."

"As for staying connected to the outside world, Cook and Wegner don't have a telephone land line, but they can surf the Net and download movies on the development's own Wi-Fi broadband network."

"So, how do you go from Shenandoah Drive in Highland Park to CR 2800 in East Texas ? and why?"

"Wegner owned a getaway ranch in Athens for years, and Cook loved spending weekends there. The seed for Rural Hip was born."

""There's no stress out here," explains Cook, perched on a bar stool in the couple's sun-washed kitchen. "We never have to worry about being in a traffic jam.""

"While future residents of Rural Hip may treat it
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