Totara Pavilion is a small building that complement the existing main house built on the street frontage. The pavilion is built alongside the boundary on the backyard, and it includes a gym, a rumpus room, bicycle storage with bikes washing area, deck for the SPA, sauna room and bathroom.
A big feature of the garden area is a well-established Totara tree that the pavilion celebrates wrapping around its trunk and with a floor to ceiling window.
The design intent was to soften the edge of the garden with transparency and extensive use of timber.
It is a functional building that suggest a sense of calm, achieved softening the simple shape with accurate detailing and transparency through the timber windows, the movable timber screen and the pergola.
It transitions seemingly with the garden that separate it from the house, with a series of decks and small steps.
The interiors are reflective of the character of the build, with oak timber floor, birch plywood ceiling and timber joinery.
The design of the timber shelving is adding complexity to the simple envelope, creating dynamism in the use of different thickness and cantilevered shelves.
The big skylights in the rumpus room allow an intimate connection with the Totara branches and the filtering sun light from the north.