Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Waiatarua House
Waiatarua House
Auckland, New Zealand
Project Featured on Jun 18, 2014
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Other Projects by Monk Mackenzie
Waiatarua House
Auckland, New Zealand
Project Featured on Jun 18, 2014
The brief was for a new house on a challenging, steep site in a bush clad creek gully. One of the design challenges was to insert a bold intervention into a sensitive bush reserve while still maintaining a sense of poetic modesty. The house was designed for a couple in their mid-60s who had always wanted a house surrounded by nature, though not far removed from city life - a place of respite from the speed of city life.
Conceived as a series of sculptural components, the design plays on purity and scale of the program articulated through three simple elemental forms that step down the site toward the creek – the roof of one floor creating a level platform for the next.
The exterior is black-stained timber and appears as a dark silhouette behind the veil of green foliage provided by the trees. The design intentionally does not try to compete or mimic the wild beauty and intricacy expressed in the surrounding natural environment, but rather assumes a quiet, understated position in contrast – a reductivist idiom, stripped of excessive articulation and noise.
From the point of entry, the house offers a range of spatial experiences across the width of the floorplate; transitioning from an almost subterranean position in the landscape to an elevated point perched among tree canopies.
The parti for the interior explores a sterotomic spatial diagram, where the overall volume of the house is carved to accommodate vertical circulation and a number of functional overlays. Rooms are served by, and branch out from a vertical circulation shaft that runs the full height of the house.
Bleached, buffed, and then oiled to accentuate the grain, American oak panelling is applied to ceilings and walls to create a singular materiality and serve as a counterpoint to the exterior.
The top floor accommodates a small study nook at the top of the stair landing. An oblique geometric screen orientates views and allows natural light to permeate this area without unwanted views to the neighboring property.
Conceived as a series of sculptural components, the design plays on purity and scale of the program articulated through three simple elemental forms that step down the site toward the creek – the roof of one floor creating a level platform for the next.
The exterior is black-stained timber and appears as a dark silhouette behind the veil of green foliage provided by the trees. The design intentionally does not try to compete or mimic the wild beauty and intricacy expressed in the surrounding natural environment, but rather assumes a quiet, understated position in contrast – a reductivist idiom, stripped of excessive articulation and noise.
From the point of entry, the house offers a range of spatial experiences across the width of the floorplate; transitioning from an almost subterranean position in the landscape to an elevated point perched among tree canopies.
The parti for the interior explores a sterotomic spatial diagram, where the overall volume of the house is carved to accommodate vertical circulation and a number of functional overlays. Rooms are served by, and branch out from a vertical circulation shaft that runs the full height of the house.
Bleached, buffed, and then oiled to accentuate the grain, American oak panelling is applied to ceilings and walls to create a singular materiality and serve as a counterpoint to the exterior.
The top floor accommodates a small study nook at the top of the stair landing. An oblique geometric screen orientates views and allows natural light to permeate this area without unwanted views to the neighboring property.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.