In an environment where transition is at the fore, designing a building that articulated a sense of permanence yet echoed the ever changing surrounds became the basis for the brief for this simple family holiday home.
On a site bounded on one side by dunes-behind which the land falls away to the street-this house sits low in the coastal grasses, appearing to hug the dunes to the east while bunker-like in form to the west; the lower level of the two-storeyed house dug into the ground.
The simple structure of this holiday home is defined by the area’s rugged beauty of which the in situ concrete walls speak. “From the outset, we didn’t want to design a house that would dominate the surrounding landscape,” architect Gavin Donaldson says. “Rather, we wanted to create a home that offered a subtlety of form and one that created a harmonious balance between permanence and transience.
“This was a place designed to create a restful and relaxing haven in which the clients could spend time away from the busy hustle and bustle of Auckland. It was important to the owners that the structure didn’t develop a ‘box-on-box’ form; they wanted a home that offered as much connection with the dunes and beach as possible.”
What transpired was a long, low-slung home that from the coast appears compact and single-storeyed due to a clever use of the undulations in which the top storey is level with the dunes while the lower storeys seem to fall away with the site. Interestingly the lowest level appears just as connected with the land, by way of being carved into it, as the highest level that sits within the dunes.
The structure itself offers an inescapable permanence in its in-situ concrete form. “The idea of using a traditional technique of exposed in-situ concrete developed from the idea that we wanted to create a pure form that was both robust and low maintenance,” Gavin explains.
In association with Forté.
Click the link to view the full project: archipro.co.nz/projects/tairu...
28 июн 2020
