Mountain View House

Strachan Group Architects

Sited just beyond the shadow of Maungawhau (Mount Eden), the building is a response to the mountain's dominant presence in the landscape.

The roof planes rise to the sun, reaching for the mountain and extending over a double height glazed volume at the northern end of the house. This communal living space is a transitional zone, both interior & exterior, filtering and controlling the sunlight and framing the slightly incongruous rural views of the mountainside in an otherwise suburban landscape.
The clients, an elderly and very socially active couple, required a house intimate enough to occupy by themselves and equally able to accommodate a constant stream of guests, children and grand-children. Expansive glazed sliding doors allow the relatively modest living spaces to bleed into each other with an oversized vertical lift door extending the connections to the landscape.
Movement through the house is eased for the elderly occupants with wide openings and level thresholds. A hydraulic lift provides effortless access to the more private sitting area and bedrooms on the upper floor.
Passive heating and ventilation principles are exploited to control the interior environment. The building’s envelope allows light & warmth from the sun to penetrate deeply into the building in winter, despite the North-South elongated site & floor plan. Tiled, concrete floors and reverse block veneer walls provide thermal mass, with high levels of insulation to ensure energy efficiency. Fixed and sliding timber screens provide sun control and secure ventilation options. Supplementary heating is provided by a wood burner stove and a solar system provides hot water to the house. Rainwater is collected to irrigate vegetable gardens and fruit trees and to feed the ponds and garden water feature.
Traditional painted weatherboards and natural timber provide links to the existing housing stock and are combined with materials that are fire-formed like the volcano, steel portal frames, glass and caged rocks wrested from the site.
A building intended to stand out and still be very much of its place.

Location:

Auckland, New Zealand

Builder:

Bramley Contractors Ltd

Structural Engineer:

Adam Mackenzie

Cladding:

Hermpac - Quarter Sawn Finger jointed Cedar Weatherboards.
Metalcraft Industries - Corrugated Zincalume