Tennent Brown Architects
Project Location:
Leigh
Categories:
Residential Architectural Excellence
Project Description:
The site sits at the cliff edge above the entrance to Leigh Harbour in Omaha Bay with a view toward Little Barrier Island. There are intimate views from the site back into Leigh harbour. The site is exposed to the fierce easterly winds and loses the afternoon sun early. It is surrounded by mature Pohutakawa and a large Morton Bay Fig which filter views to the harbour.
We imagined the house as slipping up out of the cliff, as one strata moving against another. The weathered Lawson’s Cypress cladding was chosen to silver with time and merge with the trees surrounding the property. We liked the idea of the skin being a living thing and responding to the nature of the site by allowing aging and weathering.
The inscrutable nature of the house was not to discover all in one glance- to not be able predict how the house unfolded. We described the house as a working house – an elegant barn.
The interior palette was kept to contrast to the wooden industrial style furniture using only giboard, hoop pine ply and recycled kauri floor boards. The hoop pine ply lining was used as a feature in certain rooms and areas, lining the winter-garden and fire-room. Exposed macrocarpa beams contain the room and recall barn structures. The timber slatted screen was used to structure the space yet allow visual connected. The design followed ideas of veiling and slipping – cedar slats to the exterior veil the views into the house. The wood used throughout the project was to bring warmth and an interior richness in a simple way and reinforce an idea of containment.