The clients, two French brothers living in Singapore and Shanghai were struck by the outlook and drama of Turn Point.

The block had a designated building site on the southern side overlooking Four Fathoms Bay and in the shade most of the year. Instead the clients were taken by the outlook and drama of a narrow ridge facing northwest overlooking the point and gullies full of Nikau and regenerating broadleaves, up the long reach of the Pelorus Sound.

The challenge of this choice was accessibility. The site was 20m below a precipitous narrow forestry road, which itself was some 2km to the nearest barge landing, and some 50m above the sound. Discussions with David Kepes the selected contractor experienced in working the sounds, focussed on the difficulty and cost of accessing the site for both materials and labour.

It was decided to adopt the strategy of heli-lifting nearly prefinished buildings and subfloor frames to the site to minimise the need for site labour.  

The brief called for a dwelling with separate bedroom /study/bathrooms for each brother and a central living /eating /kitchen space. There was a desire for guest accommodation if affordable. The house would be used once or twice a year, predominantly in summer for the medium term.

The brief suited the heli-lifting strategy suggesting separate buildings of liftable size and weight. The design process thus necessitated an understanding of building mass. This was developed through research with heli-lifting specialists and our engineers. The idea of towers reflected the singular quality of the private spaces and suited the lifting approach. The communal building sits parallel to the water below, and extends out each end providing morning and evening outdoor spaces. These spaces receive sun and shelter from the land and sea breezes, so that the north eastern end is sheltered from the cool morning land breeze running from the south, and vice versa for the blustery afternoon sea breeze. This was created in two halves and winched together once landed on the sub frames.

The occasional use of the buildings and the strong western light and occasional winds, has been responded to with a system of operable and fixed louvers. These louvers, along with cladding of profiled coated aluminium, give the building the appearance of shipping containers and huts sitting on the hillside. The interiors were requested to be white by the clients and the exposed steel work was required for the extreme wind zone and loads exerted during flying.

A great deal of attention was given to the spaces between the buildings with terraces and decking, and retention of existing trees. Electricity is made on demand by a remote diesel generator and photovoltaics, and gas is used for water heating and cooking to minimise electricity loads. Solar hot water was not as suited for the intermittent use, and separate buildings. A biolytix septic tank suited the long periods of no use and rain water is collected from the roofs.

Architect Tennent + Brown Architects
LocationPelourus Sound, marlborough sounds, New Zealand
Project Year 2007
Plans

Contrasting Fearon Hay's prized Shark Alley house further up Medlands beach, the Sandhills Road House tucks itself into the shelter of the sand dunes to the East. Both wonderfully minimal, Sandhills is more of a traditional retreat, subdued with a calming pallette. Each bedroom has its on shuttered patio and the entire house can be shuttered closed in winter.
Fearon Hay's traditional polished concrete is limited to a hard wearing living/dining area that in summer, thanks to the shelter of the dunes, could easily be left wide open. The two sleeping pavilions are clad in black stained ply and constructed over height with the walls extending to form the railing of the upstairs deck/viewing platform - a short unintrusive deck, from which to soak up the Medlands beach sunrise.

Located on the Eastern coastline of the Huaraki Gulfs, Great Barrier Island the ‘Great Barrier House’ is a relaxed holiday destination that references traditional notions of bach occupation. Drawing inspiration from the idea of two sheds linked by stretched tarpaulin, the house consists of two habitable areas joined by an expansive floating pavilion. Wide expanses of sliding glass doors & adjustable blinds allow the pavilion to respond to different environmental conditions while providing the location for eating dining & relaxing within the natural surrounds of the property.

Clad in band sawn ply sheet the ‘sheds’ provide a modern take on the use of vernacular building materials. Coupled with the use of permeable metal screens the ability to manipulate outlook and environment from within the ‘sheds’, provides further reference to traditional notions of holiday occupation and response to site. As locations for the bedrooms and bathrooms these built forms offer a sense of refuge from the open pavilion space.

A roof deck upon the Northern ‘shed’, gives outlook and sea views, otherwise restricted by the site location behind the Medlands beach sand dunes and nestled amongst the neighboring properties. Standing upon the roof deck looking South-West towards aging corrugated farm sheds and looking North-East towards the expansive seascape, the Great Barrier House sits comfortably within its environment; offering a private retreat while allowing an occupation that embraces the surrounding landscape and context.

Architect Fearon Hay Architects
Location Great Barrier Island, New Zealand
Constructed Area 250 sqm
Project Year 2007-2008
Photographs Patrick Reynolds
Plans

Brief
Initially wanting a remodel of the existing villa, the clients' final brief entailed a bedroom and office on ground level along with the living spaces, a further bedroom for visiting family and a library. A north facing courtyard was also a requirement to provide a protected and private entry - and somewhere for summer evenings outdoors.


Site
The challenge of a narrow site and small site area, along with the associated height to boundary restrictions, meant innovative sollutions to sneak two stories in. These created a snug kitchen / dining area downstairs and set back bedroom and library upstairs.

The orientation of the site virtually due north and west, its linear nature, and the need for off street parking, dictated the placement of the built forms.
Views down the valley to the north and west are lapped up from the upstairs bedroom and library.




Design Approach
There was a conscious effort to avoid a totally open plan living space, instead creating two distinct areas where people could gather; the kitchen / dining area, or the main living space (to deal with larger family gatherings).

The home is organized around three main structural block walls that cantilever to support the upper level floor, and also provide a rhythm of structural elements along the main circulation route.
Building height restrictions lowered the ceiling height beneath the upper level spaces, which is reinforced with the use of exposed timber beams.


This ceiling treatment contrasts the finish and scale of the adjoining main living space to the west, and bedroom / office to the east.
The home is intended from the street to read as a contemporary version of a suburban villa, with the centrally placed windows to the bedroom and a rhythm of zinc sprayed steel verandah posts.
Materials have been limited to painted horizontal weatherboards on the ground level, and contrasting stained vertical boards and battens upstairs. Large sliding timber doors have been inserted into an aluminium glazing system, and external steel columns are zinc sprayed.
The raw palette of interior materials includes: concrete blocks, polished concrete floor, timber paneling, expressed timber joists, and timber / plywood joinery.

Architect Herriot + Melhuish: Architecture Ltd
Project team Max Herriot, Marcus Breitenmoser, Oliver Markham, Sara Newport
Contractor Dalton Construction
Plans

via:Herriot + Melhuish Architecture Ltd

Overview
Having recently picked up a New Zealand Architecture Award for 2008/9, this house exemplifies the latest in bach design. Not forgetting its heritage, the house uses traditional materials, in a befitting contemporary manner. Horizontal wethearbords, plywood and sheets of iron roofing were the mediums for many a handyman around coastal New Zealand, used to create simple holiday huts.

Today, the same materials have produced this modern wonder. A comfortable 4 bedroom home, with sheltered outdoor spaces and an upstairs retreat from entertaining for the owners.


Far from it's simple forebarers, this is a house where the living is easy. sheltered summer decks, outdoor showers, simple flow to the outside of the house and plenty of room for extra guests to camp out.

Brief
The client sought a family house on the beach, with four bedrooms plus studio and study. In this coastal setting, sun, views and habitable outdoor spaces alternately protected from and catching sun and wind were a priority.

Site
Located close to the beach and fronting the Waimarama domain, the site is constrained both in size and by the need to relocate the house if required. Set against these constraints is a spectacularly open landscape - the edge between sea and hills, and a relaxed aesthetic of a small beach community.

Design Approach
The design approach combined a rational geometrical sensibility with a romantic attachment to the land and tradition. Hence a simple composition of two interlocking volumes: a white bedroom wing, loosely derived from the repetitious plan of 'shearers quarters', inserted into a double height 'timber 'crate'.

The forms are then extended, layered and truncated in response to site, views, sun and programme. The resultant north-facing courtyard not only leads to the front door but also provides outdoor family space – strongly connected to the house and sheltered from the afternoon sea breezes. Visual connection through the house and to the landscape was a key driver of the design. In the main bedroom upstairs, capturing the full drama of the sunrise and the expansive views from Cape Kidnappers to Bare Island were significant.

More than just a 'beach house', this is an all-year round dwelling. However, the need to relocate the building if required ruled out concrete construction. Instead high levels of insulation, heat pump technology and solar panels on the roof, augment the large double glazed openings that capture sun and trap heat in winter, but cool through sea breezes in summer.

The composition of natural oiled cedar weatherboards, painted plywood and weathered zinc sheet both connects the house to the landscape and some older local traditions, but equally clearly sets it apart from a lot of the local built context. This is a house strongly connected to the land but prepared, if the sands and tides shift against it, to move.

Architect Herriot + Melhuish: Architecture Ltd

Project team John Melhuish, Max Herriot, Oliver Markham
Contractor Mark Dawson
Photographer Paul Brimer
Google Location

Plans