Baxter's House
A unique ridgeline home at Kennedy Point on Waiheke Island is composed to capture it’s wide and elevated views.
It’s a home for a couple and their dog Baxter.
The brief to Strachan Group Architects (SGA) from the client was for a permanent home with the Waiheke lifestyle to be encapsulated in an easy living, non-pretentious home with stunning coastal views. Guests needed to be accommodated in the home with separation from the owners being a requirement. The home was to have an efficient floor plan with no wasted space and constructed with low maintenance materials.
SGA’s Roy Tebbutt and Kelly O’Sullivan designed the home keeping neighboring homes to the east and west of the site in mind. There is transparency through the centre which creates a “breezeway” with living areas through the heart of the home. Each side is “bookended” with bedrooms offering privacy.
The home has a modest split-level floor plan: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small garage, and a single open living space. The garage and entry are low on the site with the main bedroom and ensuite elevated above. Living and guest spaces sit at a level between, connecting through the centre of the plan to both a windward and a leeward deck. Booth dining seating and low room dividers have been used to further increase spatial efficiency.
“The home has been imagined as a composition of silhouettes on the ridgeline”, say SGA. “Dark toned materials (Espan® 340 in COLORSTEEL® Flaxpod® Matte and shiplap cedar cladding) and peaked roof forms enhance this notion when viewed from car ferries and watercraft passing the base of the cliff below. Mature Pohutukawa trees border the home when viewed from afar, while framing the distant vistas looking out”.
Consideration was given to setbacks from the southern cliff, the home is sited back from the crest to avoid the need for extensive retaining. The 1,000m2 site required a concise building footprint to accommodate site services and on-site effluent systems.
A comprehensive set of details from SGA ensured productive and meaningful prior meetings and forward planning for construction with build partners Create + Construct and Euroclass Roofing.
This collaboration was also key given the limited number of site deliveries: it resulted in the astute architectural combination of lightweight timber construction and metal rather than structural steel and concrete, this also eased delivery of materials to the island.
The use of timber in the subfloor, framing and roof structure with minimal use of steel and concrete meant the release of carbon during the build was reduced.
Glazing for solar access was considered to work with both winter and summer sun conditions, giving the owners a comfortable interior environment. Strategic openings for natural ventilation help to further regulate seasonal temperatures.
Low maintenance COLORSTEEL® features on the elevated and harder to access parts of the home with timber cladding employed around lower areas with access mainly off a low step ladder.
Cladding and flashing work played a significant role in the aesthetics of this Waiheke build. Espan® 340 in COLORSTEEL® Flaxpod® Matte finish was chosen for the roofing and cladding. The Espan® trays were folded around corners with meticulous attention to ensure the trays met up exactly to clip in the final full tray.
Euroclass Roofing wrapped each end structure of the design, the colour of the Espan® material complementing the accompanying shiplap cedar to create a clean exterior feature.
Strachan Group Architects (SGA)
A multiple award-winning Auckland practice, the team brings a highly developed sense of craft to the task of creating sustainable buildings with precision and excellence.
The interpretation of a client’s brief is matched with a complex understanding of site, the impacts of the natural environment and the many contexts within which a building must operate. SGA adds a precise understanding of construction requirements, along with the ability to communicate ideas about building as they develop throughout the build process.