Swinson Residence
By Archimedia
Replacing a small bach on a flat, narrow site over the road from Onetangi Beach, this new house was sited to maximise views and privacy and to blend into the local environment. The owners, who have for many years commuted to Auckland, requested their new home retain a ‘beachy’ feel, include separate guest accommodation and be sensitive to neighbours.
Planning rules restricted building coverage to 160m2. The house has been divided into 2 blocks separated by a courtyard and built against a continuous plastered masonry wall along its western side. The main house on the seaward side contains the ‘L’ shaped open plan sitting, dining, and kitchen space at ground floor with varying ceiling heights and groupings of stacker doors framing views.
A polished concrete floor extends to terraces on the beach side and to the central courtyard, which provides a sheltered, private refuge away from the road.
The 4m wide upper level, clad in horizontal cedar boards and off set from the ground floor spaces, contains the main bedroom suite which projects out towards the water. A mono-pitch roof folds down to form the windowless western wall which reduces bulk and provides privacy.
This is repeated over the rear, cedar-clad block containing 2 guest bedrooms which merge into the pohutukawa canopy above the garage.
Waiheke Island, 2003
Project Team: Hamish Cameron
Photography: Trends
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Swinson Residence
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Archimedia is a New Zealand architecture practice with NZRAB and Green Star accredited staff, offering design services in the disciplines of architecture, interiors and ecology.
Archimedia uses the word “ecology” to extend the concept of sustainability to urban design and master planning and integrates this holistic strategy into every project.
Archimedia prioritises client project requirements, functionality, operational efficiency, feasibility, and programme. Once these fundamentals are soundly established, Archimedia pursues a sculptural architecture expressive of individual or collective identity.
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- Archimedia practices architecture as “material identity” – a crafted expression of individual or collective “identity” – embodying a synthesis of people, place and time.
- Archimedia investigates “identity” with each client and endows buildings with a perceptible meaning that expresses this “identity” – the philosophical parti for all Archimedia projects.
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