Building the Black House.

The Black House project in Mangawhai is a 3-bedroom home designed by Frank Stanton from Dream Planning.

The client brief was to create a high performing modern home, inspired by container homes. The design is one of open plan living with great indoor outdoor flow, with key aspects focused on capturing the amazing coastal and rural views from the site.

The home is constructed using Nu Wall aluminium vertical weatherboards on cavity, stack bond block walls. The low roof line, from Carter Roofing, is gently angled to divert the prevailing wind flow as well as reinforce the box geometry of the design.
Key features include the high finish polished concrete floors, expertly finished by Polished Concrete Ltd. A large 9m sliding door in the living area creates a seamless flow from the interior space out onto the hardwood decking. The dramatic scale and lines are emphasised by the black kitchen and the negative detail ply ceiling. The continuous lines of the black rear façadeis emphasised by the contrasting red doors, which tie in with the negative detail red titan board feature wall.
Main challenges
Because the site is exposed to very high winds a lot of early starts were required to set out walls and roofing.
The joinery was strategically placed and sized to fit evenly between weatherboards. The architect Frank Stanton carefully calculated the position of each window to have an even amount of weatherboard either side.
To achieve the level entry shower, in the bathroom the concrete shower floor had to be formed as part of the concrete slab. This meant it had to be created while placing the floor, which proved quite a difficult challenge to ensure a good result. After much consultation with Polished Concrete Ltd. we came up with a viable strategy that delivered the desired outcome.