Dexters Retreat, Raglan Lifestyle

THE CHALLENGE

After walking over the section, I was absolutely inspired by the beautiful Northern aspect of the coastal lifestyle Waikato Region, the rolling hills in the countryside and the feel about this magic location, located right above Raglan on the hills. 

Reading through the brief & sketches of my client, he dreamed of living in a large elongated home drenched in sunlight all day long. He saw himself living in a home with a great indoor outdoor flow, a very modern and minimalist open plan layout, full of glass, but at the same time very low profile. The site was sloping on average and the platform fairly narrow for such a large project but he also wanted a large u-turn & parking area.

My client desired a very simplistic roofline with lots of outdoor living areas as well as large stacker doors opening all along the Northern Eastern side. The challenge was the slopping site and the amount of glass. He also loved the use of raw material such as cedar and concrete to add a bit of flare to the design.

THE SOLUTION

We chose vertical Western Cedar for cladding and added features such as concrete fireplace , concrete tilt panels and outdoor concrete fireplace like Flare fires to give it this industrial look. We designed the space with a minimal simplistic and modern architectural approach, and complemented this with elegance and style.

The 16m Long x 7m wide room of glass walls in the living wing was structurally challenging. To make this work, we designed it with engineered steel portals. The large open cast-in concrete fireplace and the tilt concrete wall panel leaning at 12 degrees over the carport (which was the client’s idea) made the home charismatic to its owner.

The interior was featured with a negative detail birch plywood wall and ceiling from Plymaster, some kitchen features like a cool cast-in concrete bench, contrasting with a oak plywood cabinetry brought warmth to the space. Every part and detail of this house has been chosen carefully and the result is stunning.

A huge part of it was making sure that the right builder was in charge of this challenging project, well done Silas from Kre8tive Construction, you have nailed it!

CREDITS

• Construction: Kre8tive Construction Ltd
• Architect : Rubix Architecture
• Photography: Dickeybird Create