Hekerua Bay Residence

By Archimedia

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The site slopes north-east above a rocky cove on Waiheke island. The aspect from the site is across a bay and reef to a golden sand cove opposite.

The house is a collaboration with the client, an engineer with meticulous attention to detail, who owns a winery on the island. His sensibility for materials is directed by his Cypriot heritage and the sensory experiences founded in hospitality. His brief was a single line instruction to enhance the experience of the occupants.

As a structural engineer he has a love of concrete and in situ concrete was defined as the core material of the structure. The client sourced travertine, remembered from his childhood, that exactly matched the colour of the beach across the bay and the clay coloured sandstone of nearby island cliffs.

The curved concrete forms resonate with the gun emplacements that dot the isthmus – rudimentary, part buried, part exposed, strongly anchored, partly projecting from the land.

From these four posits – a specific material sensibility, an engineered concrete shell structure, the unrelentingly inclined topography of the place and the forms of the concrete buildings nearby – the house emerged.

The site is rebuilt as a series of platforms for living, aligned with the oblique contour, with a cubist pool of water part embedded, part exposed on the west edge.

The master suite, the reading room, a second guest suite and a studio are suspended above these platforms and between them create a stage for human interaction. This stage opens and closes to the exterior entirely, combining with the terraces and pool to create a sculptural surface bridging inside and out.

The east and west elevations clearly articulate the separation between site and superstructure and the single continuous line that traverses the outer edges of the concrete shells.

Waiheke Island,  2006

Project Team

  • Lindsay Mackie
  • Surya Fullerton

Photography:  Archimedia

Press & Awards

  • ArchDaily Building of the Year Nominated 2017
  • Home of the Year Short-Listed 2016
  • NZIA Short-Listed New Zealand Award for Architecture 2015
  • NZIA Auckland Award for Architecture 2015
  • NZCS Residential Award 2015
  • NZCS Monte Craven Architectural Award 2015
  • WAN House of the Year Award Long-Listed 2015

Professionals used in
Hekerua Bay Residence

Archimedia
Archimedia
Architects

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About the
Professional

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.

Identity

  • 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.
  • Archimedia respects all cultures and their protocols and the fundamental connectedness of all humanity.

Human Experience

  • Archimedia is ambitious for the betterment of both humankind and the environment.
  • Archimedia approachs design with the intent that human beings register an “experience” of architecture which uplifts their daily existence.

Environment

  • Archimedia strives for “beauty”, the exceptional and the inspirational in each and every commission, irrespective of budget.
  • Archimedia believes in tectonics – a poetic configuration of land, space and structure.
  • Archimedia believes in positive intervention – sustainability that enhances eco-systems.

Process

  • Archimedia believes that the very best process and the very best technology are critical contributors in our quest for the exceptional.
  • Archimedia invests resources to create a better design solution.

Collaboration

  • Archimedia believes in collaboration between equals and the power of teamwork.
  • Archimedia's staff are consultative by nature and use processes that encourage user decision making wherever possible.