House for Brent & Jazz
By Imagine Architecture
The brief from Brent & Jazz was for a family home to provide a sanctuary on their narrow city site. Key comments early on were “Japanese/Zen/Modernist style with outdoor living and swimming pool integrated into the design”. The material palette was to include precast concrete walls, polished concrete floors and vertical cedar cladding. Outdoor living was a high priority so easy access between indoor and outdoor spaces was essential as was ensuring adequate sun was available at different times of the day to the patios and the pool.
The journey through this home begins with a concrete front fence embossed with the street number. Entering the front court via the steel gate is a lushly vegetated entry patio framed by concrete walls and large concrete soffit overhang, finishing with a large, solid cedar door. Once inside the eye is drawn through the home to the finely crafted timber & steel stairs followed by the open living space with a sophisticated white, black and timber kitchen. To create a sense of space and light the volume of the open plan living areas is extended vertically through a dining room double height space and a 3.6m lounge ceiling. The journey continues past three bedrooms & a bathroom and finishes with a short step out to the in-ground pool.
Upstairs there is the master bedroom suite, separate living room and office nook. City, mountain and coastal views are gained from this level. The master suite enjoys a generous walk through wardrobe and luxurious en-suite.
The confines of the site posed a few issues. How do we fit the spaces required and maintain a sense of space, privacy and access to sunlight? The solution was first to establish when the different spaces were to be used and then with that data in mind careful bulk modelling was done to track sun angles into the spaces at both different times of the day and the year. This process determined the optimum allocation of space and light whilst still adhering to good practice in passive solar design.
With the street frontage north facing and the garage occupying a large portion of this area access to solar gain was focussed on balancing the eastern and western sun angles in a ratio of 2/3 east and 1/3 west. The smaller, narrower western windows not only metered the solar gain in the afternoon, but they also afforded privacy from the adjacent 2 storey neighbour. With so much thermal mass storage in the walls and floors the effects of the low amount of northern glazing is somewhat mitigated.
Structure is strongly expressed in this home with the concrete ground floor, concrete walls and steel beams all fully exposed. Upper floor is also concrete. The roof is timber framed. Further expression of detail is seen through the structure of the staircase with its steel verticals providing both support and aesthetic.
The finer details of the house are accentuated with LED lighting, high spec electrical faceplates and a discreet audio system.
Photography by Kallan MacLeod
Designer: Tony Biesiek – Imagine Building Design
Builder: Pzazz Taranaki
Site area: 564m2
Floor area: 275m2
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House for Brent & Jazz
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House for Brent & Jazz
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About the
Professional
Imagine Architecture (formally Imagine Building Design) is a multi-award winning architectural design practice that has been in business since 2002 with specialist expertise in Residential and Commercial design. Our practice has evolved through many iterations over the years. From starting in a shoebox home office, to growing into occupying historic premises at the Kings Building in New Plymouth, then to a sleek downtown high street practice. We have now gone back to our roots with small studio setups for Tony Biesiek out of Think Co in Tauranga and Steven Dixon in New Plymouth.
“Changing lives through great architecture & design”. That is the mission of Imagine Architecture. Since 2002, we have sought to infuse that mission into every project. Our designs are for high performance buildings that change lives. To achieve this, we combine aesthetics & energy efficiency with comfort & architectural appeal, function & use of space with quality interaction with the environment.
This approach is applied across all our projects irrespective of size or budget. We believe there is opportunity in every project to make better choices. This is accomplished thanks to better decision making to improve the quality of the space experienced by its occupants. Merely meeting minimum building code requirements is not enough. Exceeding minimums is the key to better buildings, be they new architectural homes or commercial structures. Optimum performance ahead of minimum compliance every time. Architecture with attitude!
Imagine Architecture aspires to uphold the Pritzker Architecture Prizewinner Glenn Murcutt’s ideal: ‘to touch the earth lightly’. This means we look at how nature has crafted the environment to this point in time, and form our design in relationship to that. For example, we have sculpted designs to the land, rather than the land to the design. Nature has brought us those spaces, so we strive to design structures to be harmonious with that nature. As custodians we seek to protect the environment through diligent stewardship and utilisation of the best high performance technology.
Our experience in over 1000 commissions to date is wide and diverse. In addition to servicing Bay of Plenty and Taranaki, we have commissions throughout New Zealand and have projects in Australia and Italy. In this modern age, geography is no barrier to delivering architectural excellence. The Imagine Architecture team's track record shows an ability to adapt quickly to client changes, government legislation and technical site situations. We have specialist experience in:
Residential homes and renovations
- Sustainable and Energy Efficient architecture
- Recreation & Parks facilities
- Apartments & Townhouses
- Mobility design and disabled access
- Retirement homes
- Gymnasia
- Schools & ECE
- Property development & investment units
- Industrial facilities
- Restaurant and retail design
- Shipping Container buildings
- Feasibility Studies
- Motels and Motor Lodges
Imagine Architecture promotes itself on the principle of “relationship marketing”. A large number of commissions come to Imagine Architecture by way of referrals from existing clients. This method of marketing reflects our philosophy of creating quality relationships with clients. This is achieved by friendly, clear and up front communication matched with a quality design service that meets the aesthetic, functional & financial requirements of the client.
Imagine Architecture is the experienced team to use if you are looking for innovative design that respects the environment, quality technical documentation, superior service through excellent communication.
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