A mere hour drive from Auckland City this new family home on a rural site in Matakana feels a million miles away. Perched upon a grassy knoll against a backdrop of native bush, the elevated siting delivers blanket views over the rural property, neighbouring vineyards and beyond.
The clients required a functional, single level home, engaged with the surrounding landscape. Approach to design was informed by the local vernacular architecture of rural sheds and barns as well as the Totara trees present in the properties native bush. A silvered Totara rainscreen wraps the gable form, extending to the inviting Totara flanked front door and farmhouse entry. A lovely waft of the Totara is apparent as soon as the door is opened to the grand room, a double volume gabled living space with lining and exposed trusses in the same raw native timber. The form extrudes on axis to the northern view to form an outdoor room cast in slatted sunlight and protected from predominant westerly’s by large pivoting screens.
Beyond the central prominent gable, two arms stretch outward, a master wing to the east, a bedroom wing and garage to the west. The bedroom wings were designed with efficiency and modesty in mind - corrugate clad with trussed mono-pitched roofs to increase the budget available for the living spaces. The resulting home supports and inspires the family’s rural lifestyle, orientated for passive solar gain with thermal mass floors, solar hot water heating and on-site wastewater and water collection.
Photography by Jackie Meiring
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Matakana Barn
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Matakana Barn
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About the
Professional
Strachan Group Architects is a multiple award-winning Auckland practice. Grounded in a specific and detailed first-hand knowledge of construction the team brings a highly developed sense of craft to the task of creating sustainable buildings with precision and elegance.
The keen sense of attention that the practice brings to the interpretation of a client’s brief is equalled by a rich and complex understanding of how to respond to the subtleties of site, the impacts of the natural environment, and the many contexts within which a building must operate. To these qualities SGA adds a precise understanding of the requirements of construction, with an advanced level of experience of prefabrication and the use of digitally controlled machinery in the fabrication of building elements under tightly controlled conditions.
SGA takes pride in it's ability to communicate ideas about building as they develop in conversation with clients, consultants and contractors. This skill has been honed in the extensive involvement the practice has had in education, where it has delivered a number of design/build projects with architecture students that have been recognised by the New Zealand Institute of Architects by a series of Awards.
Recognised by their peers as an innovative and exciting practice, SGA consists of a group of highly skilled people with a diverse range of complimentary skills. This flexible team is highly attuned to new developments in the building industry, appreciated by their many clients and capable of undertaking work at any scale.