Category
Residential
End of the Road | Wendy Shacklock Architects | ArchiPro video
End of the Road | Wendy Shacklock Architects | ArchiPro
Situated at the end of a 500m driveway, which winds around 12 other houses, the home is perched on the slope of a volcanic crater with views over a wooded dell to the north and Auckland city to the west.
The homeowners tasked the architect with designing a home that would offer multiple entertaining options, all flowing from a mid-floor level.
The site originally had a one-in-three slope so to create the desired flat area the cliff face behind the house was cut into—albeit minimally—and the downhill portion was lifted and retained.
A single-storey form—which contains a family room and guest bedrooms—pulls away from the main house allowing for the insertion of a glazed and louvered outdoor room, centred on the swimming pool.
Operable louvres above the outdoor room allows morning sun to penetrate into the dining room while the view beyond the pool takes in the Orakei Basin.
"The three-dimensional facade acts as an instrument for engaging with the garden and the basin, while expressing the dynamic forces of the volcanic contours,” says Architect Wendy Shacklock.
Year-round entertaining is made possible thanks to the generously proportioned outdoor fireplace, which acts as the focal point of the outdoor room.
The kitchen is situated under the mezzanine main bedroom, giving this space a more intimate feeling due to the lower ceiling plane. Darkly stained cedar is complemented and contrasted by the other cabinetry and large island.
The form and geometry of the house re-interprets the New Zealand vernacular of the gabled roof form predominant within the local suburb.
The facade ‘bends’ with the site so that the entire north and west facing facades effectively form a sheltered bay—maximising water views to the west and north, as well as passive solar gain from the north.
The dining room was conceived to have a relaxed ‘café style’ for the daytime, with the table in the bay window. However, the room is large enough to be quite flexible in it’s layout.
The ceiling plane lowers over the main dining space to feel relatively intimate next to the soaring volume over the mezzanine.
Entry to the house is situated five-metres below the main floor level. A three-storey staircase connects the entry level with the main floor as well as the mezzanine main bedroom.
From the mezzanine main bedroom, the roof form is a big gesture, in the scale of the cliff, embracing the house and defined by the folds of the faceted ceiling.
A  long corridor, which features a polished concrete floor and insitu concrete wall, leads from the dining room to the guest bedrooms and family room at the northern end of the house.

Professionals used in End of the Road

Wendy Shacklock Architects

Wendy Shacklock Architects

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Wendy Shacklock Architects