Waipara House

Our clients came to us with an incredible site at a transitional time in their lives. With children leaving home the need arose for an adaptable house to function at a comfortable scale for a couple, and to perform equally as well as a ‘crash pad’ during impromptu visits from their returning boys and their ‘energetic’ friends.   The approach was to develop two pavilions with dedicated, yet overlapping uses. Pavilion one is designed as a simple cottage incorporating the main living and dining areas and a bedroom suite for the couple, accessible through a hidden internal door. Spatial volume is bolstered in the social areas to provide for larger gatherings without needing to increase meterage. The resultant space, with exposed trusses that visually break the room height, simultaneously serves the intimate and the multitude. A parallel structure adequately accommodates visitors for short and longer term stays. Separate living enables degrees of independence and choice of interaction with the hosts. Perpendicular access to both modules is linked via the kitchen, which completes a sheltered outdoor living space providing a cosy nook, emphasised by back to back freestanding fires in custom surrounds. From all areas, the expansive vineyard view is embraced and made a feature of the house. The exterior is treated with a dark palette to recede into its conspicuous location within the environment. The form uses the language of simple agricultural architecture that is prevalent throughout the rolled hill location. A robust post and beam external frame underlies a careful pattern of weatherboard and glazing. Building smaller aesthetically pleasing house the occupants want to keep, and which can adapt to changing needs was our approach to sustainability for this project.