Monk Mackenzie

Waiatarua House

Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith

WAIATARUA HOUSE

Hamish Monk Architecture

LOCATION
New Zealand

CATEGORY
Houses

AREA
225.0 sqm

PROJECT YEAR
2012

PHOTOGRAPHS
Mark Smith

Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House

Text description provided by architect.

The brief was for a new house on a challenging, steep site in the Orakei creek gully. One of the design challenges was to insert a bold (in size and placement) intervention into a sensitive bush reserve whilst still maintaining a sense of modesty and poetic.

Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith

The desire was to seek out a quiet architectural expression, one that is devoid of excessive articulation and noise; a silent witness to its surroundings.

Conceived as sculptural components the design plays on purity and scale of the program articulated through three simple elemental forms that step down the site towards the creek - the roof of one floor creating a level platform for the next.

Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith

From the point of entry the house offers a range of spatial experiences across the width of the floorplate; transitioning from a hunkered almost subterranean position in the landscape to an elevated position perched in the tree canopy.

Waiatarua House
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith


Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith
Waiatarua House
© Mark Smith


Waiatarua House
Plans
Waiatarua House
Section

Monk Mackenzie
T +64 9 6003335
Monk Mackenzie
Level 1/106/108 Quay Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand