Gathered together

Designed by Pat de Pont, Strachan Group Architects SGA

From the architects:

Brief

This is a long-term home for a growing family and located in suburban Auckland’s North Shore and the brief for the kitchen was for it to be the central hub of family life in the home. With small children, there was a requirement to consider safety around the cooking areas but also to allow the family to gather naturally and easily around kitchen activities.

Response

The living spaces, housed under the main gable, provide options for connection to each other and to the outdoors. The transparency through the main gable provides a connection from the street, east terrace, through the length of the galley kitchen to the western deck and Puriri at the rear of the site.

The large island bench allows the family to gather around on bar stools for informal meals or just to be engaged with the activity in the kitchen. Situating the island bench close to the eastern terrace sliders allows the cooking area to be closed off in a cul-de-sac arrangement when required and also provides a very immediate connection to the eastern terrace when the sliders are opened.

Materiality

The materiality and detailing for the kitchen draws its cues from the home’s architecture. The birch plywood used to accentuate the ceiling plane is continued in the cabinetry, albeit in a more durable form.

American Maple used as overlay timber flooring in the afternoon room is also employed in the bench tops and the solid timber detailing, providing a more hard-wearing surface where required.

The architectural slatting seen on the gable screens and in other areas of the home is re-interpreted in the cabinetry detailing to provide consistency between the house and fittings.

A stainless steel bench inset into the timber island top and to the cooking bay provide hard-wearing work surfaces and contrasts with the black granite tile splashback.

Innovation and creativity

The location of the kitchen under the central gable of the house has provided a sense of volume and space not normally associated with kitchens. This location also created the opportunities to bring light and shadow not only from east and west but also from above – imbuing this space with a unique shifting light quality that tracks the sun through the day and the seasons.

Composition of the cabinetry elevations has been carefully considered with customised handles and placements intended to enhance the light modelling on the surfaces

Designed by: SGA

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Simon Devitt