Simplified seclusion

Designed by SGA (Strachan Group Architects)

From the renovating architects:

This project is a renovation of a 1980s architecturally designed one-bedroom pole house on a steep, bush-clad Waiheke site. 

The original dwelling was sited about 50m down from the road which made for a beautiful secluded setting but with difficult access down a winding path from the road. 

The house had had a knotty design with split levels, a mezzanine bedroom reached by a steep, twisting stair, and both steep-pitched and flat roofs meeting at complex angles. 

In form it was almost like two different designs turned at 45° and mashed together.

The owners engaged SGA pre-purchase to investigate how the existing house could be adapted for re-use – rather than fill and re-build. 

The brief for the reinvented house included a revamped kitchen, two separate bedrooms, a bathroom downstairs and ensuite upstairs, a separate laundry and generous storage. 

While the house had many challenges it also had some beautiful features and SGA’s approach was to rationalise the complex plan and form while enhancing the best aspects of the original design. 

This involved squaring many of the 45° angles (though there are still references to this in the shape of the decks), simplifying the roof forms, reconfiguring the entry way and making minor extensions to the plan to accommodate the extra spaces required. 

Due to the difficult access and steepness of the site it was also important to minimise new ground work and utilise existing foundations as much as possible.  

A significant element of the design was the addition of off street parking and garage. 

This was tricky to negotiate give the steepness of the site, but has been achieved by a driveway that sweeps around to a garage oriented parallel to the contours of the land rather than projecting out from the hillside. 

This element has also helped create a 'gateway' that leads to the bush path down to the house. 

It improves access without compromising the secluded feeling of the home.

Some features of the original design that have been retained and enhanced: 

• The low 2.2m ceiling height under the mezzanine floor creates a feeling of compression as you enter the building before opening out in the double-height kitchen and living space.
• The steep pitched timber sarked ceilings with strip skylights create an airy and light home.
• The extensive pergola structure wrapping around two sides of the house allows for generous sheltered outdoor living.
• The original house had excellent cross-ventilation due to the openness of the interior and it was important not to shut this down by the introduction of new walls. The upstairs bedroom is therefore designed with a large sliding door that can be left open and with banks of louvre windows on both levels to admit fresh air on the lower level and expel hot air from the upper level.

Performance upgrades:

• New septic system
• Improved insulation in ceilings, walls and under floors
• Centralised AC system with heat pump
• Solar powered extract fan to minimise heat build-up at upper level
• Improved solar shading to north and west facing windows with slatted pergola and sliding screens

The owners have personally done a lot of work on the landscaping the site: including masses of new planting, reforming pathways and creating feature rock formations using distinctive Waiheke stone.

Story by: Trendsideas