Houses revisited: One Storey house

Alongside the coastal highway from Nelson to Atawhai is a brand new suburb overlooking Nelson Haven, the place a brand new sort of suburban home has been designed by an area architect for his youngsters’s former trainer and her associate.

“The home is a part of their love for one another; they bought collectively and constructed a home,” explains architect Jeremy Smith of Nelson-based follow Irving Smith Architects.

In the meanwhile, the setting seems fairly rural as a result of the adjoining website is but to be constructed on, however under a phenomenal view of the ocean is a newly constructed prosperous suburb. “The homeowners purchased the part on the very again of a subdivision on a steep hillside,” says Smith. “So our query was ‘how will we construct a home the place they don’t lose the view?’ as a result of the individuals on the again usually lose the view.

Fairly than construct a tall, skinny home that complied with all the foundations and positioned the residing up excessive on the entrance the place they’re principally residing in an condo, we’ve used the decrease bedrooms to basically masks out all the things that occurs under. So when the opposite homes within the growth arrive, you possibly can’t see them; they usually’ll be residing on this personal nest,” provides Smith.

This technique additionally meant that the location didn’t want a lot excavation whereas, to construct a tall home would have required digging a large gap and, as Smith suggests, “some huge cash going into the floor”.

The plan of One Storey home is a U-shape on its facet that opens as much as the northern solar with a decked courtyard. The again wing is on the rear of the part, the place the homeowners largely dwell to keep up a excessive diploma of privateness. The entrance wing accommodates the couple’s household once they come and keep and in addition acts because the entrance fence.

The 2 wings are linked by a large hall/staircase that travels up the facet of the location and incorporates a research/library/studying room off to its facet, which overlooks the courtyard. “The homeowners are extremely match in order that they like the steps,” quips Smith.

What’s significantly attention-grabbing is that it’s onerous to inform the place in the home the couple truly dwell. “Most individuals think about that they dwell on the again and not using a view however, whenever you go up there, you realise that they’ve this unbelievable view.”

However, whereas the plan is ususual, that is basically a suburban home that utilises comparable finishes to that of a spec-type home. “There’s a way of normality,” explains Smith. “It hasn’t bought a large funds — it’s not dripping in cedar. It’s not attempting to interrupt a complete lot of latest floor inside. We have been attempting to resolve a large downside in that they couldn’t get a spec home onto the location in a standard approach. On the similar time, we have been attempting to not take it too distant from the dream dwelling that they need it to be — their love nest.”

MATERIAL SELECTOR

Architect Jeremy Smith talks in regards to the exterior cladding on One Storey Home

What’s the cladding? It’s a pre-finished fibre cement board, so it doesn’t require any upkeep. Bandsawn cedar battens cowl the sheet joints vertically like a fence and they’re going to go silvery over time. The battens had a job to do to waterproof the junctions in behind. We needed to manage the design – so it’s not only a pile of fibre cement!

This end is a special method. Sure. We have been avoiding the monolithic finishes you usually see within the suburbs, so this cladding is breaking it down fairly properly. However we’re not a follow that ‘does end’. For us, it’s rather more vital to get the match proper.

We might have spent more cash, but it surely wouldn’t have modified how the home labored or the match that we achieved for the shopper — the remainder of it’s sort of glory. Sure, we will hold going [with money] in order for you us to however that’s not as vital. We designed a home just a few years in the past that was constructed out of freezer panels simply so it may very well be extremely low cost and the homeowners might afford to construct it. 

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Word: These are tales from our archives and, because the time of writing, some particulars could have modified together with names, personnel of particular corporations, registration standing, and so forth.