Houzz Tour: Serene Pavilions Provide a Refuge From the City
A Christchurch family relocates to the country post-quake, looking for a new place to call home
It may be over five years since the earthquakes that upended the lives of many Cantabrians, but rebuilding has taken a heartbreaking length of time. It was only in July last year that this Christchurch family settled into their new home on the rural land north of the city, after their Avonside city property was declared ‘red zone’ and unbuildable. Their new home, in an expansive rural setting, finally gives them the shelter they need, this time with views to the Southern Alps beyond neighbouring paddocks.
It quickly became clear that a simple H-shaped floor plan would allow the living areas and bedrooms to be arranged around a sheltered north-facing courtyard. The house runs on an east-west axial link, with bedrooms and bathrooms in the west wing and open-plan living rooms in the east. The drama comes from the punched out cedar window-seat boxes in the master bedroom and living room.
The house has already earned its designer and builder regional awards from their respective professional bodies: the new home between 150-300 square metres in the Architectural Design Award, and a Gold Reserve from Master Builders Home of the Year.
The house has already earned its designer and builder regional awards from their respective professional bodies: the new home between 150-300 square metres in the Architectural Design Award, and a Gold Reserve from Master Builders Home of the Year.
Curragh inserted small windows low on the southern side of the house. In summer, these draw cool air from ground level to be ventilated out the warmer side of the house, creating a naturally cooling airflow. A solar hydrolic slab with underfloor insulation, heavy-duty wall and ceiling insulation and double-glazed, argon-filled windows ensure the house runs efficiently. Solar panels on the roof, in conjunction with a wetback on the wood fire, provide hot water.
A flat-roofed section links the two wings, with a long wooden deck creating a sense of anticipation and arrival. Occasional windows on the entrance side provide tantalising glimpses of the house behind the dark walls of cedar battens on band-sawn cedar ply.
Curragh worked for many years in Canada, so delivered a twist on that country’s traditional salt-box gable roof with this project. The steeper 40-degree roofs on the outside help push the wind over the top of the house; the gentler 20-degree slope towards the inside courtyard decks has a more welcoming scale.
Walls stained in ‘Ebony’: Sikkens
Walls stained in ‘Ebony’: Sikkens
The deck on the eastern side opens off the kitchen and dining area, providing a lovely spot for breakfast.
Polished concrete floors run through the house, and Curragh used carefully positioned joinery to frame the axial views through the house. The glass gallery blurs the boundaries of house and courtyard when the doors are stacked back in the summer. Curragh was careful to acoustically insulate the bedrooms from the rest of the house, as one of the sons is a guitar player with a very loud amplifier.
Curragh likes to use changes in volume to create a greater sense of space than the footprint would suggest. In the living room, he inserted a flat-roofed section to transition to the courtyard boardwalks.
The window-seat niche seen here is one of two added into the design of the house, providing space for the family and their guests to stop and soak in their surrounds.
The window-seat niche seen here is one of two added into the design of the house, providing space for the family and their guests to stop and soak in their surrounds.
The kitchen was a collaboration between Curragh and the joiners, Modern Age Kitchen & Joinery. Custom furniture maker Gavin Cox supplied the laminated timber breakfast bar, and the cabinets are naturally oiled birch plywood with a concrete benchtop around the sink and stove. The door leads to the scullery and laundry.
Experience in set-building and special effects in the film industry has given Curragh a passion for well-engineered details. Here, he mixed white oak veneer and fine carbon-fibre rods for the striking ‘flying’ shelf that delineates the kitchen. He routed out room for the LED strip to provide a gentle glow in the evenings.
Stacking glass sliders open the living room spaces to the courtyard, and can be opened and closed on various sides to protect against the varying wind directions. The asymmetrical ceiling volume, lined with quarter-cut tawa veneer plywood, creates an enveloping warmth in the space.
Wetback wood stove: Metrofires
Wetback wood stove: Metrofires
Curragh was hands-on in the design and manufacture of the detail-rich pergola, the steel posts and cedar louvres around the courtyard boardwalks, and the custom-folded steel joinery elsewhere in the house.
One of the owners is an enthusiastic gardener and has begun landscaping the courtyard, centring it on a specimen tree that changes with the seasons. Grasses and a small pond to the south of the property reflect the rural surrounds.
One of the owners is an enthusiastic gardener and has begun landscaping the courtyard, centring it on a specimen tree that changes with the seasons. Grasses and a small pond to the south of the property reflect the rural surrounds.
The bathroom has one of the best positions in the house, with windows that pull back so bathers can enjoy the view. The owners’ green fingers have already created a delightful indoor garden on the custom shelves.
Shelves and vanity: Modern Age Kitchens and Joinery
Shelves and vanity: Modern Age Kitchens and Joinery
The master bedroom features a window seat with a smaller, more intimate trapezoidal surround than the one in the living room, making it a perfect spot to curl up and admire the view. Curragh designed the recessed ply bedhead to replace bedside furniture, slipping in more film-worthy lighting to illuminate the niche.
The plywood ceiling detail repeats that of the living room.
Curragh designed folded steel shelves that form brackets for the American white oak hanging rods in the bedroom.
TELL US
What do you love about this house? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
What do you love about this house? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their two teenagers
Location: Springbank Downs, North Canterbury, New Zealand
Size: 198 square metres; 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms
Year built: 2015
Architectural designer: Nic Curragh, Objects Ltd
Builder: Chris Sinclair, Sinclair Builders
The owners found the perfect slice of land about an hour out of Christchurch near Rangiora, known as the gateway to local wineries, ski fields and the inland scenic trail. Their brief to Curragh was to create a simple form sheltered from the prevailing winds that whip across the plains from either direction, that was passively solar-heated, and would frame views to the surrounding countryside.