The brief called for a four bedroom holiday home for a family of 9; the parents, and 7 children, varying from 1 to 19 years old. KA was selected by the clients because they liked our design of Omaha House # 3, located across the road from their site.
The house is located in the seaside resort of Omaha, just over an hours drive from Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, with a latitude of 36.8° (comparable to Malaga in Europe).
A design challenge was that the Northern (sunny) side of the building faced the public road. To deal with this potential privacy issue the building was broken up in different volumes that created a sunny courtyard shielded from the road but directly accessible from all the level 1 living areas.
The three different volumes are arranged in a sculptural composition; The ‘copper’ clad stairwell, which connects the painted fibre cement clad ‘lounge block’, and the two storey ‘weatherboard’ block.
Another design challenge was to create indoor and outdoor spaces where the different age groups, varying from adults, adolescents, teens to toddlers, could choose to mix or be separate.
Terraces allow for social, sun and shade choices. Fixed seating were finished in the wall claddings to match the adjacent ‘volumes’. Materials ‘anchor’ the building to the ground and create areas where separate ‘groups’ could gather.
Limited area permitted by Council for building coverage (footprint) resulted in all the ‘living’ spaces being located on level 1 and the bedrooms on level 2.
Most level 1 living spaces have tiled and insulated concrete floors that absorb the heat from the low winter sun, but remain cool in summer due to summer shading in the design. The courtyard has a removable ‘sail’ cover, providing protection to summer sun and rain. The sail can be removed in winter to allow more low winter sun into the family room.
Moveable external louvre shutters provide sun control for the low afternoon sun to the kitchen/dining area, combined with good cross ventilation to prevent potential overheating. The stairwell, ending at the door/window to the roof terrace, acts as natural ventilation shaft, providing year round fresh air and summer cooling.
2013
2016
