Hekerua Bay Residence, Waiheke Island

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RESIDENTIAL AWARD

Hekerua Bay Residence, Waiheke Island, Auckland

 

Submitted by:  Structure Design Ltd

Owner:  Anonymous

Architect:  Archimedia

Consulting Engineer:  Structure Design Ltd

Contractor:  Canam Construction Ltd

 

Summary:

The house site sits atop a cliff which falls 30m to a rocky cove on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf Auckland.

The house is a collaboration with the client, an engineer with meticulous attention to detail.  He is a Structural Engineer and owner of a large construction company. His love of concrete especially in-situ concrete defined it as the core material of the structure.

The curved concrete form of the residence is evocative of a continuous ribbon that folds and rotates on its’ axis to form the roofs, walls and floor for all three upper levels over the more solid base of the guest bedrooms.

The client along with the Architect pushed his consulting Engineers to the absolute limits of concrete design to result in a very fine structure of minimal proportions given the size of the cantilevers and unsupported spans and curved feature walls.

We believe it to be one of the largest entirely reinforced concrete Residential residence in New Zealand.

From a Structural view the building encompasses every possible type of concrete construction:

  • Reinforced concrete bored soldier piles
  • In-situ concrete foundations & beams
  • In-situ concrete shear walls
  • Masonry walls
  • Pre-cast & pre-tensioned concrete floor slabs and ribs
  • Post-tensioned concrete beams and floors
  • Specialist custom formwork testing and design for the curved walls
  • Custom site-specific concrete


What the judges said:

The submission for this winning entry noted that “the use of concrete to form a thin ribbon with soft curves has taken what most consider a heavy and clunky material and turned it into this floating curved form that sits very lightly above our head or encases you within its folds, all without losing the solidity, security and permanence that concrete provides.”

These words really do capture the essence of this building and are as carefully and accurately assembled as the building itself.

The structure has been conceived and executed with passion and precision and showcases the very best of concrete construction.