Herne Bay House

OTHER ENTRANTS

Herne Bay House, Auckland

Submitted by:  Daniel Marshall Architect Ltd

Owner:  Simon & Marisa

Architect:  Daniel Marshall Architect Ltd

Consulting Engineer:  Structureline Ltd

Contractor:  Urban House

Sub-contractor:  Concretec NZ Ltd

Summary:

The Herne Bay house was designed for a young family on a suburban north facing slope, looking out over Herne Bay towards the inner Waitemata harbor.  This dwelling embodies much of the contemporary New Zealand ideals, design and construction, whilst maintaining the language and posture of the well mannered Villa.

An immediately distinctive feature is the horizontal weatherboard impressed concrete fins along the street facing façade.  Spatially, these fins aid in the control of privacy and light from the exterior, whilst framing views towards the reserve and the sea from the interior.  As an abstraction of the traditional street verandah, this configuration fulfils its role in acting as a threshold between the public street face and the private living within.

Another inherently integral feature is the ingenious use of two concrete shell beams which wraps around this house.  These precast shell beams ties together the Western, Northern and Eastern facades as one continuous ramping element, both literally, as an exterior ramp connecting the main living areas, and visually.  Operating also as the base for the deck and roof gutters, these beams are structurally tied together by in-situ structural concrete.  This concept proved to be extremely efficient structurally.