Art and the outdoors | Architecture Now

Sitting some 20 metres from the shoreline at Cass Bay, this house is what actual property brokers name “absolute beachfront”, with spectacular views throughout to glowing Lyttelton Harbour, Ōtamahua/Quail Island and the gently rolling hills of Banks Peninsula.

Whereas the present home was stable, the place to begin for its renovation was a scarcity of stream between the interiors and the unbelievable environment. The householders had concepts about easy methods to obtain this, with a reconfigured ground plan that may transfer the upstairs dwelling areas to the decrease degree, switching locations with the bedrooms. To take action, they referred to as Max Capocaccia from MC Structure Studio, with a quick that additionally included the formation of a putting entranceway.

Capocaccia created a sculptural entrance of angular corten metal, flanked by the stable planes of a Neolith-tiled façade on one facet and a softer, Abodo timber-clad object within the type of the storage on the opposite. Entry is right into a gallery house hung with artworks, which then leads down into the remainder of the home. 

“We needed to offer emphasis to the doorway by making a type of portal,” says Capocaccia. “On the identical time, the concept of the gallery is to hyperlink you to the gorgeous pure panorama. Coming from the road, I didn’t need to give an open feeling however as an alternative a way of closure, of getting into right into a gate and from there the constructing would confide in the sea.”

Other than the storage and decking, the gallery house is the one new construction, which makes use of the footprint of the earlier storage. Home windows are restricted and the main focus is on the artworks, which embrace a putting half-globe by Dunedin artist Luke Calder illustrating Lyttelton Harbour.

The areas past are eclectic in nature, pushed partially by the home-owner’s artwork assortment in addition to a mixture of architectural eras evident in the home’s materiality. Massive home windows take within the views from all rooms, whereas the property’s established timber present privateness screening.

The brand new ground plan prompted the addition of terraced decking that flows down the entrance and alongside the house, offering many various alternatives for outside experiences among the many tree-lined western face of the property in addition to the true focus: the harbour-gazing view. The pool deck has a number of layers, with armchairs tucked away for personal contemplation in addition to a louvre-covered, dinner-party-friendly outside kitchen with loads of house for friends to lounge and dine. Moreover, a sheltered courtyard tucked behind the storage, with a cut-out within the wall for planting and a set of grand stairs main down, supplies one other non-public house to benefit from the open air.

The architect’s ardour for each the design and its pure environment is clear.

“I really like this place,” Capocaccia says. “An important facet for me is the way it sits on the panorama and the way the home is a hyperlink between the sculptural entrance and the openness of the terrace on the backside. That’s one thing that’s sturdy in my thoughts, the place the home reveals itself like layers. You enter from a spot that’s virtually fairly austere − you don’t have home windows and it’s fairly sturdy − then you definately expertise the artwork, then slowly you go down and the home develops in your journey right down to the shoreline.”