Trends New Zealand NZ New Home Trends Vol. 30/10 | Page 58
“The architecture is a direct response
to the need to link with the outdoors,”
Schwartz says. “For example, the
approach involves a series of thresholds,
including bridges over a seasonal watercourse, that foster the idea of movement
and exploration.
“The geometry of the house also helps.
With its long, angled wing, the building
appears to embrace the hills behind. And
the forced perspective created by a tapering 30.5m-long solar screen on the exterior
guides the view back into the landscape.”
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Positioning the house low on the site
was another way to focus attention on the
hills beyond.
“For many architects, the first impulse
is to conquer a hill by placing the house at
the very top. We wanted to flip that idea,
so that the hill rises up behind the house,
creating a much more powerful experience. It also made sense to build on the flat
in terms of construction costs, and there is
less noise from the local road.
“It was important to keep the house as
abstract as possible – we were not looking
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to reference residential architecture. And
it was only later that we realised we were
probably influenced by the traditional
long, low-slung shed-like structures that
hug the wide, horizontal landscape in this
part of the county.”
Raw materials were specified for
the exterior, including Corten steel that
weathers to a rusty patina, board-formed
concrete, cedar and eucalyptus wood,
which forms the solar screen.
“All materials have a natural tendency
towards movement and change, and we