Recently shortlisted for the NZIA Local Award 2023, RK Residence by Seear-Budd Ross offers an alluring equanimity as it settles softly into the landscape and responds to its native surroundings through texture and tone.
The most prominent architectural feature of the home is a stretched hip roof. The wide and low roof profile, which derives from the built vernacular form of the area, is integral to presenting a highly unified exterior volume that covers both the garage and main living area with a sense of continuity, calm, and unity.
This unified exterior gives little away as to the volume within. This is enhanced by an arrival sequence and pavilion-style home layout with a cave-like entry nook clad in New Zealand macrocarpa, a fragrant timber. The space transitions from the confined entry area to a grand, vaulted macrocarpa-clad ceiling that affords grand ocean views and plentiful amounts of natural light. Though lofty and expansive, the overall sense remains inviting and intimate, with a high level of craftsmanship.
Designed for a young family, the home embraces public and private conditions and informality. In addition to the living pavilion, there is a two-story sleeping pavilion at the back of the side, which includes a roof terrace where the evening sun is captured.
An internal courtyard separates the two structures and a glazed passageway running its length, connecting the front of the house to the back. The front of the house is deliberately exposed, with a visible connection to the street and the harbor. At the same time, the courtyard and sleeping quarters are progressively more private in expression and experience. In the living pavilion, glass doors slide away across two elevations, creating links through the site and unobstructed sightlines from the centre of the home to the broader context.
