The project

This house is for a Christchurch family of 4, including 2 teenagers, with strong family ties to the Red Beach area.

The owner is also the builder who constructed the house – a process that saw his two sons working on its construction with him.

The brief

The brief was for a high quality four bedroom family home with a variety of indoor & outdoor living / entertainment spaces – together with a gym, a pool and guest accommodation separate from the family spaces.

The inclusion of sheltered sunny outdoor areas, maximising views across Red Beach were key considerations.

The entire family is heavily into ocean sports, so easy access to the beach along with outdoor showers for returning from the sea were also part of the brief.

Design response

In response, we designed a house to be built over three levels to maximise the site.

The house has two ‘wings’ separated by the stairs / circulation zone.

They angle away from each other as you descend through the house from the top entry level to the lower outdoor level where the pool is situated.

The wings provide shelter to the outdoor pool and entertainment areas.

The top level is directly accessed from the street and has a double garage but provides garaging for three cars via a car lift to the level below.

The master bedroom suite occupies one of the wings on this level with the stairwell providing separation and privacy from other parts of the house.

On the middle level, an outdoor living terrace complete with an outdoor kitchen is accessed directly off the main living area.

This has glazed sliders and a louvre roof that allow it to be opened up to the outside or alternatively closed up – allowing it to still be used during inclement weather.

Constraints provided direction

Height restrictions and trying to avoid excessive excavation, dictated the way each level steps down the site, the widths of rooms and the exact placement of eaves.

The steep site – being narrow at the top and wider at its base – presented some challenges in complying with boundary setbacks and recession planes.

These largely dictated where the ‘mass’ of the house would sit.

While these were ‘constraints’, along with the spaces the owners requested, they provided a direction for the form of the house.

Sustainability

• The house has roof mounted photovoltaic panels.
• There is no battery storage, however the house has been set up to maximise the use of the electricity generated during the day – for example, the pool plant is programmed to run only during the day and the owner’s electric car is charged during the day.
• The house has a 5000L stormwater retention tank that provides the water required for irrigation.
• Hot water heating and heating in general is via heat pumps.
• The house is constructed with high levels of insulation and good double glazing.
• The exterior wall framing is 140mm wide, providing additional space to achieve R4.0 insulation in the wall cavities and a high level of insulation in the roofs.
• LED Lighting is used through the house.
• We have set the house up with window openings to enable natural cross ventilation through it from front to the back – this was something talked about very early on with the owners.
• The majority of the new plantings around the house are all natives that occur naturally in the area – once established, this will largely eliminate the need for irrigation.