About one year ago I wrote about a variety of homes in Australia, focusing on jobs where connections between inside and outside are open and flexible. This ideabook also paralleled my show on regional modernism, in that examining some modern homes would get at exactly what components and attitudes are particular to a place. Australia is a powerful big country, which makes it hard to tackle this kind of task in 1 ideabook, but writing it made me wonder in New Zealand, the island country throughout the Tasman Sea.

After resolving this year to virtually visit New Zealand, I started to dig through photographs and profiles of professionals in the country, and at the course found Daniel Marshall Architects. The four modern residences he’s shared on are amazing, and they also make me wonder how they react to the nation’s particular ailments. Marshall’s site helps a little in this regard; as he states, “New Zealanders value a strong connection with their environment,” and “we believe there’s a certain commonality in the way New Zealanders tend to reside … reflected in the arrangement of open, personal, indoor and outdoor spaces.”

This ideabook will require some brief tours of the four homes by Marshall, providing outsiders an idea of what makes New Zealand unique. Each house’s design results from responses to a few facets consistent into the country: an undulating topography, a positive climate and being surrounded by water. So the homes tend to be split degrees; they welcome the exteriors into the house via movable walls; and they are oriented to sunlight and water views through large glass walls. These characteristics align the homes closely with Australia’s harvest of modern architecture, but also with houses in an area like California, in which a benign climate and nearby ocean embrace similar design responses.

Daniel Marshall Architect

1. The Korora House, Waiheke

New Zealand, since most people know, is composed of 2 main islands. Approximately half of the population resides in four cities: Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton; all but Christchurch are on the north island. Marshall is located in Auckland, and also the projects presented here are in the area of this city.

The Korora House is located on Waiheke, a little island in the Hauraki Gulf east of Auckland. The house takes its title from the Maori word which translates as “little blue penguin,” rooting the project in the Polynesian past and the natural circumstance. The house has views to the north. (As this is the southern hemisphere, north is the bright side.)

Daniel Marshall Architect

The house includes a linear floor plan which goes out of bedrooms on the east side (this photo) into the master suite on the west; in between are the living spaces and a “dwelling courtyard” sheltered from the roof.

Here we may observe the creative manner the house merges with the site. A wall on the east end cantilevers over the slope, such as an act of defiance, although the steps lead to the entrance in the center of the plan.

Daniel Marshall Architect

We could see down the exterior steps. We also understand the glass gallery which connects both ends of the linear plan as well as the dwelling courtyard and the living area. Sliding doors unite interior and exterior to help create that strong relation to the environment that Marshall notes.

Daniel Marshall Architect

On one side of the courtyard, a fireplace backs off against a hearth serving the lounge, pictured here. Again, the glass walls slide away to connect inside and outside. It is clear the Korora is all about the horizon and water it overlooks.

Daniel Marshall Architect

2. Elmstone, Auckland

This home, on the other hand, is in a suburban Auckland circumstance, on the conclusion of a cul-de-sac. On strategy we see only the garage on the rear, and a glass wall at the entrance, where a concrete wall keeps some solitude.

Daniel Marshall Architect

On the opposite side of the house, the bright north we see the true scale of the project: What seemed like a one- or – two-story house from the front is really a three-story split degree. Much like Korora, the glazing on the north is ample, opening up inviting and views in sunlight.

Daniel Marshall Architect

Another resemblance to Korora could be found in the sliding glass walls which connect inside and outside — in this instance the living area and patio on the ground floor.

Daniel Marshall Architect

Here we’re awaiting the front doorway, a 180-degree turn in the very first photo of the house. In between would be the concrete wall which preserves solitude but also, such as the concrete slabs and walls elsewhere in the house, “contributes to a thermal mass to absorb the heat from plentiful southern and northern sun to control internal temperature of the house,” writes Marshall on his site.

Daniel Marshall Architect

3. Lucerne, Auckland

That is a huge house located on the edge of Orakei Basin, that which was a volcano a very long time ago. The site gives the inhabitants views of Auckland city and beyond. Yet what’s more important is that the client’s need to house a few classic cars, which Marshall addressed via the creation of an entry courtroom which makes it hard to distinguish what’s garage and what’s house.

Daniel Marshall Architect

The exact un-garage-like garage doors have been crafted from vertical timber boards which continue around the other walls on the entrance court. Or as the client put it “Our architect made the doors around a courtyard, cleverly disguising them they are seemingly part of a wall.”

The treatment makes for an incredibly welcoming entrance. A closer look at the entrance doorway shows a lovely custom door handle which extends from the top to the bottom of the doorway.

Daniel Marshall Architect

Like the Elmstone house, Lucerne is a split level, but of a different sort: It is a three-story house that is two stories about the front and 2 stories on the back, such as a flattened “Z.” Here we’re seeing the middle and upper floor. The louvered area in the centre is the top of a double-height living area.

Daniel Marshall Architect

From inside the living area we may observe the city views beyond the basin. The back wall of the dining room area is, since the client describes it, “a wonderful wax-paneled wall … that is a special work of art.”

Daniel Marshall Architect

4. Raumati, Auckland

Raumati (Maori for “summer”) is a replacement of a 1970s house at the Remuera area of Auckland, west and south of the Orakei Basin and the Lucerne house. Much like Marshall’s other homes described in this ideabook, this house contends with a slope and can be massed as a split level, such as Elmstone. At the top are the entrance and driveway, and at the bottom is a tennis court, an present part of the old house that had to stay.

Daniel Marshall Architect

The house was designed to be an addition, however, it had been decided that would not do the job, even though the budget had to stay the same. Marshall reacted by simplifying materials and making the plan as efficient as possible. The timber exterior is particularly pleasing, especially in the manner it closely matches the terrace.

Daniel Marshall Architect

The plan is dumbell-like, and the interior volumes are fairly cubic — you will find echoes of the Korara House. In every house the entrance falls in the center of the plan at a glass gallery which links either side of the house. In Raumati, the gallery looks onto the pool. Here we are looking out of the living area toward the pool the entrance and gallery are out of frame on the left side.

Daniel Marshall Architect

While this house is much more introverted than the others (you can find a few distant views from the top floor, though) it echoes many of the same concerns that Marshall cites: merging indoor and outdoor space, coping with steeply sloping sites and relating to its environment via views, both near and distant.

More:
The Outside Comes Interior Under

Regional Differences in Modern Architecture

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