Mission Bay Residence

This residence has been designed to maximise views to the Waitemata harbour and orientation to the sun.  The site is an unusual triangular shape sitting on an internal bend in the road with a narrow street frontage at one apex and the longest side forming the southern boundary. The design that evolved from the brief is a predominantly rectangular two-storey home running parallel to the south boundary with a single storey garage wing at right angles to that, dividing the entrance and vehicle manoeuvring area from a sheltered rear courtyard. The construction is of solid concrete floors and walls for passive thermal heat storage, exposed internally to the solar gains of the glazed north wall but insulated on the outside and clad with painted cedar shiplap boards. The roof is a shallow asymmetric pitch of colour coated profiled steel roofing with upper floor ceilings following the roof slope. A large area of decking and balconies from all bedrooms faces north with generous eaves and motorised louvre roofs to provide shade in the summer. Windows that do not face north have vertical cedar brise soleil fixed over them to limit overheating from the east and west sun and provide a degree of privacy to the street. These painted cedar blades and cedar base boards to the deck repeat the vertical lines of the cladding whilst the over-all aesthetic hints at styling of the 1960’s complete with bright orange front door and retro door knob!