Cover Designed by Studio John Irving Architects, this house in Te Arai, New Zealand looks out to restful views of the coastal dunescape
Designed by Studio John Irving Architects, this house in Te Arai, New Zealand looks out to restful views of the coastal dunescape
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Located on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, this coastal house was designed by Studio John Irving Architects to balance intimacy with hospitality, and opportunities for expansive living with shelter and refuge
If there is a singular defining element of New Zealand’s Sandiland, it’s the dramatic planar roof. An optical illusion of sorts, it hovers above the grounded elements while being discretely supported above horizontal bands of glazing.
Sky and earth are good themes for Sandiland, designed by Studio John Irving Architects, a practice that has contributed several other predominantly low-slung, long-weathering structures to Te Arai, a place where golf courses and architecture thread neatly through coastal dunescape and pine forests.
Uniting each of the firm’s Te Arai projects is a desire to respect the undulating, windswept scenery and maximise the connection to the pristine beach and big views of sky and sea, dune and forest, and Sandiland is no different.
Great architecture is often drawn from the characteristics of the site and the personality of the client. At Sandiland, the architects drew inspiration from a generous, hospitable client and the natural beauty of the surrounding environment. The house is designed for prospect and refuge. It has the capacity to open up but is equally designed for warmth and intimacy, privacy and comfort.
The brief was relatively relaxed, shares John Irving, the firm’s namesake founder. The owner requested “intimate spaces, so they didn’t feel like they were rattling around places that they could retreat into.” However, the house also had to perform on demand to open up for parties as well as hosting guests.
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Fitted with sleek Fisher & Paykel appliances, the kitchen enjoys a seamless connection to the outdoor deck
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The architectural response consists of five separate cedar-clad rooms which provide accommodation, and an art studio. Connecting them are generous and open living, kitchen and exterior spaces that allow the occupants to effortlessly live and entertain inside and out.
Coastal homes are often light and bright. Here, however, the choice of dark-stained joinery adds to the overall sense of refuge created by the architecture, which is contrasted by the broad, horizontal insertions of glazing and sunken exterior seating area, which contribute a sense of prospect—the ability to look out to big skies and seas, sand dunes and forest from a position of shelter and comfort.
Through stacked sliding doors, the addition of an outdoor kitchen continues the line of the interior cabinetry through to a sheltered deck, blurring the notions of where the house ends and where the exterior begins. As with the interior, the deck is replete with intimate areas to gather, defined by varying levels. An outdoor fireplace and lounge setting is tucked around the corner from a sunken, circular fire pit. The expansive silvered timber deck eventually gives way to rolling dunes.
Both the interior and exterior areas are adaptable spaces, linked from above by the timber-clad ceiling, a warm unifying device with the arrangement of perpendicular battens suggesting a delineation of the open space below.
While the spaces blur, what is not in question is that the kitchen is the heart of this home, and that the impressively scaled square island is the heart of this kitchen. Overall, the kitchen has been kept as open as possible to maximise the potential for hospitality. In keeping with the luxury of simplicity that defines the overall aesthetic, appliances are integrated with care and distributed to where they are most useful.
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Above A view of the verandah
Above Appliances such as the CoolDrawer are beautifully incorporated into the dark-stained wood cabinetry in the kitchen
A view of the verandah
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The generous square island bench and lack of scullery also declare that the kitchen is a space to socialise. This choice was also driven by a desire to “keep it simple,” says Irving. “It’s not a big house, so it’s okay to have it all out in the open, but we need enough appliances so things don’t pile up.” Irving chose “integrated appliances because they fade into the background.” It is an exacting fade, with Fisher & Paykel appliances integrated with care. The minimal gaps afforded by the appliances create a seamless material finish with the cabinetry.
Those cabinets cloak an integrated French-door refrigerator-freezer with a simple, beautifully crafted custom timber pull handle. Dishwashing solutions and an integrated CoolDrawer Multi-temperature Drawer are also incorporated seamlessly into the aesthetic of the room; the luxurious attention to detail in the outdoor entertaining space is accentuated by the functional placement of the CoolDrawer, allowing for chilled drinks and snacks to be brought forth at a moment’s notice, without the need for a noticeable bar fridge.
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Above Products from Fisher & Paykel’s Minimal range were selected for this home
Above Refined finishes ensure a sleek kitchen for the owners
Products from Fisher & Paykel’s Minimal range were selected for this home
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Fisher & Paykel’s Minimal-style products paired with integrated appliances are the key to creating crafted and material-led kitchens without compromising on performance and functionality. The black-stained timber cabinetry frames two ovens for ease of use when entertaining.
Irving says he selected Minimal-style appliances according to his “usual approach,” that is, “to do our best to make them disappear.” Through seamless integration and visually recessive products, he achieved his “desire to keep the materials honest, simple and very robust,” he concludes, looking at the results with pride.
Visit Fisher & Paykel at 51 Kampong Bugis, #01-05 Kallang Riverside Condominium, tel: 6741 0777, fisherpaykel.com
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