Huttunen-Lipasti-Pakkanen Architects - Villa Mecklin

Summer Camp - Villa Mecklin looks like the perfect weekend retreat. A stylish, minimalist interior being all you need to really detach yourself from work. Underfloor heating is taken to a new level here with a sunken fire pit! Strong south orientation for solar gain and a wood burning stove - winter or summer it's another great escape.

Overview

Villa Mecklin is located in the Finnish archipelago. It sits in a small depression in the rocks, its sheltered terrace extending over the summit of the rock. In connection with the shoreline sauna, there is also a stove-heated cabin for guests.

The building materials selected for Villa Mecklin are uncontrived, basic ones suited for the archipelago. All wood surfaces have been left untreated and will turn grey naturally.

The Villa was built in 2008. The floor area of the villa is 70m2 and the sauna is 20m2.

Although angular in lines and form, the cabin's extended outer walls provide the deck with what could be described as a comforting embrace. Doubling functionally as wind breaks and storage, the also no doubt afford some privacy to the owners from passing boats.


With an open plan living, kitchen dining area fronting on to the extended deck, the living area is trebled. Short stilts support the deck and house - flattening the rocky terrain to create a very usable entertaining space.

In contrast, the sleeping areas follow their function arranged at the cooler northern end of the building with minimal glazing, aiding in regulating the winter and summer temperatures.


Gracefully greying, the timber exterior blends into its surroundings. - This will be a holiday home that's enjoyed for many years to come!

Plan

Herbst Architects - Lindale Bach

Herbst Architects

Lindale Bach

Sticks and stones - Blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, Lance and Nicola Herbst have become the masters of the simple, elegant, functional beach retreat. If they'd take the job, Lance and Nicola would be my choice for designing an eco retreat.

Overview
Built on an island with no mains electricity and daily ferry connections, the Lindale residence on Great Barrier Island HAD to be as energy efficient as possible.

Minimal materials were freighted in and the central Gabion wall of the residence an ideal solution. Using local river stones, the wall provides a fantastic heat store and structural backbone to the build. The wall also counters the wind in covered outdoor spaces, together with a cosy fire making this retreat and so special.

Prior to the build beginning, large rainwater and sewage treatment tanks were buried under the site. The cooler environment promoting less bacterial growth and leaving the relatively pure rainwater, collected from all roof sections, requiring no treatment to drink.

A Full functional kitchen the heart of the residence is flanked by a covered porch to the right with open fire and shaded midsummer dining area to the rear. Sunken, in front of the kitchen and nearest to the beach, is a cosy built in couch and tv nook.

Traversing the Gabion wall to the rear of the house is the bedroom tower and bathroom. Two bedrooms with surf views or walk out patio respectively

Our primary concerns in the design of this building have been to:

• create an environment that facilitates and enhances the experience of living outdoors


• challenge convenience as the driving force behind decisions, concentrating rather on the rituals associated with space


• establish a range of spatial, light and textural experiences be responsive to the small scale of the existing built
  environment.
  

In order to articulate the building in a scale of forms appropriate to the environment the functions of the house that require complete weather enclosure are broken into three individual masses:

• a horizontal structure housing the living functions


• a tower housing the sleeping and bathing functions


• and a boatshed.

prevailing south-west wind a spine wall of gabion baskets is set at right angles to the site. The wall sets up a strong enclosing edge for the main covered living deck and provides an intimate textured backdrop to the bathroom space. The masses of the building are arranged around the gabion wall to form edges, create a range of negative spaces and provide wind shelter to two covered outdoor living spaces.

Lance Herbst

Project location
Great Barrier Island, New Zealand
Architect
Herbst Architects
Plans

Photos Patrick Reynolds

MacGabhann Architects - Tuath na Mara Residence

MacGabhann Architects

Tuath na Mara Residence

Armoured Longboat - Standing vigilant over a northern Fjord in Ireland, the Tuath na Mara Residence, by MacGabhann Architects appears solid as a rock. Zinc clad for resilience, the low slung house blends seamlessly into the heather-covered rocky landscape, its own seams, echoing the strata of surrounding rocks. Contrasting a well hunkered core, the roof line warps and twists upwards like wonderful grey weathered seaweed, revealing the surrounding views to the living areas.

Overview
The project's focus around the specifics of the site and putting the personal and particular experiences above the powerful and the public, seeks to create a mood which is meditative instead of tensing or relaxing.

The site is hidden from the public road and is accessed from high ground on the landward side where the first experience is of an elevated view of the site and the sea beyond. Therefore the importance of the roof, or fifth façade, dictated a metal zinc cladding which is suitable for both walls and roof. Said façade, mimicking the seaweed found on the shores beyond. The anthracite colour of the zinc makes the building camouflage itself into the heather landscape.



The roof of both living areas is flipped and directed in opposite directions and towards particular points in the landscape and sunlight. Both living areas are fully glazed, thus embracing nature and developing a conversation with it. By way of contrast the sloped slit windows of the bedrooms act as a counter point to the absolute horizontal of the ocean horizon.

In order to emphasise the fact that the owners were embarking on a holiday each time they entered the house, the step and entry ramp at the front door is disconnected from the building thus making the visitor step over a gap not unlike stepping from the static platform onto a passing train. Thus a physical step from the day to day life into this adventurous house.

Layout
The plan form was inspired by the traditional narrow cottage and is orientated towards warm southern sun. It contains three sleeping cells and auxiliary spaces in the middle with two living areas, one at each end, connected by a library. Glazing is relative to the function of the rooms, with the centre bedrooms and auxiliary spaces horizontally glazed with small landscape framing windows, while the end living areas are wide open to the surrounding views.

The roof rain water is drained by way of gargoyles making one aware of the elements even in the lightest of showers, thus reinforcing the connection between inhabitant and nature.

Client's Comments

For us, ‘Tuath na Mara’ is wonderfully paradoxical: profoundly contextual and strikingly free-floating.

It is contextual in two senses: Firstly it speaks to the built experience of both our families, being the width of a house on the west coast that has been in the family for generations, and having the name and some of the shape of a house built by a Scottish grandparent (‘Tuath na Mara’ equally well in Scots and Irish Gaelic). Secondly it is rooted in the Donegal landscape, or more precisely in the inter-tidal seascape with which it shares its colour and, very nearly, its location. From the sea, it is virtually invisible.

But it is also free-floating, both in the way it sculpts light internally, and in the way its design is part of a cosmopolitan architectural conversation that is above national boundaries. This global-local interchange marks it out as capable of belonging only to the 21st century.

Results
MacGabhann Architects have made, as the client describes, a wonderful modern escape. With integrated reference to vernacular buildings and the landscape, without compromising aesthetics and impressive modern design, I'm confident that this is not the last we'll hear from them in great residential design.

Plans

Project: Tuath Na Mara
Architect: MacGabhann Architects
Team Credits: Tarla MacGabhann, Antoin MacGabhann, Niels Merschbrock & Barry Maguire
Completed: 2006-2007
Awards: Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Public Choice Award
Best house 2008 Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Irish Architecture Awards 2008
Photographic Credits: Dennis Gilbert - VIEW Pictures

via: MacGabhann Architects

Melling:Morse Architects Ltd - Split Box

Melling:Morse Architects Ltd

Split Box

(Un-)divided attention - Melling:Morse have created seaside loft style living, which sits as lightly as possible, near remote Kennedy bay, New Zealand.

Overview
The Split Box residence in Tuateawa Bay, Coromandel, New Zealand adapts the traditional bach materials, wood and corrugated iron into a spectacular two storey loft. The forward glazing and open planned layout, wouldn't look out of place in a down town Wellington penthouse. Yet here, the expanses allow undivided attention to the beach and are used to passively heat the concrete slab, which releases it's warmth in the evening. To compensate in mid summer, slat windows at the bottom and top of the glass expanses produce a cooling airflow.

Renewable and low impact materials are used and the holiday home is a perfect combination of form and function. Above it's architectural and aesthetic functions, the split divides the house into cosy, functional parcels of: living and dining downstairs; and sleeping and bathing above. It also aids in a vital task of collecting rainwater in the remote setting.
Predominantly used by a couple, with occasional visitors camping nearby, the open plan nature of the house allows maximum sunrise views, from every room.
Simple, uncluttered and functional design are the signature - beauty, the result.



Here is Gerald Melling's take on the design of the Split Box.

Program
The Coromandel is a sub-tropical peninsular on the north-west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, an idyllic and remote region offering welcome holiday refuge from the urban stress of Auckland city. The Split Box is a permanently constructed commitment to a site hitherto inhabited only by two caravans and a storage shed. Its location is quintessential Kiwi Paradise - a hilltop on the edge of a coastline.
A desire to actively acknowledge the sea is combined with the need to harvest a water supply - the building is thus clinically cleaved down its middle, a negotiable crack in a rock.



Layout
Aligned alongside an enormous Pohutakawa tree, the five-metre high box is made up of two halves, each with a retreated mezzanine. To one side of the ‘split’ a dining area/kitchen is overlooked by the bedroom; to the other, a sitting room /‘snug’ supports an open bathroom.
The ‘split’ defines the circulation route from land to sea. At ground level, it bisects the concrete slab with a timber ribbon stretched across the grass towards the lip of the cliff; at mezzanine level, it bridges the upper void of the box to a deck reaching for the sunrise; and at roof level, it cascades its rainwater down a chute to a tank tucked into a bank below the road.
The 90 sq.m. box is fully glazed on three of its sides - north, east and south - and at the two ends of its western face, which is otherwise clad in vertical, black corrugated Onduline.




Timber is Macrocarpa (an environmentally friendly species which does not require toxic treatment) rough-sawn externally and left to naturally weather, dressed and oiled internally.
The original caravans remain - as, of course, they should - as guestrooms.

Plans
Many thanks to Gerald and Allan for these fantastic freehand sketches!



Architects: Melling:Morse Architects Ltd
Completed: 2006
Materials: Macrocarpa, Glass and Onduline
Google maps: Satellite

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More about Melling:Morse
A practice that embraces wooden construction and creates masterpieces in timber, Melling:Morse are more recently known for impressive "infill" structures such as their Wedge house and Cliffhanger residence.

The Wedge


Cliffhanger


Gerald's own residence, the Skybox, is a three storey studio that takes the live-work-play notion to the extreme. It sits beautifully, like a well aged barnacle, on a building in down town Wellington.

The Skybox

via: Melling:Morse Architects Ltd

Leuschke Group Ltd - Holiday Home, Omaha Beach

Leuschke Group Ltd

Holiday Home, Omaha Beach

Weekend Getaway - Capturing the sunrise over Omaha Beach, New Zealand, this modern vernacular Kiwi bach by the Leuschke Group, laps up morning and evening sun on its sunken decks.

Program
The owners requested a three bedroom holiday home to be built on the Omaha Beach front. Colours had to be subdued and materials tactile. In response, the Architects introduced a selection of contrasting materials; chiselled and smooth basalt, clear and etched glass, bandsawn and dressed timbers interplayed with smooth stone surfaces.

A simple palette of materials and colours were interwoven to create this beach house. Upon arrival an intricately crafted timber box acknowledges the point of entry, and opens up to reveal the garage. A glass canopy stretches out over the front door and streams of light from above draw you in. Out through further layers of glass to the back deck, extensive sea views beckon...

Sunken timber decks on the beach side invite sand and sea to become an integral part of the experience of the property.



Layout
The rectangular plot stretches eastward towards the beach, dictating that house is shadowed from the the northern sun by adjoining houses. To maximise light from this direction a ‘Danpalon’ (opaque polycarbonate) screen along the boundary wall shuts out the neighbours and allows the owners to sense nature more acutely, letting in diffused sunlight and the beating of wind and rain.
Note: This is a true hark back to the original settlers shelters in New Zealand, which the quintessential kiwi bach (holiday cabin) mimics. They are built with thin galvanised roofs, easily transported and constructed, that hummed in the wind, amplified the fall of rain and pounding surf (a comforting sound to many).

Set back from the wall is the open plan living area: kitchen, dining and living. Bright and airy, the space opens out to decks at either end of the day. As the westerly sun shines in, glass doors slide back and the divided kitchen bench becomes a singular white unit. Combining the indoor dining table, sink and hobs, with the outdoor table and built in BBQ. This deck, wrapped is also in Danpalon, glows as the sun sets and entertaining continues. A simpler breakfast table features on the eastern deck, for contemplating the surf, as sets roll in.



On the southern wall of the residence are two small bedrooms and a master site which takes in the sights, smells and sounds of the Pacific ocean. Literally en suite, the intimate shower, wash basin and WC extend along the southern wall of the master bedroom. Dividing the two smaller rooms is a more conventional dual access en suite and a third powder room WC.

Separating the open plan living and sleeping wings are the wonderful timber clad garage and a more intimate living room, that can be glazed off from the main area.



The result
Sophisticated use of simple construction materials dark wood and bassalt blocks, creates a high class, low maintenance three bedroom getaway.



Plan



Architect: Leuschke Group Ltd
Completed: 2006
Materials: Basalt and Timber
Google Map: Satellite

via: Leuschke Group Ltd

Cazu Zegers - Casa Do

Cazu Zegers

Casa Do

"A house hugged between two curved walls, protecting the inhabitants. Engrossed with the magnitude of the Pacific Ocean and the deep vastness of Chile's the Northern coastline." Cazu Zegers has summed up his Chilean Bach well!

Photos by: Carlos Eguiguren




The brief for the project was to design a house that would be a resting place during weekends, holidays, etc. in a condominium with a wide variety of house designs. The architecture of the house is base on creating a shell, a protective womb before the vastness of the sea, allowing inhabitants to contemplate in the warmth of its interior. To this affect, two circles clasp the rectangular floors of the house, cupping them on the Northern and Southern edges.





Gaps in the East and West of the circle let in the views and sun. Light wells are created in the eyelid shaped gaps between the curved walls and the square floors, illuminating the darker areas of the house. On the same axis, the house is split into private and public, with the bedrooms in the northern section and the open planned living in the South. The carpenter has used fitted furniture to divide the open plan floors into public and private spaces.

Extending form this axis to the east is the entrance gangway. This guiding path to the house forms the stem of the poppy bud architectural shape. Upon entering the house on the upper level, you glimpse the ocean and head left along a straight corridor, to the Southern wall. As you curve down the stairs to the kitchen dining area you are confronted with the views out the double height windows to the pacific ocean and have experienced both elements of the house's design.

The staircase to the roof terrace, made of laminated wood is equally charming and a sculptural in itself, allowing access to a very large terrace which is part sheltered by the extended outer walls.

The unique design of this house and the bold architectural style, has provided a wonderful beach side retreat for this Chilean couple. What a place to take in the setting sun.

Plans


Architect: Cazu Zegers
Collaborators: Grupo Aira (Juan Pablo Almarza, Pamela Liddle)
Protect Completed: 2001
Location: Chigualoco, Los Vilos IV Región- Chile
Material: Reinforced concrete
Windows: Anodised aluminium
Cabinetry: Native Cohigüe and Raulí
Constructed area: 275 m2
Plot size: 5000 m2
Photography: Carlos Eguiguren – Cristina Alemparte
Google: Satellite View

via: Cazu Zegers - Grupo Aira