A holiday home on Waiheke Island with curving walls and secret doors has won New Zealand's richest architectural prize.
Nicholas Stevens and Gary Lawson of Auckland's Stevens Lawson Architects were awarded the $15,000 first prize by HOME New Zealand magazine.
The Home of the Year 2013 is located on aprominent headland and is made up of three curved, timber-clad pod forms. The windows of the pods frame slices of a dramatic 270-degree panorama that takes in Onetangi Beach, a series of rocky headlands and a pohutukawa tree overhanging a sheer drop to the ocean. Architect Gary Lawson describes the home as having an "organic" layout resembling "pebbles scattered on a beach".
The pod forms are linked by a central living, dining and kitchen area that feels like a futuristic verandah. The rooms within the pods are accessed through "secret" doors concealed in the pods' walls. "We wanted to create a bit of mystery," architect Nicholas Stevens says.
"The judges admired the home's discreet presence on the headland, and its innovative approach to creating delightful spaces," says HOME New Zealand editor Jeremy Hansen, who convened the three-person Home of the Year 2013 jury. "The home's warm, highly crafted interiors are unique, intriguing and deeply respectful of a remarkable site."
The 285-square-metre house has three guest bedrooms on a lower level that isn't visible from the beach below.
"It's a house that's surprising and engaging as a series of spatial experiences," Gary Lawson says. "It's a thrilling series of spaces to move through and engage the senses".
The Home of the Year was selected from a shortlist of 11 homes from an open entry process. The shortlisted homes were visited by jury members Jeremy Hansen, Lance Herbst of Auckland's Herbst Architects, and Cathleen McGuigan, the New York-based editor of Architectural Record magazine.
