Freeman's Bay House
NZIA 2009 New Zealand Architecture Award
NZIA 2008 Auckland Architecture Awards Winner
The house sits on a tight urban site with calmness and delicacy amongst its neighbours. A slim horizontal roof hovers over a section of dark stained louvres, filtering privacy and providing a sense of intrigue and elegance. An east facing courtyard, containing a pool and decks, which slide over a simple zen garden, allows beautifully sequenced and layered views through the house and diagonally out to the city. This is a special house, it invites exploration and there are surprises and magical moments at every turn. Its robust concrete body is offset by the delicacy of its wood-lined floating roof and beautifully considered joinery, all of which form a perfect complement to the owners’ furniture and art.
(NZIA Awards Jury)
This house establishes a dialogue between a private central courtyard and a bustling inner-city street. Interaction between the two is mediated by a wall of cedar weatherboard louvres that cover a verandah on the front facade. The raw concrete walls, floors and ceilings of the house are conceived of as a rustic background to the house's vigorous and evolving occupation. Within the courtyard space is a series of rolling decks to allow the whole area below to be utilised for garden and provide a movable stage to enable differing themes to be created.
Press/Links
https://nzia.co.nz/practice/GerradHallArchitectsLtd/1646/projects/freemansbayhouse/730
https://archipro.co.nz/project/freemans-bay-house-gerrad-hall-architects