Hawkesbury Managers House

(in cooperation with Marmol Radziner and Associates, Los Angeles, USA)

NZIA Southland Architecture Award 2011

HMA has been working in partnership with USA firm, Marmol Radziner and Associates, to develop a Californian Modernist style house, refined to sit in the Central Otago context.

The challenge has been to adapt the traditional layered horizontal planes of the ‘modernist Californian pavilion’ to local planning rules and extreme weather conditions; and of course, take advantage of the spectacular views to the north of the site.  Our client requested clever detailing to deliver cost effective solutions to these parameters.

Stepping the house across the site and running the main roof slope parallel to the hillside allows the house to find a niche in the topography.  Heavy stone & plaster walls create a spine along the back of the house which anchors the dwelling to the land.

The design responds to the local context with careful choice of materials, merging the house with the surrounding landscape when viewed at a distance, but retaining a sense of character when met at a personal scale.