Blurred Boundaries – Waipapa by Strachan Group Architects

Inspired by a uniquely contextual response, Waipapa sits comfortably in place, looking out over a removed rural landscape and embracing the views in the distance. Strachan Group Architects simplifies the approach, reducing variations in the materiality as a strengthening of form and blurring boundaries in the process.

Sitting north of the North Island of New Zealand, the home nestles into Waipapa, immersing itself amongst a removed rural landscape. Both in response and with due respect to the surrounding and existing vernacular, the proposal aligns with an expectation of form and tonality, ensuring its presence is welcomed. As an occasional home to its family, the retreat ensures a disconnect from the urban condition and through clear and curated portals outward, visual reminders of place reinforce a sense of calm through a natural connection. Sitting within walking access to Whangapoua Beach to the north and with views to the west of undulating hills, the home focusses on the experience of being surrounded by nature. Strachan Group Architects further strengthens the connection to the surrounds through the extensive use of timber, both externally and within the home.

The resulting palette is then reinterpreted through both colour and tonality, seeing the use of a dark-stained cedar and scoria-red corrugate both wrapping the home and then brought inward.

Built by North Coromandel Builders and with landscape design by Strachan Group Landscape Architects, Waipapa draws keen inspiration from an existing red shed situated across a nearby river. The resulting palette is then reinterpreted through both colour and tonality, seeing the use of a dark-stained cedar and scoria-red corrugate both wrapping the home and then brought inward. As a means to blur the boundaries between inside and out, the wrapping aims to dissolve traditional bounding lines that typically occur through transitions. Formally, the home is broken down into two main pavilions that sit under the same gabled-form roof structure, allowing for a separation between the more passive sleeping areas and the active and convening living zones.

Extending outward, generous overhangs provide moments of reprise from the incoming winds, while allowing a sheltered engagement with the outdoors. Operable elements of the façade also hinge upward, allowing cross-ventilation and breezes to pass through the home and for year-round occupation in various indoor and outdoor rooms. Throughout, storage and amenity are integrated into the building fabric, both reinforcing the form and also alleviating the need for an excess of additional pieces. With the focus on views outward and a calm and relaxing feel internally, the home embodies the ideals of a removed escape.

Formally, the home is broken down into two main pavilions that sit under the same gabled-form roof structure, allowing for a separation between the more passive sleeping areas and the active and convening living zones.

Bathed in its own warmth, Waipapa draws on a naturally inspired approach. Strachan Group Architects proposes a considered an appropriate response to site, immersing its occupants within the landscape