A Familiar Escape – Getaway House by Studio John Irving

Inspired by its location on the water’s edge, Getaway House embodies a far-flung holiday destination through its relaxed and casual openness. Studio John Irving combines a coastal approach with the refinement of a residential home in an urban context, creating a home of familiar gabled forms in the landscape.

Both in response to its location and a want to be immersed within the surrounding landscape, Getaway House embodies its namesake as a casual destination home along the coast. Its positioning along the water’s edge affords the home an open connection to the landscape, with uninterrupted views bringing the intended sense of calm and tranquillity inward. Set in its picturesque location of Waiheke Island, east of Auckland, the surfbeach is the ideal outlook in the foreground, and the architectural response is an answer to its locale. While the open gestures allow a clear visual and ventilated connection, creating a sense of privacy and protection from the elements was also integral to the comfort of the home. Studio John Irving combines open and closed elements and a familiar residential vernacular in conjuring the resulting occasional home.

Set in its picturesque location of Waiheke Island, east of Auckland, the surf beach is the ideal outlook in the foreground, and the architectural response is an answer to its locale.

The bold gabled forms that dot the site open up to a protected courtyard on the opposite side to the coast. The creation of a protected enclave allows the experience of being within the building to match the home’s intended ease and create an outdoor room as an extension of the interior. The courtyard welcomes natural light and encourages a dissolving of the thresholds between inside and out. The same formal approach used in the pitched gable forms matches a sense of simplicity in all of the comprising elements.

In order to maintain key connections while also creating and instilling a sense of privacy and protection from the elements, a balanced approach decides on the location of openings and closed gestures. While the volumes open up to the inner courtyard, to their edges, a solid edge encases the home and helps define the space. Gutters and other plumbing elements have been concealed within the overall form, reinforcing the overall metal sheeting clad form, and internally, the use of timber lining the spaces adds a welcomed warmth and texture, as a counterbalance to the exterior shell.

The same formal approach used in the pitched gable forms matches a sense of simplicity in all of the comprising elements.

Motivated by its remote locale, the simplified approach of Getaway House is the manifestation of the feeling evoked by being immersed in its landscape. Studio John Irving connects to the adjacent ocean, while creating a sense of privacy and solitude.