A Play on Shadow – House Under Eaves by MRTN Architects

As a subdued and retreated form on its site, House Under Eaves embraces shadow as a key quality of the architecture. MRTN Architects draws on the natural patina and ageing of timber to enhance the feeling of immersion, while proposing a vernacular of its own as an early build in a new residential development.

In its Point Wells locale, within an hour from Auckland, House Under Eaves sits as an early insertion amongst a developing neighbourhood, hopeful in its influence on the homes that will eventually surround it. Like any residence, privacy and a sense of secluded calm are at the forefront for the feel of the spaces, and a key to this aim here is the physical retreat of the mass from the streetscape and adjoining road. By pulling the home backward, a relief space is naturally created to the front of the home, adding a sense of anticipation on approach. The grey timber form conceals its contents and acts as a front to the introspective home it protects, while a large and singular roof structure juts out to provide shelter and cast shadows throughout the seasons. MRTN Architects navigates the flat terrain by responding with equally planar vertical elements, allowing light through key openings and junctions.

MRTN Architects navigates the flat terrain by responding with equally planar vertical elements, allowing light through key openings and junctions.

Built by Steve Haycock Constructions, House Under Eaves uses the moving shadows created by the enlarged eaves as a key feature. As the sun moves overhead, the internal experience changes, and this is intended to be celebrated as part of how the home functions. The darker palette of the exterior act also as a gesture of retreat amongst the landscape, allowing the bright green flora to be showcased and the home sit respectfully amongst it. Thick and expressive vertical elements offer an increased sense of protection from the elements, while the extended roof and its eaves generously protect the home and its inhabitants from the heavy downpours common in the area.

Behind its façade, the home is a divided split gable form, simplifying junctions and increasing ceiling heights. Externally, the home is clad in cedar, which is then brought into the interior spaces, reinforcing warmth and the natural texture that the home is encased in. Connecting the front and rear wings of the home is a glazed link that brings light deep into the centre of the home and allows a connection to the natural as one moves through the home, instead of the garden merely being a destination at one end. The parts of the home intentionally move from private and enclosed at the front to more open and inviting of its surrounds at the rear – mimicking activity and how the home is used.

The darker palette oof the exterior act also as a gesture of retreat amongst the landscape, allowing the bright green flora to be showcased and the home sit respectfully amongst it.

MRTN Architects’ House Under Eaves navigates the residential landscape in its own way by proposing a unique template that responds sensitivity to the surrounding context, while carving its own bold identifiable statement on site.