Spaces for Reflection and Connection – Mahoenui by Bindon Design Group

A reinvigoration of an existing post-modern home, Mahoenui is imagined as a series of spaces that allow both reflection and connection. Bindon Design Group combines the familiar with a bold expansion of the original footprint to create a generously proportioned and outwardly-focused home.

Located along the North Shore of Auckland, Mahoenui sits in the enviable Coatesville, where the lush countryside coupled with its remoteness created an opportunity to respond in a vernacular befitting of the setting. Inherited as a post-modern masonry home, the foundations for its renovation and expansion were seen more as the commencing point and instead strips the original home and creates a connection to the gabled rural silhouettes of the area. The resulting form sits as a bold series of generous, interconnected gabled structures across the landscape.

Located along the North Shore of Auckland, Mahoenui sits in the enviable Coatesville, where the lush countryside coupled with its remoteness created an opportunity to respond in a vernacular befitting of the setting.

Built by Devo Construction, with interiors designed in collaboration with Trinity Interior Design, Mahoenui sees the expansion from a previous 430sqm footprint to one over 1,100sqm, taking advantage of the sprawling site. Despite the amplified scale of the built area, there are deliberate moments for reflection dotted throughout. Designed to encourage inhabitants and visitors to pause and engage with the surrounding landscape, they create a sense of disconnect from the home en masse while still being within it. The overall formal approach is directed by the rectilinear gable roof forms that come together and intersect on two axes. The repeated gables create apertures on both the approach and from within, creating purposed portals to the surrounding natural elements.

The retrained palette sees timber used both internally and externally, adding warmth and natural texture that connects to its rural context. The underside of soffits lined in timber encase the outdoor room experience and help define it formally. The monochromatic palette and open uninterrupted planes further emphasise the scale of the home and reinforce opportunities to pause and reflect. The addition of natural stone with white plastered walls and dark internal elements internally also create a hierarchy and becomes a comment on the passivity of the space, where dark areas are more passive and the lighter, brighter areas are gathering, active spaces.

With much-needed new life breathed into its original bones, Mahoenui sits comfortably in its countryside locale by embracing a traditional gabled architectural formality. Through working closely with the client, Bindon Design Group has created a home that responds to its site and its inhabitants, creating a generous, calm haven.

Bindon Design Group combines the familiar with a bold expansion of the original footprint to create a generously proportioned and outwardly-focused home.