A Silvered Timber Beauty – Matakana Barn by Strachan Group Architects

Wrapped in local Totara wood, Matakana Barn takes inspiration from the surrounding vernacular. Strachan Group Architects has created a silvered timber beauty that overlooks its rural property and neighbouring vineyard.

Within its own unique location, Matakana Barn sits perched outwardly stretching across its rural property, highlighted by an enviable backdrop of native bush. Its elevated location allows for a spanning view over the neighbouring vineyards and properties beyond. At just under a one-hour drive from Auckland, the home has a true sense of disconnection from its nearby urban setting. Wrapped in its own sheath of wood from local Totara trees, the home sits comfortably in its milieu where Strachan Group Architects has taken a modest and unassuming approach to the resulting form.

A single level home, the clients’ brief comprised a functional and pragmatically driven set of principles. Optimum to the home was its engagement with its landscape, both in immediate proximity and the far-reaching extents. The formal vernacular takes inspiration from the traditional rural shed and barn structure, with its simple gable roof, open internal layout, high pitched ceilings and exposed structure internally. Taking further cues from this style, and utilising locally accessible materials, the surrounding Totara trees made an obvious material choice. A series of silvered strips of the species then lightly cover the external gable structure, aged in preparation for its engagement with the elements.

Internally, Totara wood is used in its raw form, flanking the underside of the ceilings and as exposed structure throughout. The contrast with the plaster elements adds a sense of warmth and brings a tactile and contextually relatable element inside. The resulting aroma from the extended use of the timber further adds to the immersive experience. A double-height open living space centres as the communal active space within the home, and the more passive zones are marked by a reduction in volume and increased intimacy, protected by large pivoting screens to the west.

As a true celebration of context, embracing the materials of the site and maximising its incredible location, Matakana Barn and its simplistic mono-pitched formality imbues a sense of retreat. Strachan Group Architects has proposed a home that suitably responds to its rural location, actively optimising passive solar gain, heating and water collection and management. On its grassed sloping site, the home embrace (and offers a blueprint for) a less complicated life.

Strachan Group Architects has taken a modest and unassuming approach to the resulting form.