Hilltop Haven – Raglan Rest by Edwards White Architects

Raglan Rest is at once sculptural object and inviting family home. By adopting a rich material palette paired with crisp, restrained detailing, Edwards White Architects sensitively negotiates the brief for a family home with clean lines and grand open spaces.

An undulating landscape of remnant forestry and lush parkland encompasses the project site, which overlooks the Raglan township and harbour below. With this heightened and exposed location, the site not only features impressive views of the surging countryside but also endures an equally powerful climate. Edwards White Architects takes a dichotomous approach to the building, which offers refuge and protection in response to these conditions, but which also encourages exploration of the panoramic prospect through considered moments of openness and transparency.

Edwards White Architects takes a dichotomous approach to the building, which offers refuge and protection in response to these conditions, but which also encourages exploration of the panoramic prospect through considered moments of openness and transparency.

The approach to Raglan Rest presents a robust exterior configuration of stepped blank faces, giving prominence to the façade treatment of cedar stained with Dark Dryden. This tonally-dynamic cladding references local charred driftwood and cohesively cloaks the rectilinear volumes of the home. These intersecting forms create striking visual drama against the lush green landscape while also carefully obstructing and revealing vistas of the horizon as a tantalising prelude to what awaits within.

Towards the centre of this sturdy exterior shell, a singular plunging cut in the pure form announces the entrance, suggesting a poetic act of erosion through the ‘driftwood’. This carved under croft cantilevers out from the main structure of the home as a further act of invitation and is wrapped in a hospitable, warm natural cedar, which continues through the dwelt spaces. The contrast in timber tones from exterior to interior guides a strong sense of threshold and emphasises the duality of Raglan Rest as place of peaceful shelter that remains conscious of its fierce surrounds.

Towards the centre of this sturdy exterior shell, a singular plunging cut in the pure form announces the entrance, suggesting a poetic act of erosion through the ‘driftwood’.

Moving through to the the main living space, a large eave partially covers the pool deck frontage and mirrors the cantilever language from the entrance portal. While remaining sympathetic to the site’s potential for harsh weather, pocket glazing extends across the room and can tuck away in elegant recess if desired. Edwards White Architects does not introduce a raised fence around the pool, but instead creates a sunken moat about its perimeter to maintain an uninterrupted connection to the landscape.

Arterial rooms lead out from the living area to sculpt a pivoting, L-shaped floorplan. This strategy offers new perspectives of the site from the bedrooms and generates a gentle enclosure around the communal outdoor space. Interior fixings are discreet and precise to maximise the impact of both vantage points and material choices. The embracing natural cedar against the bold dark joinery, polished concrete floors and pure white bathroom tiles forge a delicate elemental harmony that emanates sophistication.

An undulating landscape of remnant forestry and lush parkland encompasses the project site, which overlooks the Raglan township and harbour below.