Project Feature Articles

Urban Spaceship – Spaceship IV by PAC Studio

Words by Rose Onans

Photography by David Straight

On a sloping site in Grey Lynn, Auckland, Spaceship IV sees PAC Studio stack a series of dark and brooding volumes so as to hug the hearth and simultaneously hover above the site in a striking assembly of forms.

The design seeks to reconcile the brief for a flat, north-facing rear yard while responding to the steep slope of the land by eschewing the typical suburban residential typology. Rather, the project, created for clients who work in the film industry and their family, embraces a more nuanced and unexpected approach to create the home that is playfully described as a spaceship.

Steel screens and profiled-metal cladding and roofs may speak to the materiality of a spaceship yet cedar to the north and the street elevations gives the house a more rural and neighbourly street presence.

In order to achieve the clients’ desire for a usable flat outdoor space, Spaceship IV is planned as a series of volumes that step down the site. The rear yard continues through the living space and appropriates the roof of the volume below to create a level yet elevated deck that overlooks the Auckland’s rooftops and volcanic mountains. This ‘eirie’ intersects the outdoor space and the built form, creating an extension of the living area and effectively maximises the use of the site.

The design seeks to reconcile the brief for a flat, north-facing rear yard while responding to the steep slope of the land by eschewing the typical suburban residential typology.

An additional courtyard is carved out within the structure, creating a light-filled void in the heart of the home that offers views, natural light and ventilation. The home is entered via a steel and polycarbonate covered walkway that creates a transitional space between the outdoors and the architecture. This distinction is further blurred as one reaches the glazed courtyard, from which the bedrooms, bathroom and second living area emanate. With the courtyard as the central point that each of these spaces pivots around, a sequence of indoor and outdoor experiences is created as one moves throughout the building.

A central glazed courtyard is visible both internally and from the outdoor elevated deck that sits above the lower volume. Planted densely with native vegetation, the courtyard represents an intersection of the architecture and the outdoors.

A straight run stair connects the upper and lower volumes, ascending to the middle of the living area through a black strand board void. The movement from dark to light, and from contraction to expansion, is intended as an inflection point within the home. On reaching the generous kitchen and living area, the sense of space is enhanced by the fact that one side runs out to the yard, while the other extends onto the rooftop deck. The raked ceiling that echoes the contour of the land, emphasising the experience of the site from within.

An additional courtyard is carved out within the structure, creating a light-filled void in the heart of the home that offers views, natural light and ventilation.

Shaped around an intimate connection with the land, Spaceship IV pursues a new suburban approach. Dark and rather mysterious from the outside, the design carves out spaces that either punctuate the built form or extend over it to create layered intersection between the site and the architecture.