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A Suburban Tree House – Waiatarua House by Monk Mackenzie
Offering a sense of disconnect and respite from the urban condition, Monk Mackenzie’s Waiatarua House is a suburban tree house on the city fringes of Auckland.
The project is surrounded by nature and immersed in its landscape. Screened from neighbours by the dense vegetation of the gully it sits amongst, the home is positioned as a sharply refined and robust shelter for its custodians, as a place in which to connect to nature and disconnect from the city. Hamish Monk and Dean Mackenzie, founding directors of Monk Mackenzie, explain that “the house is perched on a very steep site that drops down to the Waiatarua Creek reserve, where the entrance to the site is down a long driveway, so is some distance from the street. Although on the city fringe, the house offers the owners a sense of remoteness and respite – a suburban tree house.”
Built by McGillivray Builders, together with Blueprint Consulting Engineers and Engineering Design Consultants, Waiatarua House “was designed for a couple in their mid-sixties who had always wanted a house surrounded by nature though not far removed from city life – a place or respite from the speed of city life. The brief was for a new house on a challenging, steep site in a bush clad creek gully,” Hamish says. The position surrounded by natural elements, was both an opportunity and a key consideration of the response to the site, he adds. “One of the design challenges was to insert a bold intervention into a sensitive bush reserve whilst still maintaining a sense of modesty and the poetic.”
“The house is perched on a very steep site that drops down to the Waiatarua Creek reserve, where the entrance to the site is down a long driveway, so is some distance from the street. Although on the city fringe, the house offers the owners a sense of remoteness and respite – a suburban tree house.”
Ascending over its sloping site, there is a sense of balance created, distinguishing clearly between the built and the natural. In describing their conceptual inspiration, Dean says, “the design is conceived as a series of sculptural components. Plays on purity and scale of the program are articulated through three simple elemental forms that step down the site towards the creek – the roof of one floor creating a level platform for the next.” This conception is felt in the journey through the home. “From the point of entry, the house offers a range of spatial experiences across the width of the floorplate, transitioning from an almost subterranean position in the landscape to an elevated point perched amongst tree canopies,” he says. “The top floor accommodates a small study nook at the top of the stair landing. An oblique geometric screen orientates views and allows natural light to permeate this area without unwanted views to the neighbouring property.”
Regular and controlled, the consistency of each formal component is further emphasised by the refinement in their finish. Externally, the receding dark palette allows the overall to be secondary to the greenery, as part of the shadows. Hamish says, “the exterior is black stained timber and appears as a dark silhouette behind the veil of green foliage provided by the trees. The design intentionally does not try to compete or mimic the wild beauty and intricacy expressed in surrounding natural environment, but rather assumes a quiet, understated position in contrast – a reductivist idiom, stripped of excessive articulation and noise.” Internally, there is a similar approach, but it acts almost in contrast it its exterior. Hamish continues, “bleached, buffed and then oiled to accentuate grain, American oak panelling is applied to ceilings and walls to create a singular materiality and serve as a counterpoint to the exterior.”
“The top floor accommodates a small study nook at the top of the stair landing. An oblique geometric screen orientates views and allows natural light to permeate this area without unwanted views to the neighbouring property.”
While Waiatarua House opens its façade to fully embrace its surroundings, its clean and restrained architectural identity offers a contrast with the natural environment. These considered balances ensure Monk Mackenzie’s core ideals of intentional calm and escapism are consistently upheld and, in fact, heightened through this gentle contrast. As a home still relatively geographically connected to the city, the degree of separation is beautifully accentuated through the intentional placement and modesty of its comprising parts, enhancing its true immersion amongst the trees.
