Brightly Emboldened – Yolk House by Pac Studio

Yolk House, informed by the gregarious and bold personalities of its owners, is filled with colour and the effervescence of bright amber tones. Befittingly, Pac Studio looked to the clients’ character and charm for inspiration, devising a distinctive approach for the family home.

Extending the original bungalow home for the young family required a less than conventional approach on the part of Pac Studio. Ensuring the home reflected its owners and their associated energy formed a pivotal part of the approach, with the new additions needing to capture an individualistic sensibility. Through associating a vibrant presence with palette and tonality, Yolk House emerges as a home inspired by the colour yellow, giving way to its connected namesake. Pac Studio operates under the belief that while each project has a responsibility to connect to both its past and context, projects also need to connect to their inhabitants. With Yolk House, the design studio extended an existing heritage home to better engage in a dialogue with the site and allow the vigour of its home life to fill the volumetric space.

The architectural response deliberately engaged with the landscape, where a stepped platform terrace now opens the internal living space into the rear garden, encouraging an outward flow of movement.

Yolk House, located in the inner city of Auckland, is the familiar story of a family needing to extend an existing and rigidly formal plan. Pac Studio was guided by the clients’ desire to gather within a large family zone, as well as the need to better optimise the site’s landscape. The build, completed by Early Bird Construction, saw the development of a shared living, kitchen and dining space at the rear of the house, now open to make use of the incoming western sun. Similarly, the architectural response deliberately engaged with the landscape, where a stepped platform terrace now opens the internal living space into the rear garden, encouraging an outward flow of movement.

The materiality also offers a uniqueness in its selection, due to both budget constraints and the aim to illuminate the rear space. After the original 1980s extension was removed, the new addition could better address and connect to the existing structure with purpose and forethought. Needing to reduce the build time concurrently, mill finish aluminium cladding offered an ideal solution, wrapping the form in a lightweight and reflective film. The interactivity of the sheeting further animates the garden space and encourages the home to dance with the moving sun throughout the day. Internally, the use of bright yellow further reinforces the increased energy and brightness of the home.

The interactivity of the sheeting further animates the garden space and encourages the home to dance with the moving sun throughout the day. Internally, the use of bright yellow further reinforces the increased energy and brightness of the home.

Through restraint and a clear brief, Yolk House emerges from a vision of connecting people to place. Pac Studio has created a home that idyllically captures its residents, while offering them a place they can honour their true selves within.