Architects: McKinney+Windeatt Architects
Project: Modern Coastal Home
Location: Scotts Landing, New Zealand
Photography: David Straight
This recently completed modern coastal home is sited at Scotts Landing, an inlet on the end of the Mahurangi peninsula south-east of Warkworth. It is sculptural and still calm and well-mannered. A single-storeyed pavilion, the houses faces south over a view of paradise, with the beach just a stone’s throw away. The design taps into a rural vernacular but is made modern by being well-composed with rigorous geometry and a devilish attention to detail.
“We were interested in the roofline,” explains Jack McKinney. “It’s a play on gables but with an inverted butterfly roof. You approach the site from up high, and the roof is the first thing that you see, so this fifth elevation had some significance and needed to be well-composed.”
This modern coastal home features an overscaled timber-frame verandah with a reinforced masonry wall structure. A white, painted timber skeleton contrasts a dark-stained, vertically-clad timber skin and matching seamed metal roof and creates a ribbon effect – rolling in and around the corners of the form. A monolithic chimney anchors a U-shaped courtyard on the northern side facing the sun, providing the main entry point to the house.
Cleverly planned to suit the site, the bedrooms are located at each end, with the main living area, verandah and courtyard concentrated in the middle to contain the view as well as north-facing sun and shelter, giving a real sense of privacy.
“There are other houses scattered around the area,” says McKinney, “but you’re not aware of other houses when you’re there. Contextually I think it works well and is subtle for a fairly large house; it’s not strong and dominating like some houses.”
