Red Rock House is a sculpture in dialogue with its surroundings—a tacit acknowledgment that the desert grants no free passes. Here, architecture and environment fuse into a kind of equilibrium: the mass of concrete and steel, the careful harnessing of wind and sun, the silent acknowledgment of a harsh yet magnificent landscape.
Concrete Curtain House is architecture of the slow reveal and private oasis. FGR Architects studio’s metaphor of the folded, pleated curtain gives rise to a residence of fluent tranquillity.
Our client presented Flavin Architects with a unique challenge. On a site that previously hosted two houses, our client asked us to design a modestly sized house and separate art studio.
The brief for the design of this home was to create a two-storey, modern, concrete house that fits within the site context, has minimal impact on the neighbour’s views and creates architecture that is timeless and worthy of this special location.
One person wanted a pool to swim in (and practice surfing), another wanted a luscious natural wild garden, the grown-up kids wanted their own space, and everyone wanted to create a sense of home and being together. The planning concept was to treat the boundaries of the plot – the external fence walls – as the actual external house walls.
The 1.8-hectare site is a naturally formed terrace snuggled into the gentle north-sloping base of Queenstown Hill, overlooking the untamed Shotover River which disappears around the bend.
A spectacular site is both a gift and a problem for new architecture. The positives are self-evident, the negatives less so, but apparent in single-orientation, glassy boxes which proliferate on such sites.
A renovation of an existing 1930s brick duplex, the O house transforms a squat brick box into a light and bright home. Located on a steep site with a 4-metre level change between the front and the rear,
