Courtyard Houses, The Waterfront, Seatoun, Wellington
Winner NZIA Local Awards 2006
Clustered together at the centre of the Seatoun waterfront development, these interlocking Courtyard Houses challenge the suburban archetype of detached houses on discrete sections, offering instead a new way of thinking about contemporary suburban life.
Because of their siting, the traditional approach to suburban development that places each house at the centre of its section would have produced unusable shady strips of yard at the side of each house and left the section exposed to the buffeting coastal winds. Instead, living and bedroom spaces are shifted to the edges of the section, maximising the use of this space and creating a central sun-filled, sheltered courtyard with which the rooms of the house directly engage.
A strategy of shared walls and interconnecting spaces therefore replaces the archetypical exterior configuration of the houses. Situated at the back of each house, the kitchen opens to an outdoor area that faces onto landscaped private lanes. By sliding slatted screens back, these semi-public spaces become like the traditional street-facing veranda of old. The deliberate absence of fences at the street boundary, the way in which materials and paint colours slide across neighbouring houses and the ‘folding up’ of exposed aggregate concrete panels in the laneway to form the walls of individual garages all begin to blur boundaries between public and private space.
The Houses comprise two basic models. The single-storeyed 16m houses are spaced between the two-storey 20m houses so that views and sun are maximised. Living spaces face to the north, and clerestory windows ensure good light and connection to the outside, with second-storey spaces carefully arranged to allow views out to the harbour and hills with minimal overshadowing.
Client: Globe Holdings Ltd.
