Grafton Road House

This house is uniquely positioned along a narrow ridge in Roseneath, Wellington, affording expansive views down to the inner harbour and central city, and across Evans Bay to the Miramar Peninsular. The brief called for a contemporary home that was resilient yet crafted to withstand the exposure of the site, and which made the most of the outstanding outlook available.

The house responds to the narrow lot widths and proximity of the neighbouring houses by drawing the views in through the length of the house, at the same time affording privacy from the neighbours through carefully placed secondary glazing down its flanks.

The house respects the rhythm and grain of the neighbouring housing through the gable ended form, with the ground floor brick and cedar clad elements acknowledging and reinforcing the scale and articulation of its neighbours to ensure the house stitches itself into the existing streetscape.

Internally, the vertical scale between the garage at the street and the bedrooms on the first floor is celebrated in the stair void. Glazing around the stair offers views into and through spaces within the home, with carefully positioned skylights bringing ever-changing daylight into the depths of the house, drawing a direct but private connection with the environment into the heart of the home.