An interesting house...
ColeyNZ
21st November 2009, 10:25 AM
So I'm bored and looking through Bayleys (I miss NZ btw) and I found this house:
http://www.parihoa.co.nz/parihoa_photos.pdf
It's an 8 meg PDF with pics but its pretty funky.
This is the listing URL on Bayleys.
http://bayleys.co.nz/49048
I have always found NZ homes to be really interesting and unique and I thought I needed to share this one.
Dan
Fern01
21st November 2009, 10:57 AM
It is different and the scenery, wow. Thanks for that.
eassae
21st November 2009, 10:57 AM
Awesome house. Ditch the awful painting over the fireplace and I'm sold.
Duncan74
21st November 2009, 11:07 AM
Where's the workshop?
Madoxen
21st November 2009, 11:33 AM
If Carling did houses that is what they would make :cheers
John Z
21st November 2009, 12:29 PM
Thank you Dan!
It's a good opportunity to rethink what is good design and what not, where the one begins, where the other ends. It may surprise you, but I think this one goes back and forth somewhere in the middle.
It tries to seem humble, integrated in it's surroundings, and just is not. I'm sorry, though clearly it is one of the better designs in NZ, the design concept stopped, where I feel it only just began...
John Z
21st November 2009, 12:34 PM
So I'm bored ..............
Dan
An example I'd love you to see, to see where I'm heading with my response is "Press House", by Marco Zanuso. It was built in 1978 in Transvaal, South Africa.
It helas is not on the internet, but since you're bored, your library may have it? ;)
Cheers, John.
VileTraveller
21st November 2009, 02:09 PM
I agree with JohnZ. It's a nice house, but it doesn't look comfortable in its setting. I suspect it would look better in more arid surroundings - Chile, California or even Australia.
That scenery is just begging for a green roof. Maybe something like that semi-submerged house in Wales (I think, I can't find a link).
norma
21st November 2009, 02:21 PM
Ooh it's a bit too WWI bunker-like from a distance. Love the setting but agree with VileTraveller that the house doesn't look comfortable in it.
John Z
21st November 2009, 02:50 PM
Ooh it's a bit too WWI bunker-like from a distance. Love the setting but agree with VileTraveller that the house doesn't look comfortable in it.
I'm afraid I can't agree with you there Norma, since most bunkers along the coastline* are far more integrated into the landscape than this one...:)
*Here in NZ I think I only saw one semi-submerged next to Raglan. But in their original design, most bunkers I've seen in my life had strategic positions combined with stealth mode, especially the ones along the coast. Sometimes they triggered my fantasy of turning them into an almost invisible house...
eassae
21st November 2009, 03:00 PM
I agree with JohnZ. It's a nice house, but it doesn't look comfortable in its setting. I suspect it would look better in more arid surroundings - Chile, California or even Australia.
Good Point. Not much seems comfortable in NZ accept maybe a Hobbit Hole. Perfect for Southern Spain. Also, the details in the rest of the house outside the common area seems a little neglected. Could use a little Eisenman or Philip Johnson influence.
VileTraveller
21st November 2009, 04:10 PM
Not much seems comfortable in NZ accept maybe a Hobbit Hole.
http://www.simondale.net/house/ ;)
eassae
21st November 2009, 04:18 PM
http://www.simondale.net/house/ ;)
Thats a pretty nice hobbit habitat. Definitely looks comfortable and cozy.
Flutterby
21st November 2009, 04:44 PM
did they take enough photos?
can't help but think it would be cold on a windy day and with that exposed coast think they may get a fair few windy days when you couldn't open it all up.
But the view is fab, i'd gladly wake up to that every morning!
Kanga
21st November 2009, 07:23 PM
I think if I had the sort of cash that would buy me that first house I'd want more than a galley kitchen and more garden than that bleak nothingness. Other than that I thought it quite lovely.
Nolan
21st November 2009, 07:48 PM
Impressive home and location west of Auckland....I expected to see more sheep....fun to watch speed scroll the 50+ images
Arwen
21st November 2009, 09:13 PM
I thought the house (#1) looked cold and uninviting. A great 'show' piece, but hardly a home where you can snuggle up with the family. Just my opinion. :)
petri
22nd November 2009, 12:21 AM
Not a big fan of dark wood for the exterior but no doubt I wouldn't mind waking up there..
Any ideas of the price?
Duncan74
22nd November 2009, 03:47 AM
Any ideas of the price?
If you have to ask........
JandM
22nd November 2009, 05:14 AM
Not a big fan of dark wood for the exterior but no doubt I wouldn't mind waking up there. You see so many pictures of NZ houses with dark wood everywhere inside, walls, floors and even ceilings. Each individual piece of wood is no doubt very beautiful - the grain and so on - but the total effect is gloomy, and makes the rooms feel oppressive.
petri
22nd November 2009, 06:55 AM
You see so many pictures of NZ houses with dark wood everywhere inside, walls, floors and even ceilings. Each individual piece of wood is no doubt very beautiful - the grain and so on - but the total effect is gloomy, and makes the rooms feel oppressive.
I like the texture of wood but too much is always too much. You see it here in some summer houses where everything is (light) wood; ceiling, floor, walls and even most of the furniture. Wood has had such an importance in our economy for a long time.
In our current house we have beams across the ceiling that look like huge pieces of wood. They are actually steel that has been covered with wood, the wood is waxed so it's quite white but there's still the texture.
JandM
22nd November 2009, 07:59 AM
The native NZ woods are lovely, but too much of anything is a mistake, I feel.
And as to waking up at that place - oh, yes, it is a truly beautiful coast, that we went back to again and again. You would want to be very sure that the foundations were secure, though!
norma
22nd November 2009, 08:33 AM
*Here in NZ I think I only saw one semi-submerged next to Raglan. But in their original design, most bunkers I've seen in my life had strategic positions combined with stealth mode, especially the ones along the coast. Sometimes they triggered my fantasy of turning them into an almost invisible house...
You need a trip to Devonport - it's bunker heaven. North Head has fortifications from the late 1800s and is now a DOC reserve (see http://www.devonport.co.nz/north_head.htm).
John Z
22nd November 2009, 11:48 AM
You need a trip to Devonport - it's bunker heaven.
:laugh I hope you don't imagine me as everyday Willy's Jeep driver with a green helmet on...
But on a serious note; that might even be an interesting idea. It might trigger some new integrated ideas for the NZ landscape.
However, watching your link I'm not so sure if they are a good inspiration. Are they all on top of the landscape?
I think it was 4 or 5 years ago that in the south of the Netherlands (the hilly part) a huge bunker complex was for sale, with 2ha of land, several hidden buildings in the hills, an isolated setting, full of rocky landscape, full of plants and trees, even with a large open courtyard. I was very, very tempted. Of course it would have been a huge operation to turn it into a warm, family setting, but I had a feeling it could be done.
Just as I feel with the house in this thread. It would take another investment of about 100K*, but with that the house would become integrated, and the warmth will flow into it.
*When you can buy that house, another 100K to make it they way it should be, is peanuts. And no, the 100K is not hire a destruction company...:laugh
John Z
22nd November 2009, 12:02 PM
Not a big fan of dark wood for the exterior but no doubt I wouldn't mind waking up there..
In architecture it has been a fashion for a while to make objects blend into obscurity by making it dark, very dark.
In the flat Netherlands, that wasn't such a problem, but here in NZ where it is (stupid) fashion to build on top of a shaven hill, a massive black hole on top of a naked hill only attracts attention to itself.
LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me-LOOK AT ME-I'm black, nobody can see me...
:cool:
