Dark Matter

The result of a slim budget and a challenging site, this intimate home in the Waitakere bush certainly embraces its dark side.

Perched among the treetops of the Waitakeres like a giant, dark bird, this Sue Hillery and Andrew Greenslade house leans over the hillside on long, steel stilt-like legs and points its glass beak towards Rangitoto. Completed two years ago, the house is now largely concealed by the native bush that has regenerated around it, nestling back into the branches of the nikau, rewarewa and ponga, just as its designers planned.

The house was Hillery and Greenslade’s debut project. “At that time we had pretty exciting ideals about everything. Fresh off the starting blocks from architecture school, being our first house, the project has a lot of energy and gusto,” says Hillery. Designed for a couple who work in the film industry, the house was put together on a modest budget, pushing its designers to conserve costs, while creating a house that is anything but conservative.

“It was a complicated project,” Hillery admits. “The clients had been looking for a piece of land, and one day they called us up really excited, saying they’d found a fantastic site that they wanted us to come and look at it. I thought, ‘Oh, great!’ and was dreaming of a beautiful, flat, coastal site. And then we got out there and it was on a really steep slope and completely covered in bush.” She laughs. “It was a bit of a shock. But then Andrew climbed up a tree, and which revealed a stunning view out to the cityscape and Rangitoto. It became quite exciting.”

Despite the house being positioned on an acre block, Hillery and Greenslade kept the structure’s footprint much smaller than the allowed size. “You don’t really want to be in a cavernous space on that site,” explains Hillery. “There’s a sense of intimacy to the house. There’s not a lot of wastage. It’s easy to move around in.” In deference to costs, and eco-friendliness, all the materials used in the house were sourced in New Zealand.

From the start, the pair was given completely free rein; no specific brief was offered as the clients were respectful of Hillery and Greenslade’s conceptual intentions versus their more obvious needs and lifestyle. It was challenging, but exciting. “We wanted to create a dark and quite menacing form that nestled among the native trees, with the front living space floating out above the canopy. It’s as if there’s this panorama of luscious green carpet laid out before you, with plump te kereru and tui flying right past.”

In contrast to its bush-clad setting, the house is composed of decidedly man-made materials: Coloursteel iron, galvanized steel structure, steel kitchen and interior finishes, and GRC working surfaces.

“We were interested in fusing industrial forms of manufacturing with domestic life,” says Hillery. “It’s not hostile, but there’s a juxtaposition between the house and the surroundings. That was totally our aesthetic at the time; well detailed, but not a lot of it. We wanted it to be dark. The clients were kind of creatures of the night, so most of the walls are chocolate brown, and some are even liquorice black. The stained midnight brown floors sit in contrast to the white painted ceilings, which accentuates the pulling-up effect of the living room apex.” At night, the dark finishes recede, creating a reverse effect, with light shining out from the large glazed windows and the translucent fibreglass ‘skin’ of the bathroom cladding. “It’s like a lantern welcoming guests to the house,” says Hillery.

The approach to the house comes along a cantilevered timber jetty. “The procession down and across the exterior is all important. It’s not so much floating, but there is that kind of sense to it.” Coming through the glass front door, the visitor is not immediately confronted with the view, but walks through to it. “You sort of slide into the interior, turn the corner and there it is,” Hillery explains. “The view is so expansive that we wanted to frame and hold it.” On two sides of the living room, only the floor to ceiling windows, sloping not-so-gently outwards, separate the viewer from the view. “It can be quite terrifying, really, because you’re about eight metres off the ground,” laughs Hillery.

From the living room, the house turns back towards the kitchen/dining and outdoor areas. A long GRC concrete bench starts in the kitchen and continues through to outside, breaking only for a narrow gap, and giving the illusion that it passes directly through the double glass door. “Everything slides and folds back,” she says. “We wanted it to be seamless when open and when closed tight.”

Although the completion of the house is a couple of years behind them now, and the pair have gone on to separate practices – Greenslade established Frame Ltd, and Hillery into partnership with Richard Priest – Hillery says it remains a personal favourite. “The interior is just so rigorous… the warped twisted box and the sense of space inside. The house is so specific to the site and to the needs of the client. It’s definitely the most compelling project I’ve been involved with so far.”