Shortly after Mark Hewitt built the holiday house for two couples, I got commissioned to design this house for Charles McGuinness.
Designed with expressive roof forms, like the house for two couples, it also draws inspiration from the “farmhouse” vernacular.
Most of the early farm “homesteads” on the large farming stations in the Wairarapa where old grand villas. But many most of the other buildings on the farm had a very different aesthetic. They were practical “shed” like buildings – often ingeniously put together. There is an economic logic to the structure that reflects the buildings function.
I thought these buildings worked really well in their setting and reinterpreted many of the building elements on this design. There is a huge canopy stretching the length of the building over the front door that acts as a threshold space into the home.
The interior of the house is conceived as one large space with split levels to create intimate nooks.
