Houses Revisited: Yarborough House
The entry level living space of Yarborough House.
The street elevation. The house’s more traditional form was determined by council heritage rules.
The heavily glazed northern elevation.
On the basement level looking at the bedroom and flexible living space with the courtyard beyond.
In the kitchen, the house’s white palette aids the distribution of natural light.
The skylight above the stairwell, coupled with glass floors, allows natural light to penetrate into the deepest levels of the house; the courtyard and living spaces.
Looking from the courtyard into the lower level bedroom and the upper level dining.
Longitudinal section.
Upper level plan (top), entry level plan (middle), basement level plan (bottom).
This home provides a good example for urban contemporary living in a historically classified inner-city neighbourhood.
The movement of young professionals into inner-city Auckland suburbs looking for a contemporary living environment often conflicts with council requirements for those suburbs to retain their historic built character. This conflict creates a challenge for the architects who are tasked to satisfy both parties.
Often the solution is to retain the house’s existing street elevation and blow out the back to create an exemplar of modern living. However, in this particular project in the Residential 1 Zone of Saint Marys Bay, architect Julian Guthrie demolished the existing house (after convincing the council that the replacement would be an improvement), which enabled a unified contemporary residential architecture.
The council’s constraints on the street frontage of the Yarborough House mean that from the street the house appears as a single storey, gable-roofed house. The traditional material palette and simple form links the house to the existing character of the neighbourhood, and translucent shutter-like garage doors fulfill the council requirement for the appearance of living spaces along the street. This placement enables the living spaces to be located at the back of the site, so creating an extremely private house, despite the neighbours being so close that the side walls are fire-rated.
One of the clients’ requests was for flexible spaces that functioned as living or study spaces but could be used as bedrooms if required. Guthrie’s response was to treat the entire house as a single volume rather than a series of disconnected rooms.
The living space opens up to the master bedroom above, and open spaces can be closed off without hindrance to the circulation. The solution also works to maximise the spread of natural light gained from the heavily glazed northern elevation, several skylights, and the glass floors alongside the stairwell.
The house’s white palette assists the distribution of natural light, while also unifying the modern interior with its exterior. Guthrie has fashioned architecture from tight spaces and council rules, creating a cohesive contemporary house that cleverly fits within an inner-city character suburb.
This article first appeared in Houses magazine
