From the street, this house looks like a straightforward modern build. But look a little closer and it becomes clear that it’s no such thing. Instead it’s a home filled with innovative concepts that make the most of its sunny Parnell section – and minimise its limitations.

Designed by Strachan Group Architects, the house is one of two on a large sloping site. Eventually a third and a fourth home will be built on the site, so the house has been designed to protect itself from unknown future conditions of privacy and outlook.

Architects Dave Strachan and Pat de Pont wrapped gunmetal roofing material around the structure to form the eastern wall and added slatted timber screens over openings to provide further privacy.

“It’s about protecting the façade from what could be,” says Strachan. “It was driven by what might go up, but I really like it because it has a certain drama to it. The light plays with the skin of the building; you get really nice shadows from the ribs. You have to engage with it.”

The cedar fins shade the building from the sun. Thanks to precise cantilevering they keep it cool in the summer months, but let the winter sun in. It’s part of what Strachan calls “climate-responsive architecture. It’s about trying to respond climatically: sun screens, insulated thermal mass. It’s about making the house live and breathe.”

The environmentally conscious elements don’t end there. Solar panels have been installed on the roof and a rainwater tank at the back of the section collects water for watering the garden and washing the cars. Inside, a clever layout ensures healthy air circulation throughout the two-storey home. A central axis that runs south to north leads from the double-height entrance (which has a large sliding window, covered with fins, that brings fresh air into the home), through the middle of the living spaces on the ground floor and out into the garden. The entrance, living room and recessed library are tiled (for thermal mass), with the trajectory of the axis accentuated by victorian ash flooring and a reflected backlit timber slatted ceiling. The slatted look of the exterior fins is continued inside with the custom-made kitchen cabinetry, entertainment centre and stair detail. Upstairs, internal louvre windows have been installed above each of the bedroom doors for enhanced circulation.

The owners, who lived in a post-war bungalow in Remuera previously, stipulated a house that was modern, but maintenance-free. And one that would see them into old age (near the garage they have future-proofed a place where a lift can be installed when the stairs become too much).

Upstairs, two small guest rooms and a workspace feed off the landing. The master bedroom is much bigger than the other rooms and maximises the northern and western vistas with an ensuite that has a wall of operable glass louvres that open up to a view of the harbour. A built-in ‘deck’ at the end of the master bedroom sits above the main living space, allowing warm or cool air to permeate to the upper level of the building. Like the rest of the house it is light and bright and well ventilated, thanks to large windows. It also holds the jewel in the crown of the Nikau House: views of the neighbouring treetops and the Hauraki Gulf.

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Note: These are stories from our archives and, since the time of writing, some details may have changed including names, personnel of specific firms, registration status, etc.