Shark House
The brief was clear: not another box! The desire was to create a unique building very different to the standard rectilinear rebuilds increasingly dotting the Christchurch suburban landscape.
The resulting building is bold, confident and far from anything remotely resembling a box! Drawing inspiration from the clients’ love of European supercars – particularly the qualities engendered by the sleek and powerful Maserati. “The Shark” as it has come to be known, stretches down the length of the site, rhythmically flexing its sinews. Angular planes and crisp lines overlap and converge in a series of vanishing points that twist around the façade as if the building is forever in motion. In defiance of the box, no surface is perpendicular to any other yet this doesn’t seem haphazard, rather the offset faces and acute edges of seamed steel come together with engineered precision.
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Built: 2018
Engineer: BMC
Builder: The Woodsmith
Images: LightforgeIndoors, a textural concrete core reveals the timber grain of its formwork, complementing and contrasting the rest of the rich timber interior. Ever the show-off, black steel plate folds into ribbony steps between levels in a display of strength and gravity-defying agility.
This house is indeed a building of dualities: its entirely static construction of solid surfaces manage to achieve a dynamic fluidity, sculpted inside and out with hard and durable materials that look soft, tactile and malleable. Monochromatic city slickness plays off against the rich colour and warmth of natural materials. What aims to emulate the functional exactitude of a high-performance machine is warm, comfortable, relaxed and inviting inside. This home meets its brief and then some… a distinctive not-box that is perfect for inner-suburban life, whether that be chilling at home in sunny solitude, tinkering in the 3-car garage, or filling up the generous [and seamless] indoor/outdoor entertainment area with family and friends on a balmy summer BBQ evening.
Due to its high-end, sculptural geometry, the house was intended to be sheathed in charcoal [sharkskin] zinc. However the combination of talented installers and exceptional craftsmanship has enabled this family home to be clad in a much more accessible – and very kiwi – material while retaining its anticipated sophistication. While remaining relatively modest in price, Colorsteel has stepped up to the high-end market and delivered the exquisite.
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2021 NZIA Canterbury Architecture Awards
Winner - HousingJury’s comment: In response to the clients' brief for a building that was “a defiance to a box”, this home is anything but a box! The design draws inspiration from the client’s infatuation with European supercars – namely the Maserati. Like the car, the sculpted, almost muscular look of the envelope ebbs and flows to translate into dynamic movement. The interior opens into a soft, colourful and inviting decor that both complements and contrasts with the stark and more monochromatic exterior. That dynamism and movement are constant, as interior spaces spill onto a sequence of linked garden zones that are used at different times of the day as the sun circles the house.
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