82 | Julian Guthrie Architecture & QPC Group T T Virginia Wright A penchant for coastal projects The sections each have pre-determined 1000sqm building platforms and are governed by a number of covenants. ARCHITECTURE Julian Guthrie registered as an architect in 1999, and immediately formed his central Auckland practice, where he has concentrated on residential architecture ever since. While he has designed bespoke houses of all kinds, Julian’s portfolio features more highend coastal homes than anything else, a fact he largely puts down to his first big project. The Waiheke house he designed for his parents in 1995 was featured on the two lifestyle TV shows of the day with an immediate flow-on effect, especially when it came to high-end coastal dwellings, which luckily he loves designing. It was also his first statement house, featuring materials in fairly common use today, but which were considered avant-garde back then, as Julian explains. “It featured extensive use of exposed raw concrete walls, which almost no-one was doing at the time, and had an exposed interior steel structure, and a lot of glass. All elements I still enjoy using today.” Julian remains the design director at his practice, working closely with his team of five registered architects on all the projects they take on. “We all have a firm grasp of the projects from concept stage through to the clients’ moving in, working with the builders and managing the collaboration between us, our clients, and all the contractors who are involved,” he says. Julian Guthrie Architecture focuses its expertise on how things will translate from the lines on the page to the building site: the buildability of their designs, in other words. They often get projects referred to them through builders familiar with the quality of their drawings, and value the collaboration that delivers a good outcome. They have found some good fits as a result, such as with QPC Builders. They recently collaborated on a 500sqm luxury home in Herne Bay, and are well underway on an even larger contemporary home in the upscale coastal development, Te Arai Links, 75 minutes’ drive north of Auckland. This latest build is on one of 60 lifestyle sections with views across the greens of Te Arai South’s world-class golf course, past the sand dunes out to the Pacific Ocean. Typically measuring around a hectare, the sections each have pre-determined 1000sqm building platforms and are governed by a number of covenants to ensure that while each house is individually designed, they are all sympathetic with the coastal environment. Julian Guthrie Architecture’s challenge was to design something to capture the natural beauty the site offers with its stunning views, while handling the ‘aggressive’ coastal weather conditions, with high winds coming in off the water, salt spray, and frequent wind-blown sand. Storm shutters feature, and courtyards that get the sun and the views, but are sheltered from the wind. The site conditions lend themselves to using the same mix of materials he employed 25 years ago and, just as they did back then, the architects continue to blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor, albeit with more refined, contemporary detailing. “The design still carries through some of the same themes of exposed concrete, steel structure, and long glass walls towards the view,” says Julian. “We like to achieve seamless inside/outside floor levels as part of the custom detailing that we design, but in this case we also had to think about wind-blown sand blocking the drains. “We had to combine the aesthetics with maintenance systems to ensure it will always work, so create some sophisticated architectural detailing to deal with the immediate environment.“ When they discovered that the client also had a connection with QPC Group, they were a natural construction partner, especially as Julian knew they had the skills to achieve all the detailing and to deliver a key element of the design aesthetic. In a detailed and complex process, they poured the exposed concrete walls on-site against timber shuttering to preserve the texture and pattern of the rough-sawn timber, thus balancing the dark aesthetic of the charred wood cladding and the dark aluminium roof profile. Auckland’s Experts in Home Automation, Security and Residential and Commercial New Builds and Renovations Over 30 years experience Qualified Electricians Quality Workmanship Health & Safety Fair Pricing Master Electricians Contact Us 0800 385 586 (24/7) | accounts@fullvoltage.co.nz www.fullvoltage.co.nz Timber Floor Specialists Warmth, Beauty, Durability Engineered & Solid Timber Flooring. 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