DINZ德网 | Keshaw McArthur · 倚光而居

The Crown Range site sits at an altitude of around 700 metres above sea level and is subsequently exposed to highly changeable alpine weather including significant annual snowfall. The trade-off for any adverse weather however is cultivated in the expansive mountainscape with epic views to the valley below. In the warmer seasons, a dry grass encompasses the surrounding field, with the sound of a meandering freshwater stream carrying across the site. The designers chose to engage with the landscape by way of a curated dialogue between organic and inorganic, natural and manmade. The design strategy for Openfield House, Keshaw says, was to provide only the shelter necessary to exist here without negating the powerful energy of the land – based on the poetic idea of “connecting people to their human experience – the body and mind independently and as one.”

A design process involving collaboration with Jason Whitely of Matheson Whitely allowed for an extensive distillation of conceptual thinking, with continual ongoing dialogue between Auckland and London. The house manifests as a volume of logic, symmetrical in form and efficient in layout. A square plan and corrugated roof references historical structures of the region such as minor’s huts and agricultural structures. A rationalised layout facilitates the opening and closing of interior spaces to suit the needs of the occupants, and a pyramid-like roof form affords visual clarity in the vast landscape, conceptualised as an abstraction of the surrounding mountain peaks. Laid out across a nine-square grid, the ground floor consists of a series of adaptable, interchangeable rooms structured around a central open fireplace. “The plan establishes a continuous field, allowing free movement throughout,” explains Keshaw. Within this ‘field’ are several heavy concrete volumes that anchor the plan and provide moments of stillness across the open spaces. Concealing sliding windows and doors commits to the sense of transparent thresholds and open edges that invite the landscape inwards. Within the void of the roof, a sleeping space provides opportunities to connect to the sky and mountaintops from a higher vantage point. Here, a single gesture – a bold circular aperture – establishes a meaningful and whimsical connection to the exterior.