On the banks of the Avon, PRau’s material choreography turns a private residence into a study in considered restraint.
At this Christchurch home on the banks of the Avon River, an artfully balanced material palette combines the warmth and texture of natural stone, timber, and plaster with the shine and definition of stainless steel.
Designed by PRau, the home’s layout responds to its location, which has sight-lines towards Mona Vale Garden Park on the opposite side of the river. An open courtyard wraps around the pool patio, while the main living room runs parallel to the river, allowing views of the park without foregoing privacy.
Similarly, the home gives little away from the street, with a substantial, windowless stone wall curving subtly towards the entranceway, contrasted against the monolithic form of the concrete garage. Sourced from Greece, the exterior stone was a direct request from the client, explains PRau’s Phil Redmond, with the warm colour variations being the main driver in their decision-making.
“The external materials came first and were drawn through the home,” he says. “The stone has quite a high quartz content, which gives it a unique hue and tactility. The minimal selection of materials: natural stone, timbers, plaster, are all contrasted by the stainless steel, which breaks the softness and articulates it more. Externally, the roof is stainless steel with all metalwork, including the swimming pool, the same.”
The tall, faceted entrance doors are a sculpted feature of the front façade, designed through trial and error by Phil then crafted from solid cedar by XYLO Woodcraft’s Michael Gilling.
“We were looking at creating a panelled door originally, but I wanted to make it more of a panelled façade than a door,” says Phil. “It’s an iteration of something I was working on while at RMIT University, creating optical changes through surface treatments. I 3D-printed a series of different maquettes to see which had the desired play of light.”
Moving inside, an exposed stone wall runs down one side of a hallway, where it is punctuated by floor-to-ceiling timber-framed windows overlooking the slick, silvery pool. The opposite side of the hallway features traditionally styled oak panelling paired with plaster, creating a gallery wall for the homeowners’ art collection. Panelled walls throughout the home were a request from the client. These are treated slightly differently in the various zones of the home, with solid veneered infill used for the bedroom headboards.
“The clients also wanted double-height skirting, which we created in solid oak,” says Phil. “The design came about as a combination of practicality, in terms of size constraints versus the cost of solid oak, and aesthetics. We chose to split the skirting into a stacked board separated by a stainless band as a balance.”
The Greek stone appears again in the living space, where it creates a feature wall that doubles as a fireplace surround. Even more striking in this space, a fluted ceiling creates unexpected linear waves overhead.
“I have wanted to do a fluted ceiling for quite a while, and, with the living and kitchen space being quite large with an expanse of flat ceiling, something was needed to break down the mass whilst remaining, in a way, subtle. This is our play on a coffered ceiling,” says Phil.
The kitchen at one end of this open plan living space features oak cabinetry set on a double-height toe kick of stainless steel, which pairs with the stainless counter-top. The island appears to float on the Timaru bluestone floor, with the space wrapped in the warmth of timber and the ripples of the ceiling above.
In the main bathroom, Timaru bluestone tiles continue across floors and up the walls, with the modernist lines of a warmly finished timber and stone vanity along one wall illuminated from above by a skylight.
“The cabinetry is seen as a continuation of the interior volumes rather than items added into a room or space,” says Phil. “A lot of time went into the detailing of joinery items and how they fit with other elements like the wall panelling. Maddie Clarke worked in depth to achieve this result. The balance between the oak and stainless accents was a continual design strategy throughout the home.”
With these unexpected, crafted details and delicately balanced textures, this highly personalised home demonstrates the power of layered, out-of-the-box thinking and fearless architectural creativity.
