Materiality That Speaks to Provenance - K Valley House by Herbst Architects

Kauaeranga River, Thames, New Zealand

Engaging with materiality that speaks to provenance, K Valley House is a response to site and an expression of time. Herbst Architects has proposed a unique self-sufficient home that connects to a sense of drama and personality.

Designed for a couple who both work within the film industry (a director and camera operator respectively), K Valley House is purposed as a reclusive place, for retreating between projects and location-specific travel. Both clients have an inherent passion for the engagement of place and story, and the design direction for their home inevitably needed to respond to these same values. The result is a utilisation of aged and recycled materials coming together in a bold expression of form, a stark contrast to the lush surrounds the home is situated amongst.

The site itself stretches to twenty hectares of farmland in total on the Kauaeranga River, in the valley of the same name. Varying in typology, the unique site offers many natural and optimal outlook opportunities along the hillside and down to the riverbanks. Included also is a ridgeline that allows for an expansive panoramic view of the encompassing farmland and native uninterrupted bushland within the valley. The home itself sits at 178 square metres and is anchored into the side of the hill, stretching outward and opening through large glazing elements toward the generous view.

Herbst Architects has brought a sense of place and drama with an expression of time through patina.

Sitting lightly on its site, the approach to materiality and construction saw Herbst utilise a collaborative and holistic approach. Built fundamentally of recycled materials and re-purposed fittings that the clients collected and procured over the course of the construction process, the resulting home sits comfortably in its rural and natural setting. Key to this disguise is the want from the clients for the materiality to speak to a sense of time, reflecting their age, while acting sustainability through adaptive reuse and repurposing.

The site itself stretches to twenty hectares of farmland in total on the Kauaeranga River, in the valley of the same name.

Through a full utilisation of the land through their own farming, self-sufficiency was key to all of the initiatives and selections for K Valley House. Herbst Architects’ response to site shows a concentrated and efficient mass of built form that is a bold gesture, strong enough to have its own presence in such a beautiful landscape of such grand scale. The deliberate veiling of the form in rusted corrugated iron sheets provides for a level of rural camouflage, and further emphasises the overall massed form.

K Valley House shows a respectful play on place together with a consciousness for sustainability and reduction of waste. Herbst Architects has brought a sense of place and drama with an expression of time through patina. Perching out on to its private valley of sustaining farmland, the balance is struck between a sense of protection and enclosure and an open outward welcoming of the abounding adjacent views of such a distinctive location.

Through a full utilisation of the land through their own farming, self-sufficiency was key to all of the initiatives and selections for K Valley House.