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PROJECT Louttit Bay House
DESIGN ARCHITECT David Seeley
PRINCIPAL GLASS PROVIDER Viridian
PRINCIPAL GLAZING Viridian double-glazing : EnergyTech™ Green tint , argon and EnergyTech™ Neutral
TEXT , IMAGES & FILM Peter & Jenny Hyatt
Do you have a favourite part of the house ? The north-west facing deck is pretty hard to go past . You could while away many hours out there .
What excited you about the opportunity to design here ? This was a renovation . The view is pretty special in itself , but the old house here simply didn ' t capture it and looked like it was a suburban house that had been plonked onto a plot . This has great potential and by opening it up and changing the roof form entirely we were able to capture this pretty amazing view .
It ’ s an exuberant design – restrained from the street elevation while the ocean side elevation is much more extroverted . That surprise is not immediately obvious from the public side of the house . The slot window gives people from the street , a glimpse of what is happening but it ' s tantalizing really .
You ’ re an architect . You have to be adaptable . They were of the view “ What can you do with this ?” And at the same time , “ What can you do quickly ?” And I think there are a lot of things in this house that actually reflect that . Ideas that haven ' t been labored over too much . There ' s a directness in its simplicity . And because it wasn ' t worked over too many times , the strength of the simplicity has been maintained throughout the design . The simple timber box extrusion that runs through the building and the way in which the roof just opens up to the sky and connects with the landscape .
Role reversal where the street frontage is no longer fortress but veiled slot window hinting at the vistas beyond .