© Lance Herbst
The K Valley House designed by Herbst Architects in a farm near Auckland, New Zealand, has been mainly constructed from recycled materials and fittings. The house was designed for a couple in the film industry who wanted a house that served as a retreat between filming.
K Valley House technical information
- Architects: Herbst Architects
- Typology : Residential / House
- Location: Countryside near Auckland, New Zealand
- Contractor: Doug Fleming
- Project year: 2015
- Area: 178.0 m²
- Main Material: Corrugated Iron
- Photographs: © Lance Herbst
Drawing from the vernacular of rusty corrugated iron sheds prevalent in the district, we clad the form in a rainscreen of rusted corrugated iron sheets, a rural camouflage of sorts.
– Herbst Architects
K Valley House Photographs
© Lance Herbst
© Lance Herbst
© Lance Herbst
© Lance Herbst
© Lance Herbst
© Lance Herbst
© Lance Herbst
Text by Herbst Architects
The clients are a childless couple, a director and camera operator in the film industry, their jobs involve them filming on location for periods. This house is the space to which they retreat between filming.
The site is 20 hectares of farmland on the Kauaeranga river in the valley of the same name, it stretches from high on the hillside to the river banks and includes a ridgeline which commands a panoramic view of the farmland below and the native bush on the opposite slopes of the valley.
The client brief called for a response which engaged with the site in both a filmic as well as practical way, they live a life of self-sufficiency while on the land, including growing, animal husbandry and butchery. The clients spoke of materials that have a patina of age, of sustainability, of recycling and adaptive re-use, of the provenance of materials.
Our response was to concentrate the small mass of building that the brief determined into a singular geometric form that could hold its own in the big landscape. We positioned the form straddling the ridgeline, engaged with the slope at the high end and floating above the land as it falls away. Drawing from the vernacular of rusty corrugated iron sheds prevalent in the district, we clad the form in a rainscreen of rusted corrugated iron sheets, a rural camouflage of sorts.
The building is made largely of recycled materials and fittings, which the clients procured throughout the construction.
K Valley House Plans
Courtesy of Herbst Architects
Courtesy of Herbst Architects
K Valley House Gallery
About Herbst Architects
Lance & Nicola Herbst met whilst studying architecture at the University of Cape Town. One of the couples first projects was their own bach, on Great Barrier Island, for which they received the New Zealand Institute of Architects Award in 2002. The Island is now home to eight of their houses – all off the grid – each designed to have minimal impact on the environment.
