PALLADIO IN THE ANTIPODES.

Gentle but permeating geometry, based on life, gives this house its character.

This elegant house, by Auckland firm Architectus for partner Patrick Clifford and his family, comes as a surprise in its suburban setting. It is in an intimate valley formed by a stream flowing into a tidal basin. Its architectural context is a pleasantly anarchic collection of houses on steep slopes leading down to the water. The site is a left-over triangle of land above the stream, reached from a shared drive. In this ad hoc context, typical of Auckland's hilly suburbs, the architects have inserted a highly-ordered pavilion, which responds inventively to its site.

The formality: the simple, strong geometric basis, structural clarity and even the combination of simple unadorned materials (concrete block, timber and glass) recall Kahn. But while Kahn usually avoided overall symmetry in his houses, Architectus delight in the balanced purity of this structure. Purity is more than visual formalism: it conceals great density of use, privacy, view and climate.

The house is planned on a 1.2m module on three levels; middle entry floor has living areas, with bedroom floor above and space for visitors below. Due to restricted site area, mature trees, overlooking problems from houses to east and west, and the need for protection from western sun, the interior opens south and north [sun shines from the north in the southern hemisphere] up and down the valley, allowing the living area to look through trees to the tidal basin. An intimate semi-enclosed deck between building and hillside is created as entry court and morning terrace.

The building is rigorously laid out in three layers running roughly north-south along the contours: a service zone for kitchen, bathrooms and circulation, a wider central zone for principal served spaces, and two projecting bays on upper levels that expand the living spaces and become voids at bedroom level. The plan is symmetrically organized around its east-west axis, with an a-b-a-b-a structural bay rhythm. On the middle level, living space is extended with cantilevered decks at each end: the central bay denotes entry, while the two wider bays accommodate dining area/kitchen and sitting area/staircase respectively. On the upper level, the tripartite division of the served space becomes two bedrooms separated by a dressing room. So the main rooms of the house, though visually or physically opening out into other spaces vertically and horizontally, are identified as 3.6m sq bays, elegantly framed by slender laminated timber posts. In winter, the east-west axes of the living spaces are emphasized, extending into the projecting bays, while in summer, with folding doors open at both ends (solid to living and glazed to dining), space becomes linear, extending out north and south into the landscape. So an almost Classical formality is united with a Modernist open plan, creating a surprising sense of space.

The only deviation from this simple orthogonal bay system is the introduction of concrete block Kahnian angled flanking the walls. Following the line of the inverted roof hips, they support its outer corners to the east. They also screen the decks from the drive at bedroom level. And they open the house to morning sun, allowing the eastern wall to become a monumental glazed screen. Sun and light are drawn through kitchen, bathroom and staircase hall into bedrooms and living areas, via openings and clerestorys over free-standing storage partitions. To maintain privacy and reduce overheating, obscured glass is used at bedroom level, creating a luminous wall at night. The western wall, in contrast, is blank except for one large sliding window to the dining room, with a sliding adjustable-louvred screen to control late sun and privacy while allowing ventilation.

Internal partitions are formed by freestanding white-lacquered storage units, furnishings distinct from the essential structure of the building, but sometimes connected to it with frameless glazed panels. Every element is clearly articulated and the structure revealed. Paring down structure and finishes to a limited palette of materials and simple techniques allows exquisite refinement at relatively modest cost. The simple structural shell also encourages flexibility: fittings and partitions can be readily altered or replaced, and adjustments have already been made to accommodate a new child. The gentle formality of the house contrasts strongly with its irregular context and neighbouring suburban dwellings, but it does have precedents in New Zealand. It revives the interest in deceptive simplicity of form, structure and space of the early I 950s Auckland-based Group Architects. They designed and built post and beam houses inspired by local Maori and white traditions and influences from California, Japan and Scandinavia. The geometrical sophistication of Kahn is combined with the directness and constructional simplicity of mid-century local architecture to create a rigorous but refined vocabulary of forms that is particularly welcome in New Zealand, after a virulent phase of Post-Modern wilfulness.