Daresbury House: A Contemporary Streamside Home in Christchurch

Architectural Designer: Dwell Homes

Photography: Hazel Redmond Photographer

Category: Residential

Location: Christchurch

Year: December 2014

House: 370m2

Site: 1083m2

Overview

Daresbury House is a contemporary Christchurch dwelling designed by Dwell Homes, sitting quietly within its landscape with a considered restraint that feels entirely deliberate. Low-lying and linear in form, the house follows the natural contours of its site, bordered along one edge by a sweeping stream that lends the property a sense of calm and natural boundary.

Sustainable Design and Passive Solar Performance

The house was built using environmentally sensitive and sustainable construction methods, with energy efficiency informing decisions from the ground up. The design is fully flexible and site-specific, oriented precisely to maximise passive solar gain throughout the year. This orientation reduces reliance on mechanical heating and cooling, allowing the home to respond naturally to the rhythms of the sun across the seasons.

Materials and Character

Traditional and natural material choices define the character of Daresbury House. The entire structure is encased in timber, grounding the home within its landscape and giving it a warmth that complements its streamside setting. The palette of natural colours continues through to the interior, where timber, glass, concrete and stone work together to create a coherent and unified whole. Rather than competing, each material plays its part in a composition that feels both considered and unpretentious.

A Home in Harmony with Its Site

The result is a home that belongs to its place. Subtle and linear in its appearance, generous in its proportions at 370m2 across a 1083m2 site, and thoughtful in every material and orientation decision, Daresbury House reflects what contemporary residential design can achieve when the landscape is treated as a collaborator rather than a backdrop.