Gibbons House, Wellington
A single family house on a very small site footprint, but located in one of the most spectacular positions in Wellington, is a four-storey vertical stack of building layers perched on a steeply sloping site.
The upper, more open levels are floated above the solid outcrop of the concrete base of the building, excavated into the side of the hill. A driveway winds down the south side to provide car parking in a basement under the living levels.
The geometry of the plan has been determined on the north side by the town planning requirement to set the facade progressively further back from the boundery as the site slopes away from an adjacent park and the curving edge of the driveway to the south edge.
The result is a complex interlocking of solid and dissolved forms - each described in separate external cladding materials- capped by two opposing, floating planar roofs constructed in timber beams and plywood. These reinforce the hovering, floating image of the upper house as it escapes from its subterranean roots and opens the living and sleeping areas of the house to the magnificent spectacle of a 270-degree view of Wellington harbour.
