An abstract form on a rugged site between the Tasman Sea and rolling farmland, this Gibbons Architecture-designed home is one of versatility and connection, drawing in the outdoors and providing refuge from it.
Wrapped in vertical cedar oiled in a tone echoing the light, sun-drenched hues of driftwood on the beach below, sliding screens along two elevations allow for the house to be enclosed or open to the elements. Inside, the tonality changes with dark painted walls and a dark IMO steel kitchen. A large space combining kitchen, living and dining becomes moody, brooding and, as architect Brady Gibbons puts it, “almost cave-like”. The kitchen was envisioned as a floating object within the space, not reaching the ceiling and allowing for sightlines through to the back wall of a scullery that doubles as a wine store.
Against the steel, the black Dekton® Sirius benchtop by Cosentino introduces an additional layer of interest and texture into the kitchen. “We chose Dekton as a benchtop material for its textural surface and high resistance to heat, making it beautiful to touch but also practical,” architect Sarah Gibbons explains.
“The refined colour palette offered by Dekton fitted in perfectly with the materials selected elsewhere and the slate-like feel gave a nice contrast to the smooth steel of the cabinetry.
“Dekton is also a carbon neutral product manufactured with renewable energy, ticking the box for sustainably produced products, which is something we are very conscious of when selecting materials,” she says.
Dekton® is an ultracompact stone surface. As Cosentino’s Itay Shimony says: “We have decoded natural stone, deciphering its unique beauty and performance to recode and upgrade it through technology into Dekton®: The Technical Ultracompact Stone.
“Dekton inspires the future of architecture and design by creating soulful spaces where beauty and functionality coexist in a perfect synergy. It is a sophisticated mixture of more than 20 minerals extracted from nature, manufactured with Cosentino’s exclusive TSP technology that is able to sinter mineral particles making them bond with each other – perfecting in a few hours what nature creates in thousands of years”.
