Bay of Plenty Times
Steel a glance at this award winning home
It may well be time for the multi-award-winning team from 90 Degrees Construction to look at a smaller than usual building project.
Like, a trophy cabinet. There would be plenty to fill it given ongoing (and recently added to) building industry competition success.
This Tauranga-based company has just taken out three awards at the Regional Master Builders House of the Year BOP Central Plateau competition, held early this month.
Owned by Luke and Alexandra MacGibbon, 90 Degrees Construction was a regional winner in the competition’s $1.5 to $2 million build grouping, taking out the “best in category” award. The company won a Gold accreditation in that category and also took out a regional lifestyle award. The awards pertain to a recently completed house built on Pauanui’s Waterways.
90 Degrees Construction is a young company, but while founded as recently as 2016 it is not new to the taste of hefty competition success. Last year the company entered the same award with new build number one (also a Pauanui home) and went right through to win at national level. Both Pauanui houses were designed by Mt Maunganui’s Adam Taylor Architecture.
Luke MacGibbon says he, and wife Alexandra, are waiting with bated breath to find out if points scored in the recent competition will carry them through to the national competition in November.
“We are hoping to make the top 100 in the country, which will be determined when all the regional competitions have been held,” explains Luke, who - back in 2009 - won the Bay of Plenty Region’s Registered Masters Builders Carters Apprentice of the Year.
When entering the competition last year, they didn’t know what to expect, Alexandra tells.
“We were gob smacked when we won last year. This year when the regional winners were announced we were elated. We felt the pressure was really on this year because of our success last year. For all we knew, our first year could have been a fluke. Just because we won didn’t mean we were automatically in with a chance this year,” the happy winner says.
Alexandra says the whole team was there at the recent awards night, which made it extra special.
“We knew the home was a beautiful result for our clients. The win was a cherry on top,” she says.
The house is low-slung and modernist and has been designed to look as if it is floating on its little peninsular - there’s the harbour on one side and waterways on the other. It was designed as a family retreat with floor-to-ceiling glass and decking to frame the water and mountain views front and back.
The project description submitted for the awards warns…
“Don’t be fooled by the minimalist first impression. The challenge of the unseen detail demanded skilled craftsmanship. If you pay attention, the 340sqm floor plan screams detail. Crafted clean lines are everywhere – no conventional finishings, curtain tracks are recessed, seamless window/door junctions, even a garage door with no jamb, and utilities screened behind sliding steps.”
The challenge for Luke was to create what can’t be seen, Alexandra adds.
“There are no scotia or skirting boards, and all downpipes and gutters are hidden, creating clean lines and no fuss. Minimalist, yes, but packed full of detail.”
A pop-top roof floats above this one-level home and is a dominant architectural feature, executing both form and function. Internally it allows natural light into internal bathrooms and creates a soaring living space. Such expansiveness is only achieved with substantial engineering. Specifically, seven tonnes of steel helps elevate the open living space to 4 metres, and span across 12 metres. The pop-top has been described as an understated final design feature. Externally it has a very low and sleek profile, with no visible joins or ridges.
Luke believes the build is an example of how the best designs can originate when builders, architects and clients engage early on.
“Open discussions from the start are great, especially when we are pushing boundaries,” he says.
Luke and Alexandra love how the house hasn’t followed what’s on trend. They describe it as a beautiful, timeless design and they love the minimalist detail in it.
The house features five bedrooms, four bathrooms and open plan main living with outdoor living spaces on both sides to chase the sun and enjoy different water views. Louvretec sliding shutters are a feature of the outdoor space facing the harbour. This enables the space – which includes a spa pool – to be closed off if there’s the need to batten down the hatches.
The house was a sure-fire contender for the lifestyle award, given the flow from one outdoor living space to another, the way the house opens up, and the direct access to the water.
Alexandra especially loves that the design has allowed for a snug within the big, modernist, open-plan living space. The snug is enclosed within three walls of soundproof glass (plus one wall painted deep blue). One glass wall of the snug looks out to the harbour, one to the spa area, and one to the kitchen.
“You can still see the ocean from the snug, and there’s a fire-place and paper-thin TV screen. It’s a very moody and cosy space,” she enthuses.
As for the home’s exterior attributes, it features multiple cladding of a modern corbel brick, Sto plaster system (that gives a marbled effect) and cedar horizontal ship-lapped cedar of a very small profile.
Tauranga people smitten with 90 Degrees Construction’s latest award-winning home will be happy to know the talented company has turned its attention on the Bay of Plenty.
90 Degrees Construction has recently completed a significant renovation job on Rita Street, Mt Maunganui (also involving Adam Taylor Architecture) and is half-way through a build located up Minden Road, Te Puna.
For Alexandra and Luke it is nice to be home. Both are Tauranga locals who are happy to be working on their home patch and doing their hometown proud at awards time.
Published 7 August, 2019