A quiet sanctuary for contemplation – Oneroa, Waiheke Island, New Zealand

The gently sloping section by the sea is of a very generous size, with only a minor road crossing at the bottom. Instead of conceptualising the home as one unified structure, the overall idea, based on a preliminary concept of Bossley Architects, was to create several discreet but interconnected pods, each with a distinct function. It’s not unlike a little village – essentially as six-part arrangement of detached but connected structures and it is primarily a response to the site.

​

Central to the composition is a covered pathway between the garage and the artist’s studio, starting at the driveway and journeys towards the main structure, opening out to the main canopy-covered courtyard where the walkway connects with a small guest annex. Only by traversing the walkway does the visitor reach the front door of the two-storey main house, behind which the open plan dining/ living and kitchen areas reside, connected to the upper level with the master bedroom, wardrobes and office via an open staircase and a void and complemented by scullery, storage, laundry and a flexible room with a separate entrance.

​

Close to the central patio is the second guest pavilion, containing two double bedrooms, bathrooms and wardrobe – each the mirror image of the other. Further up the section is a final housing unit with two levels for maximising sea views.

This pavilion approach is not something that would work on every site. You need space to provide the necessary expanse for visual and physical definition. This arrangement allows the owners to rent out some of the spaces, as required.

​

The owner also wanted the day-to-day experience of living in a beach house, which is only a few hundred meters away from the water, a life to be very different from their previous house in the city. The social organisation of the plan is relaxed and holiday like. There is no obvious front entry and the sense of arrival is ambiguous, in that you don’t really know when you leave the outdoors and come indoors.

​

It is also about to test the nature of boundaries in the relationship between the property and its neighbours. With the main house, the studio, the garage, the separate unit and the detached guest units conceived as plural forms, grouped within a self-contained oasis, there was the possibility to leave parts of the section unsullied by fences, so the property is defined by the landscape. It was an attempt to break down the sense of suburban delineation between public and private. The detached pavilions are a balanced set of structures that provide shelter for outdoor living and privacy without overcrowding the site.

​

The goal was to orient the house to embrace its context, displaying a conscious balance between introspective and outward-looking spaces with its generous proportions, great outlook and warmth within. The spaces have a sense of comfort and seamless functionality. Everything has a place, nothing is left out and no space wasted.

Not only is there a continually evolving engagement with the views, but constant visual connections and re-connections with the internal volumes. This encourages an ongoing reassessment of the different spaces from differing perspectives, and adds to the feeling of spaciousness.

​

The house is robust, build for the rigours of coastal life with timber, steel and glass. To help the house to blend in with its surroundings, all walls are clad in a silvering Siberian larch and the decking areas are of sustainable sourced hardwood.

Inside, the expanses of plywood and timber exude warmth and solidity; simple materials, nothing ornate or elaborate. As the larch cladding greys off and the planting matures, the structures will appear to recede into the bush with each passing year.