A few years ago, a couple with young children approached Fearon Hay with their thoughts about building on rural land they’d purchased on the Tawharanui Peninsula. Located on an inlet, big, rolling grassy hills trickle down to the water’s edge. The estuary is not your quintessential ocean-front view for a holiday home and the owners’ approach to building on the large site veered from convention.
Early discussions with Fearon Hay were about a loose occupation of the land and how it could eventually be used in a few different ways. The couple was interested in how the long-term occupation of the site might develop from an initial, informal dwelling. There was time to consider a more substantial and permanent set-up, but only if they felt it was what they wanted or needed.
Talk arose around a scattered inhabitation of the landscape – a couple of cabins, an encampment. As you do when you camp, it all comes back to the essentials – there would be one cabin for living, one for sleeping.
The cabins are about 35 square metres each, are offset on the site and project towards the water. A loose interpretation of a courtyard between them creates entry points where they touch the land. Where they hover on the site, the cabins sit on timber piles that are stepped back from the edges and painted black to recede from sight.
Designing to such a modest scale gave the architects the opportunity to craft their response and perfect the balance of scale. “Projects of this scale are really enjoyable as they enable you to have the level of detail and quality that we like to work with,” says Piers Kay, project lead and associate at Fearon Hay.
This story is from the December 2019 edition of HOME.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2019 edition of HOME.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Family Tree
On a leafy site in the Waikato, Tane Cox crafts a subtle home for three generations
LOW PROFILE
Sometimes, strict covenants can be a blessing in disguise.
Up You Go
A sleepout and retreat in the bush at Piha.
Stretch And Grow
Rich Naish taps into family heritage to extend a character cottage in Christchurch.
Pot Kettle Black
In the hands of Wellington ceramicist Richard Stratton, the humble teapot transcends its origins to become high art.
The Right People
In the New Plymouth home of the late Tom Kreisler and his widow Lesley, Mexican artefacts and family heirlooms rub shoulders with Tom’s diffuse, large-scale paintings.
Model Citizen
Assembly Architects develops a novel process for getting houses built fast, without compromising design.
Blade Runner
An enigmatic house by Tim Dorrington up to a creek, while turning its on an overlooked corner of land edges back on suburban neighbours.
Fearon Hay Has Created A Moody Retreat In The Mountains Near Arrowtown.
Its almost filmic. After turning off the main road to Gibbston and up the switchback Crown Range Road, you turn onto a rutted gravel driveway and a dark house in the distance flits in and out of view.
In 1968, Claude Megson Devised A House Of Angles, Drama And Intrigue For The Artist Roy Good In Oratia
This year Roy Good celebrates 50 years as a practising artist and designer.
