NZIA Wellington Award for Architecture 2012
Jury citation: “The brief for this family bach was short: to capture something of the spirit of the area in a new holiday home. The resulting building, with its reference to fibrolite construction detailing, has that sense of unflappable informality so essential in a home-away-from-home. The architect designed the house as a ‘dune hopper’ – an open-plan living area perches over bedrooms to acquire a view out to Kapiti Island. With its simple built-in furniture providing a variety of superb lounging and viewing points around the room, this space is a subtle and relaxed receptacle for unfettered sunlight and expansive views.”
The house is in Waikanae, a relaxed sea side town on the Kapiti Coast 45 minutes north of New Zealand’s capital city Wellington. It is in the old beach area of Waikanae where many of the houses are holiday homes or ‘baches’ built from the early 1900’s onwards.
This house is a holiday retreat for a Wellington couple and their 3 children. The site is a narrow strip, which sits behind a high fore-dune towards the beach. The house is designed as a ‘dune hopper’ with the single open-plan living space sitting on top of the bedrooms and peering out to the sea and Kapiti Island beyond. The house references the fibrolite sheet construction used in many of the 1950’s houses nearby with colours drawn from the seaside location.
Photography - Paul McCredie