Photography: Whit Preston
The house is located on a promontory on a Waikato farm overlooking vast limestone bluffs and rolling pasture. The house was commissioned by a young Auckland family with a desire to create a rural retreat to escape the city with immediate and extended family and/or friends. Drawing from the rural vernacular, a collection of forms was conceived to engage the local environment. Three open ended pitched roofed pavilions were arranged to accommodate the three distinct functions of the house: living, family sleeping and guest sleeping with flat roofed service pods linking them together. This arrangement serves to capture views, both intimate and vast, as well as provide a variety of sheltered outdoor living spaces, either private or communal. This allows the house to offer a variety of separated private spaces or communal entertainment spaces.
Architect: RTA Studio
Lead Architect: Richard Naish