© Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds
Photo © Patrick Reynolds

Beach Retreat

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Location
Paroa Bay Road, 0272 Russell, New Zealand
Year
2003
Awards

NZIA Supreme Award for Architecture 2006
NZIA New Zealand Award for Architecture 2006
NZIA Local Award for Architecture 2005
Home and Entertaining, Home of the Year Award Winner 2004

Located on a small farm at the western end of a bay, this house is for clients who desired a place with substance combined with a high degree of openness to the view and the landscape. The house develops the theme of ‘encampment’ the architects have developed from earlier projects, wherein the total house is fragmented into a series of smaller elements, defining a space between. In this case, there is a main living wing and three sleepouts, each with its own living area. The space between the four buildings becomes the focus for summer living, and a large covered terrace adjacent to the main living rooms is the heart of family life, with a 16 seat dining table, fireplace, barbeque and fish cleaning facilities.

The overall scale of the house is reduced by this use of smaller elements, with the primary building resting in the valley and fronting the sea, and the sleepouts forming a bracelet of buildings nestled in to the steep hillside. In-situ concrete is used to anchor the buildings to the site, especially the sleepouts which are dug in to the hillside with the paddock passing down in a barely interrupted flow between them.  In plan they follow the contours and restate the gradual curvature of the valley, suggesting a traditional walled courtyard but in a more open way appropriate to New Zealand holiday sensibilities. Long grasses from the paddocks around are concentrated on the roofs of two of the sleepouts, while the third has the turf extending on to the roof, forming a small peninsular to further define the outdoor spaces.

The central focus of the whole composition is the hyperbolic parabolic roof floating above the main living area, a delicate form which beautifully reflects light by day and night. As it is viewed from different directions it ranges from tightly opposed curves to a long slender plane hovering gracefully across the space below. At night concealed uplights shine across the warped white plane and provide drama internally and from outside.

Other Projects by Bossley Architects

Private Residence
Maui, USA
Mc Cahon Artist's Residence
Waitakere, New Zealand
Okitu House
Gisborne, New Zealand
Arruba
Waiuku, Auckland, New Zealand
Island Complex
Bay of Islands, New Zealand