This project is a contemporary country house built on a coastal site overlooking the Hauraki Gulf on Waiheke Island. The client brief called for a unique home with sculptural qualities that provided space to display a large collection of modern paintings, ceramics and glass.

The house is organised around two powerful axial elements forming an off-set cross, expressing the infinite space beyond the site. The other main compositional device is a circular wall that wraps around the house. The first axis is a water axis comprised of a waterfall and pond within the eastern courtyard, and an infinity lap pool that extends to visually merge with the sea to the west. Crossing this is a north/ south axis created by a pair of concrete panel walls that form an art gallery space through the centre of the house, and extend out into the exterior landscape.

The gallery space forms a spine from which all the other rooms in the house branch out as separate wings. Each wing has an individual tilted roof that make a landscape of forms in harmony with the hills beyond.

Exterior and interior materials are a mix of concrete, timber, glass and metal all expressed in a raw state to allow natural weathering in the harsh environment. 

This is a house that successfully combines the varying requirements of a gallery space with a private home set within a stunning natural landscape.