Tiri View House

Our clients had lived with their Palm Beach bach for the best part of a decade. They loved the Waiheke Island site, sloping north toward the beach, tucked among mature trees, and they loved what the place gave them: seclusion, views, an absence of pretension. But the building was failing and beyond economic repair.

Their brief was clear. Replace the bach, but keep its character. Sophisticated in its detailing, unpretentious in its spirit. A bach, not a beach house. They wanted timber throughout, built-in furniture to make smaller spaces work harder, and a home that felt inhabited rather than displayed.

The site drops toward the beach, with mature trees providing enclosure. The new building pushes down the slope to accommodate its larger footprint, with entry at the lower level to shorten the walk from car to front door and keep the upper deck free from circulation.

Our response is a composition of two forms. A two-storey timber-clad box houses three bedrooms across its levels. A single-storey box with an undercroft contains the living spaces. Between them, a glazed volume with a floating timber spiral staircase connects the levels while keeping the two primary forms legible. The architectural experience comes as much from the negative space between these blocks as from the blocks themselves.

Upstairs, the main bedroom, kitchen, dining and lounge capture the northern outlook. Downstairs, two guest bedrooms, bathroom, laundry and a rumpus room open through triple sliding panels onto an outdoor terrace, the concrete slab running continuously inside and out. An existing sleep-out sits adjacent to the upper deck.

The house operates at two scales. In winter, two people live compactly on the upper level. In summer, with family staying, everything opens — the rumpus flows onto the terrace, the deck more than doubles the living area.

Photography Simon Wilson