A young family faced a choice: do up the old villa, spend potential years hunting for an elusive infill site close to the city, or buy in a new subdivision in Houghton Bay with views of Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s south coast. By their own admission, the owners of this new home initially had reservations about the latter option. But the ability to influence the subdivision’s design guidelines, and a collaboration with Ben Mitchell-Anyon and Sally Ogle of Patchwork Architecture, mean this home has become an integral part of the hillside development, while being starkly different to the buildings around it.
On the day I visit in mid-winter, a big swell and strong southerly winds power up the valley. You can see the northern strip of the South Island in the distance, huge waves crash up the beach and clouds of sea spray sail by. It’s all classic south-coast stuff, a reminder that there are few places in the world you can live with views and weather this dramatic and yet be a 15-minute drive from the city centre. As usual for Wellington, there is the inevitable trade-off in the form of tricky terrain. That was nothing new for Patchwork, but the subdivision location was.
From the valley road you walk up a common driveway and encounter this home on the right, nestled into the rock. First impressions show only an abstracted dark box with a roof sloping towards the street. There’s a single carport in front, and a bright green staircase set against the hillside rock. A garage door is hidden in the cladding of the lower storey; strategically placed windows – one large, others small – break up the facade that otherwise gives little away.
Up the green steps, you enter a connecting space between two of the three dark boxes that make up this house. A glass door straight ahead frames views of the beach and coastline beyond the courtyard. To the right of the entry, the first volume houses an office nook, a bathroom and a bedroom. To the left, you enter the second box, into the kitchen-dining space where flush, green-painted cabinetry spans the back wall. Here the dining table looks out onto the courtyard, and sliding doors open the space up on fine days. On the far side of the kitchen and dining space, you enter another connecting area, where you can continue into the third box, the living room, or turn left and head up the staircase. Up here, there are two bedrooms – one at each end of a corridor that bridges the second and third volumes – and a bathroom.
This is not a home that gives itself away immediately. Entering for the first time, there’s an element of discovery about it. “It’s just three boxes,” says Mitchell-Anyon – technically true, but something of an understatement. Though formally simple, there is real complexity in the siting and spacing of the volumes, and in the way they connect. For instance, at the top of the staircase, there’s a bay window formed by a pop-out from the central box. This is not only a nice place to sit, but it gives unusual views along the side of the rock face. The corridor itself is a lovely space to be in, with views to the coast and the courtyard below. Likewise, the way the kitchen cabinetry wraps around the angled wall is unusual, but it gives the home an organic sense of movement between spaces and functions. The effect is a house that feels larger than it is, with very distinct zones.
By carefully offsetting the boxes from one another and placing windows just so, Patchwork has achieved privacy from the neighbouring houses. It’s one of the most surprising things about being inside the house – rather than feeling crowded, it feels secluded, with the outlook almost all to the coast or the bush-clad hillside beyond. At the same time, the offset boxes create lovely spaces in between, and shape the outdoor area so it’s accessible from each volume. Those in-between spaces are probably what most define the feeling of this home: comfort, ease and even excitement in the unexpected connections between the rooms.
“Parts of it were a mind****,” says Mitchell-Anyon bluntly, pointing out the way the staircase to the front door intersects with the hillside rock, and the challenge of offsetting the boxes from one another in the most effective way. As mentioned, Patchwork is very familiar with the quirks of Wellington’s terrain, but the subdivision location was a new challenge. To the south, there’s currently a site being built on in a separate subdivision, visible from the living area. “We don’t know what the neighbours are going to do, but we tried to make sure it won’t really matter.”
Simply put, these are very nice spaces to be in. The scale of the rooms, the timber-lined interiors, the way the ceiling slopes down towards the windows in the bedrooms, the views back and across to other parts of the house from wherever you are inside – they all add up to something unique, a space you want to linger in, as I did on a foul Wellington day, watching the sea spray blow up the valley and the sun set over the South Island.
1. Garage
2. Entry
3. Bedroom
4. Bathroom
5. Study
6. Kitchen
7. Dining
8. Outdoor Living
9. Laundry
10. Living
Related Stories:
