Kiwi Sabi

A compact house in the Karekare bush by Stevens Lawson is designed around contemplation and retreat for a designer and his family.

 

- Simon Farrell-Green

“I’m an obsessive worker,” says Dean Poole, a founder and director at design studio Alt Group. “It’s not like a job – we achieve a lot because we like working. But this is a total escape. As soon as you hit the hill, you can’t check your email.”

At the bach that Poole and his wife Krista Dudson built at Karekare a couple of years ago, there’s no wifi or cell reception. And there’s no art: just a lovely collection of objects the couple knew would go in the house before they even had a design. “We originally thought we’d put loads of art out here,” says Dudson, but they’ve come to appreciate the stillness of the place after the visual and digital overload of their Auckland lives.

The west-Auckland valley has attracted intellectuals and artistic types since sections were first opened up in the 1950s. The Dudson-Pooles have a long history at Karekare – Dudson’s sister has a house across the road – and they’ve been coming here for years. In 2010, the couple bought a steep sliver of bush a short walk from the beach, with a narrow ledge pinched out of the hill occupied by a couple of illegal shacks.

Stevens Lawson’s initial response was much more complex than the house you see on these pages. Two storeys climbed the hill in an arrow shape, the upper storey overhanging the other and clad in Corten steel. It would have been dramatic, but came in much too expensive. And besides, the couple felt strongly that the house should have, as Poole puts it, “a humility”.