Pioneer Stock

The view from this long, low red bach isn’t of white sand and phutukawa, but paddocks and sheep. It’s a bucolic, sheltered little spot, close enough to the beach yet far enough away that it doesn’t get gusts of afternoon wind. There’s a long, shared driveway and a handful of baches; the owners all know each other well.

- Simon Farrell-Green

The owners bought the property seven years ago – a tired weatherboard cottage painted ‘Pioneer Red’. It had tiny bedrooms off the living area, and faced the wrong way on the south-facing site. They were fond of it, but after five years, it was time to build.

RTA Studio’s Rich Naish jokes that he’s the architect for the settlement: he devised a scheme for the house behind and a long, low house on the waterfront for a multi-generational family. “It’s one of those quintessential New Zealand bach settlements,” he says. “It almost feels locked in time.”

Over the years spent holidaying at the cottage, the owners had learned a few things. North is behind them, so mornings are cold and afternoons are roasting – accessing morning sun was critical. They also learned that having bedrooms close to living spaces with four teenage kids (their eldest is now 23) wasn’t ideal, though the sociability that comes from cramming in together is actually quite fun: they recall seven teenage boys cheerfully rammed into a 1960s caravan on the lawn.