Perfect Pitch

An encampment by an inlet casually inhabits land at Tawharanui.

- Jo Bates

A few years ago, a couple with young children approached Fearon Hay with their thoughts about building on rural land they’d purchased on the Tawharanui Peninsula. Located on an inlet, big, rolling grassy hills trickle down to the water’s edge. The estuary is not your quintessential ocean-front view for a holiday home and the owners’ approach to building on the large site veered from convention.

Early discussions with Fearon Hay were about a loose occupation of the land and how it could eventually be used in a few different ways. The couple was interested in how the long-term occupation of the site might develop from an initial, informal dwelling. There was time to consider a more substantial and permanent set-up, but only if they felt it was what they wanted or needed.

Talk arose around a scattered inhabitation of the landscape – a couple of cabins, an encampment. As you do when you camp, it all comes back to the essentials – there would be one cabin for living, one for sleeping.

The cabins are about 35 square metres each, are offset on the site and project towards the water. A loose interpretation of a courtyard between them creates entry points where they touch the land. Where they hover on the site, the cabins sit on timber piles that are stepped back from the edges and painted black to recede from sight.

Designing to such a modest scale gave the architects the opportunity to craft their response and perfect the balance of scale. “Projects of this scale are really enjoyable as they enable you to have the level of detail and quality that we like to work with,” says Piers Kay, project lead and associate at Fearon Hay.