Pop Top

A sharp little house by Patchwork Architecture floats above a vertiginous Wellington site.

- Greg Dixon

Let’s start with the roof. Builder Adam Pierson and his wife Alicia’s distinctive new home has one – of course, it does. But nothing quite prepares you for being up on it on a breezy Wellington afternoon.

It’s easy to get to; no ladder required. From the home’s main deck, you trot up a dozen or so stairs, cross a bright yellow steel gangway, and there you are, looking at two things that will stop you in your tracks. One is the panorama, the other is, well, it looks something like a bus stop. The views across Kilbirnie to Evans Bay and a splash of Cook Strait to the south were already there. The other is a piece of whimsy from the project’s designers, Sally Ogle and Ben Mitchell-Anyon of Wellington’s Patchwork Architecture.

Creating as much flat space as possible was at the heart of this intelligent response to a small, difficult site which is, in a word, precipitous. A roof deck was one inspired idea. However, to give it as much utility as possible, the pair designed what is, in essence, a cute double-door shelter on its southern side, a space they dubbed the ‘Bus Stop’.

“Rooftops have the best views in town,” says Mitchell-Anyon, “but no one ever does something like this because it’s in the too-hard basket. I think it’s kind of playful. And if you know Wellington, you’ll also know that you won’t get to be up on a roof deck every day. But when you do, it’s amazing. I guess these guys will figure out what more to do with it, but it’s going to have a sink, a barbecue, maybe a beer fridge,” he says.