Strong clean lines with a crafted mix of natural materials makes this home striking, yet elegant and relaxing to live in.

This seaside site in Ōmokoroa, Bay of Plenty, was the ideal spot for a couple seeking a smaller retirement abode.  The site is urban and quite compact, yet not a tight parcel of land that one would expect within an inner-city living context. It already had a well-established green hedge on the boundaries and was close to the sea.

The clients wanted a new home that wasn’t unnecessarily large, easy for entertaining and yet private, and light and sunny in winter and cool in summer with all year-round usable outdoors. They also required a decent garage and a workshop.

The design responds to this brief through a simple rectangular form with high-pitched gable ceilings in the main living space. The main bedroom and the guest bedroom wings sit on either side and the kitchen features highly textured finishes. The palette is light and airy in the interior, while the exterior features Siberian larch cladding, both in a natural oiled state, and in charred black shou sugi ban finish (used in Japanese buildings). The desire for a highly comfortable interior climate led the clients to invest in high thermal performance windows and doors.

The design had to be sympathetic to the original subdivision’s aesthetic brief, special soil conditions of the site and the close proximity of the ocean. The construction also started right before the very first Covid lockdown which brought its own challenges. But the end result is that the clients are very happy with the result.

"They did an enormous amount of work themselves and are now enjoying the home, entertaining friends and family and getting very positive comments from both neighbours and visitors," says Richard Furze.

Photography Credit: Amanda Aitken.