Waiheke Island House

Waiheke Island, New Zealand

A timber house on a coastal ridge, set back from the wind.

Two small timber pavilions clad in gray macrocarpa, joined by a covered deck, on a grassy coastal ridge above a bay.

The two pavilions and the covered deck, looking north over the bay.

Type

House

Status

Completed

Place

Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Year

2017–2019

Area

190 m² / 2,050 ft²

Client

Private

Team

Martin Vale, Keiko Sato, Jonah Pierce

Images

AI-generated imagery

Brief

Former clients from Los Angeles, moving home to New Zealand, asked for a small house they could run on rainwater and the sun.

Site

A grassy ridge above a bay, exposed to salt wind from the south-west, with no mains water.

Approach

Two timber pavilions sit behind a low wall that breaks the wind. A covered deck joins them and looks north over the bay. The house collects its own rainwater and runs on solar power. Walls are clad in untreated macrocarpa, left to turn gray.

Outcome

Completed in 2019, with Harrow Tane Architects of Auckland as local architect of record.

Plan, 1:100

Two small gabled pavilions in silver-gray timber joined by a covered deck on a grassy ridge, seen from the slope above.

Both pavilions and the deck, from the slope above.

Standing on the covered timber deck between the pavilions, looking out to the bay under the exposed roof structure.

The covered deck, looking out to the bay.

Section through the deck, 1:50

The plywood-lined gabled living room, with one large north window framing the bay and distant islands.

Detail of silver-gray weathered timber boards meeting the board-formed concrete wall, with flax and tussock grasses at its foot.

The two gabled pavilions at dusk on the grassy ridge, warm light under the covered deck, the bay behind.

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