New Zealand Wetland House

Space Architecture Studio was in charge of creating this all new residence in Te Horo. Firstly, they had to make the client decide between renovating with high costs an already existing building or starting a new one. The solution was to sell the first house and relocate it.

However, even with the first decision already taken, designing a new house on a topographically challenging land and with all the wishes of the owners – who knew very well what their expectations about the house were – acting like constraints upon the project, was quite difficult. The design had to incorporate an old cabbage tree that was in the middle of the building area, the existing vegetation, and a sleep-out/garage. Moreover, the new house had to be easy to access despite the austere landscape and was supposed to be energy efficient.

The concept of this new house was created having in mind two different wings. The connection point between them became the entrance and the architects designed one wing for sleeping areas and one for the living and social spaces.