This Beachfront Bach In Whangamatā Is Lofty & Witty

Thursday Dec. 01, 2022

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The front porch leads into a central gallery that gives access to the courtyard and bedrooms. Photo / Simon Devitt

A new compendium of New Zealand architecture, photographed by Simon Devitt, includes this Whangamatā beachfront house with its striking gabled roof.

The 1970s houses of Whangamatā were the design source for this new beach bach — the simple gables, lean-tos, decks and yards.

“The clients and I walked the neighbourhood to have a look at the existing character,” says architect Paul Clarke. “They wanted to build sympathetically in the form and size of the building, so we’ve reused elements we know well, but combined them in a new way to put together something different.”

Making the most of a slender beachfront section, the cedar-clad house sits on a northeast-southwest axis. Its two ends are differentiated by a witty reinterpretation of the gabled roof form, in which a ‘flipped’ middle section crafts a house of three parts and introduces a courtyard in the centre.

The roadside elevation is fully gabled, with a concealed garage to the right, and is divided centrally by a full-height porch cut-out.

From this entrance, an open, light-filled gallery draws the visitor along the main axis, past bedrooms and courtyard, towards the beach end, where the full-width living room opens out to the covered deck.

Hauturu Island is framed centrally in the ocean view; the beach is a stone’s throw away, and yet the louvred walls that frame the deck offer privacy when needed.

Flexible living was an important driver in the shaping of indoor-outdoor spaces: when the front is exposed to onshore breezes, the courtyard offers shelter, and vice versa when the wind is offshore.

Living experiences are choreographed through volume, light and outlook, and via the shape and direction of rooms inside.

Within the main living space, the lounge area feels lofty with its high gable, while a lower ceiling over the adjacent dining and kitchen creates a real sense of intimacy. Morning light floods this space as the sun rises over the ocean, and throughout the day there’s a play of light and shadow across angles of access.

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The main bedroom can look across the courtyard to the ocean or be cloistered off for privacy.

The architecture of this bach progresses the local timber vernacular, yet is assembled using a more abstract and modernist language.

“It’s about the overall form and how you cut that away to explore light, privacy, exposure to the beach, and protection from the sun and rain,” says Paul.

“It has a bit of everything, but it’s not eclectic. There had to be a fluency to the way it all sits on the site and relates to the houses around it.”