This Clifftop House On Dunedin’s North Coast Is Designed To Keep The Elements At Bay

In this extract from Cape to Bluff, step inside The Cliffs House in Otago’s Doctor’s Point, designed by Mason & Wales Architects and interior design by Luke Johnston and Tania Vorrath, a robust clifftop home that keeps the elements at bay.

Perched on the clifftops high above a beautiful stretch of coast north of Dunedin, this site looks out over a 180-degree sweep of ocean.

At this remote location, where windswept beaches are home to penguins and seals, it was important the structure be robust yet open to the view of the Pacific. The design by Mason & Wales Architects fulfils a vision for a dwelling that would reflect the nature of the old farmland it occupied, with its tough barns and drystone walling.

“This is a wild and uplifting coastline,” says architect Francis Whitaker. “It has the feeling of early settler austerity, calling for a group of simple buildings to keep the elements at bay.”

The house is hardly visible from the coast, showing how you can dwell in a coastal environment in a very benign and sensitive way.

The clients were after a modest dwelling that connected with the landscape and respected the natural and human history of the area. In addition to wildlife, there is a historic pā site below, the Pūrākaunui Inlet to the east and Warrington Beach to the north.

These factors, along with a restricted budget, led to the design of several small buildings that could be completed in three stages — the first two being the main block and a bedroom wing, and the third a garage, to be added later.

Building a cluster of smaller buildings creates useful outdoor spaces and more places from which to enjoy the ocean views.

A glazed link to the master bedroom screens out prevailing winds, but in calm weather can be opened up for connection with the decks that extend to either side. Similarly, interior sliding partitions enable rooms to be opened or closed in sections to allow social flexibility and climate control.

Vertical cedar cladding is stained black to press the house back into the landscape, while new stone walls reference those built on the land by early European farmers. Critically, to make the house almost invisible from the ocean, pā site and Canoe Beach, it is located within a grove of gum trees, which also offer shade.

Both creative, the clients designed the interiors and landscaping. By staging the build, they were able to afford robust, natural materials — rendered concrete, recycled rimu, oiled cedar and raw steel.

“It was important to us to do it properly,” says Luke Johnston, who grew up in Pūrākaunui. “Our concern was to create some soul and to do the site justice, to let the natural materials shine through and not overfinish or overpolish.”

Simon Devitt is a world-renowned photographer of architecture and one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed photographers. He is an educator, a photobook maker and an award-winning author.

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