Scrubby Bay House

Horomaka Banks Peninsula, Waitaha Canterbury

Set in splendid isolation in a small, surf-battered bay on the north coast of Horomaka Banks Peninsula, this rustic-style dwelling is luxury accommodation at Annandale, a 4000-hectare beef and sheep farm.

The bay is nature in the raw. Seals and penguins frequent the dense kelp beds offshore, whales and dolphins travel the coastline, and piled on the beach are tangles of bleaching driftwood.

Faced with such an uncompromising location, architect Andrew Patterson eschewed a modern or abstracted path – which, he reasons, “would have fought the timeless nature of the bay” – in favour of a rural vernacular form, albeit on a monumental scale.

Covering nearly 450 square metres, the house is dominated by two great gabled forms, staggered and interlocking, that stand centred in a natural amphitheatre. The drama is deliberate: “The centre point of the valley has a huge feeling,” says Patterson, “like being an opera soprano on stage.”

At the heart of the seaward pavilion is the living and dining area, with expansive views to north and south, and a ceiling that rises to a height of over five metres; flanking it are two bedroom suites. The landward pavilion contains a third suite and, facing south, a bunk room for younger guests.

While large living-room openings look out on the ocean, the other elevations have windows in more traditional farmhouse shapes, with shutters that enable the house to be secured when unoccupied. On a fine day, rolling away the shutters and sliders connects the living room with the proscenium deck to the north and the outdoor dining area to the south.

Cedar cladding wraps up and over the exterior, delineating the gabled structures while also drawing the elements into a unified whole. The warm timber tone harmonises the house intimately with the tawny-coloured grass, and also with the beached driftwood: a house conceived of as a piece of driftwood itself, weathered by sun and salt spray.

Inside, locally sourced macrocarpa boards line the walls and ceilings, while in the living area a fireplace has been built from local stone, and many of the fittings, from door hardware to lighting, are similarly bespoke. The house, notes Patterson, is “contemporary and abstracted in a material sense, yet unmistakably rural New Zealand”.

The drama is deliberate. “The centre point of the valley has a huge feeling,” says Patterson, “like being an opera soprano on stage.”