Shadow Box

This compact holiday home is on Auckland’s Waiheke Island. It is positioned on a steep and narrow lot, orientated towards the West, with partial ocean views to the North.
The house is arranged across three stories and connects with the ground at each storey. The vertical stacking of the program resulted in a minimal overall building footprint, and also the opportunity to create generous outdoor living areas, each with a different character. Overall there is more living space outside than inside.

The Western end of the building is a double-height outdoor room configured in timber dowelling. This is open to the weather, including through its slatted roof, and is essentially a large shade structure. The deck in this area can screened from the street with bi-folding dowelling shutters. The play of light and shadow within this space is spectacular, enhanced by the curved shape of the timber dowels. This ‘shadow box’ creates an ambiguous presence to the street, almost just the diagram of a house, a ghostly volume that changes with light and time of day.