By dividing up the view with a series of walls that travel inside and out, the homeowners gain a cinematic experience of the world beyond. But that’s just the opening act.
Red lava rock has, since pre-European times, been part of the Polynesian maker’s palette, and more recently it has erupted into our built vernacular. In this full-time dwelling in Piemelon Bay on Waiheke Island, it’s a cornerstone colour, a solid shade that weaves through the programme. “We used scoria red on the stairwell, the splashback and rangehood, the hearth, tiles in the bathrooms — and there are hints of it in the courtyard,” explains designer Oli Booth.
On this project, Oli and his wife Libby Elmore, who co-founded Elmore Booth, teamed up with landscape designer Xanthe White, who has artfully softened the structural edges with, among other plantings, ruddy-toned coprosma and fiery euphorbia.
This seriousness of connection to landscape is no fleeting idea: it began a decade ago, with a commitment to regenerating ground that had been cleared and was smothered in noxious weeds. “After that, the first architectural move was a small hut — an installation that allowed the owners to get a grasp on the land, of being part of it.”
Framing the view, which dropped away to the ocean and stretched as far as the horizon, became the challenge. Swathes of glass were not the answer; Oli and Libby wanted a far gentler solution. ‘Reveal. Protect. Celebrate’: this was the mantra for the task.
Step one: Two solid bluestone walls seen face-on during the approach journey to the house prioritise privacy and are a solid, grounding element. Next: A series of parallel walls finished in chunky, dark board-and-batten carves up the views, making them more intimate and lending a sense of structural pace. “They go two storeys down into the ground and they’re clad inside and out in the same material. The spaces between them adjust depending on what that part of the house needs to do,” says Oli.
Anchor walls, east and west, were then skewed to align with the natural topography of this hill crest. A specimen pōhutukawa (more red to the fore) hoves into frame on the northern elevation.
So far, so rhythmical. But the Elmore Booth team realised they were missing a trick. A decked pier breaks rank to extend toward the sea. “Standing at the end of this cantilevered deck you have full exposure to 180-degree views,” explains Oli. “Looking out over the tree canopy and down at the water below gives a feeling of freedom.”
Internally, there is comfort and enclosure. Stained oriented strand board ceilings tone down the expansiveness of the backdrop. A stepped progression defines the transition between kitchen and living room, and a painted staircase is a sculptural insertion that leads to the lower level. “The house needed to feel comfortable for two people first and foremost — to be right-sized for daily life and so that the owners could live long-term on a single level. But the lower floor, with extra bedrooms, allows it to expand when friends and family come to stay,” explains Oli.
Restraint — the concept of “what’s just enough” — and a leaning in to tonal and textural shifts, rather than defining moves, dictated the finishing palette. In the kitchen, colour-blocked materials are eye-catching, without overwhelm.
A monolithic island, finished in charcoal-scribbled stone, teams with tall cabinets — a study in symmetry on either side of the oven. Mottled-red mosaics lend a mid-century flavour picked up by built-in bench seating in the adjoining dining room and, in the sunken living zone beyond, the same mosaics wrap the woodburner and a ledge-like hearth.
In the bathrooms, where terracotta tiling is a cool-underfoot base, timber, the primary material in this dwelling, is expressed two ways: as negative-detail ply on one wall, and fine vertical board on the other. Says Oli, “Material selection was somewhat influenced by access constraints on the island, and a desire for continuity rather than contrast.”
A clear understanding of the clients’ routine informed a flow where threshold spaces that sit between inside and out are central to daily use. “In a long, hot Waiheke summer, the alfresco zones are spaces people gravitate towards.”
The owners are spoilt for choice. To relax beneath the deep, protective eaves seaward side, watching the tide turn in the private bay? Or retreat from the wind in a gravelled courtyard sheltered from the southerly? A garage, broken off from the main form and rotated to sit adjacent to it, provides privacy from neighbours. In the courtyard that weaves between it and the primary dwelling, Xanthe White masterminded the design, using carefully placed planted mounds to reinforce a sense of seclusion and choosing easy-care species in a zone that has frequent dry spells.
It’s a painterly palette that rambles around feature rocks and over the edge of pavers, where daubs of light and dark pink (think Sedum spurium ‘Voodoo’ and Sedum ‘Autumn joy’) meet portwine reds (Aeonium schwarzkopf and Phormium tenax purpurea) with foliage chosen for a mix of texture and shape.
The owners themselves were instrumental in crafting this expanse, their hands-in-the-dirt involvement giving them an even stronger sense of belonging to this place on the edge of the sea. “Their ambition was to shape the land, rather than impose boundaries,” says Oli.
The clients, who commute midweek to Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, see the house as a place of sanctuary and retreat. The property, which they have dubbed The Outpost, is the first that Oli and Libby have collaborated on, formally, as a couple. In its restraint and responsiveness to context it exemplifies the core values of their practice. “When you remember it started as a paddock, it’s incredible how much this site has changed.”
Words Claire McCall
Photography Sam Hartnett
The post Designing for retreat on Waiheke Island appeared first on homestyle magazine.
