Compson Bach holiday home in New Zealand

Minimal and powerful design by Herbst Architects, for a house over at Medland beach on the Great Barrier Island, NZ. A covered outdoor deck, sun court, kitchen and seating areas transform a standard linear plan into individual spaces suited to summer holidays. Block piers and double timber posts hold delicate trusses that provide a structural rhythm that reinforces individual living spaces.  Translucent  walls enclose private terraces that focus views on beautiful ridgelines rather than joining the jostling water views.  At every step this is architecture of unexpected beauty and rich simplicity.

Primary design concerns were to create an environment that enhances the experience of living outdoors, challenge notions of convenience with a focus on rituals associated with space, and establish a range of spatial, light and textural experiences. The east/west-oriented, long flat site is set back from the beach, with views of dune tops to the north mountains to the south. Spatial relationships are defined by a covered outside deck as the primary space, flanked by court, kitchen and dining spaces. An outdoor fireplace generates heat and ambience, acting as the heart of the bach. A series of wind shutters and glazed sliding doors enable the bach to open up to nature by making a usually interior space, the passage, partly external. The textural battening of the external walling further blurs notions of inside/outside.

This building is a continuation of an exploration into a model of building that is dedicated to a specific function, that of summer holidays at the beach. The building is a L-shape rectilinear form with a mono-pitch roof with clerestorey over the living functions, with a mono-pitch extrusion sheltering the walkway and passage. A rhythm of double posts form a spine along the full length of the building, providing the spring point for rafters to the all pitched roofs, and beams for  sliding tracks.