‘Over the Sea’ Beach House

This house, built as a permanent home for its owners, occupies the very last site before the reserve leading to Cathedral Cove. It is a spectacular site, with commanding views down to Hahei beach and along the Coromandel coastline.

It is also a very exposed site, so it was designed with two solid walls facing the prevailing winds, thus protecting the house and its occupants. The other two walls, facing the view, are almost entirely glass, giving the occupants unobstructed views.

Being a steep site, we had to cut into the hillside to form the foundations. The ground floor is essentially a concrete bunker, housing the garage, storage and one of the four bedrooms.

On top of this ‘bunker’, we built a lighter structure, from timber. This floor contains the living areas and the remaining three bedrooms, and cantilevers three metres out from the floor below, giving its owners the feeling of floating over the sea.