Matapouri Pavilion
Completed 2020
Photography: Simon Devitt

This Beautifully crafted guest house constructed by Pete Brown Builders is a uniquely tailored building designed to sit comfortably in the wonderful landscape of Northland.

The site is boated in a deep valley which had been partially filled during the construction of the original family home, creating a stepped gently sloping site connecting to a Ovate bay.
The site has a direct line of sight to Aorangi Island (The Poor Knights) with the new guest house sating on this axis.

The brief was to construct a 'modern' sleep-out. approx. 70m2. fully self contained - living space with kitchenette. bedroom, bathroom with storage for small boats to the rear. The house would be "sample and uncluttered, a minimal enclosure for casual living. Some projects by the modern "masters" were discussed - starting with the case-study houses including the work of Craig Ellwood. which naturally lead to Philip Johnson's Glass House and the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe.

The house though is in a unique location on the Tutukaka Coast. The desire was to capture this location and to celebrate the view.

With this in mind the 65 m2 of enclosed space (50% of the enclosing walls are glass sliding doors) was covered with a 1 50m2 root which extends out over the 46 m2 deck area. When the sliding doors are open the deck "expands" to include the previously enclosed space creating a 78 m2 verandah, with the remaining bedroom and bathroom space enclosed by the solid rear walls of the house (although the bedroom platform is still open to the verandah on one face).

In its open format, this house is simply a living platform, connected to the surrounding hills with the mature pohutukawa and regenerating vegetation with the man focus out to Aorangi Island and the Pacific Ocean.