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Nohoroa is the name of the family farm where one of our clients spent their childhood and is reused in this project to reflect that continuity with their past and hopes for the future.

The brief was for an easy, nurturing and memorable family home for two active retired people. The intention was to provide a place to inhabit, to settle in, to dwell or reside within for a long time. A home with a sense of longevity, to retire to. An architecture that is an enduring gesture of habitation.

The coast and rural landscape of Wellington is beautiful, powerful, gutsy and raw. The design aims to capture some of the essence of this landscape – the house has a ruggedness and directness which reflects the context.

Materials are honest, natural and rural. Red iron is used for both walls and roof cladding – evocative of an agricultural building tradition, and requiring little or no maintenance.

The form is abstracted from traditional and familiar farm buildings and retains that rural quality – with low-pitch hipped roofs, and angled walls wrapping to create shelter on this exposed site. The entry courtyard is semi-enclosed offering a sense of arrival and a bay sheltered from the elements. Around the perimeter are private courtyards offering differing views and shelter from different wind directions.

The spatial order of the house reflects the casual irregularity of the landscape. The spaces are dynamic and quirky, a reflection of the tenuous nature of living in this region – the edginess that is Wellington. A ‘fault-line’ cuts the building, separating zones of house and landscape.

The intention is to make an architecture that is timeless, memorable and enduring, a place where the inhabitants will dwell for the present and remain for the long term.

Photography by Paul McCredie. 

Crosson Architects
Auckland
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Nohoroa House

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Crosson Architects is an Auckland based architectural practice with an exceptional portfolio of work. Past projects include residential, commercial, institutional, masterplanning and urban design developments. Ken Crosson and his team have won numerous architectural awards locally and internationally with work being regularly published here and around the world.

Our commitment to providing a superior service to our clients is extended with membership in Designgroup New Zealand, enabling larger scale projects to be undertaken, drawing on a range of resources and expertise from partnering practices. We strive for the highest standards of client service, design and documentation. At the completion of each project, the aim is to have achieved a building that is beyond the client's expectations. We believe good design will produce sustainable, functional and dramatic spaces and buildings that have an enduring quality over time.

Each project is analysed for its special requirements and opportunities: the end result being not a preconceived idea, but a combination of the client's requirements and desires, a response to the site and the budget. Critical consideration is given to the project's specific environmental and historical context, and to the appropriate use of materials and construction methods.

At the heart of the process is the collaboration between the client and the architect. At Crosson Architects we create – and the process is vigorous and robust, rich and rewarding. Amongst other elements, we consider the physical, psychological and spiritual – achieving an outcome that is unique and life-enhancing.

We would love to offer you the opportunity to realise your dream with Ken and the team at Crosson Architects.