Waimarama Beach House, Hawkes Bay banner

A beach house designed to move. With climate change and coastal erosion at the forefront of many beachfront property owners’ minds, we designed this house at Hawke's Bay’s Waimarama Beach to be relocatable. The coastal setting was the determining factor in all aspects of the design, which centered upon framing the sea views, creating outdoors spaces protected from the wind, and catching the sun at different parts of the day and year.

Combines a successful balance of the requirements for a family home with the more relaxed lifestyle of a bach in its beach setting,” NZIA Awards Jury, 2008.

The house also gained notoriety when it was initially featured on Kanye West's blog!

Photos: Richard Brimer.
Awards: NZIA Hawke’s Bay Architecture Award, 2008.

Herriot Melhuish O'Neill Architects Ltd
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Professionals used in
Waimarama Beach House, Hawkes Bay

About the
Professional

Herriot Melhuish O’Neill Architects is an NZIA award-winning practice with studios in Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland and Tauranga. Established in 1997, our rich portfolio of commercial and residential work demonstrates a strong commitment to creating beautifully-crafted architecture that enhances the lives of those who experience our buildings – both inside and out.

We believe that enduring architecture is a delicate balance of factors – our clients’ needs and aspirations, our professional training and expertise, the history and nature of the site – but also intuition and commonsense. Every design decision, from materials to how the building complements the landscape, matters to us and adds to the experiential qualities of our projects.  

Directors Max Herriot and John Melhuish in Wellington, Duval O'Neill in Christchurch and Matt Pearson in Auckland are committed to the best architectural design practices. HMOA Associate and registered architect Jenny Duck runs the Tauranga studio.

As well as new homes and house renovations, we have experience in the education, recreation, heritage, health and hospitality sectors, office interiors, multi-unit developments, civil projects and master-planning.