Photographer: Patrick Reynolds, Pip Cheshire
The house at Whale Bay is located on a hillside in Northland and has the internal volumes of Pacific buildings and in that way stands at some variance with the more common open pavilion of contemporary New Zealand holiday houses.
A main building with steeply pitched roof straddles the old coastal road, large sliding doors open to this area allowing the memories of travellers to retrace their steps The building creates two outdoor spaces along the line of the old road; the first is a formal entry area with a staple like gate and fireplace, the other a contained room-like space for dining and overflow sleeping.
Further around the hill, a boatshed with monopitch roof provides shelter, storage and more recently, a second place to stay. The original ‘fale’ was completed in 1996 while at Jasmax, subsequent additions and reworking continues.