A hillside sculpture in which to live and work, this family home and office — the 2024 City Home of the Year — is generous in places, intimate in others. Animated by the coastal light, its burnt skin and highly textural interiors give rise to its presentation as both a dynamic suburban bach and a daily retreat.
High on the hills above Sumner, Christchurch, a monolithic form quietly commands the landscape — abstract and sculptural, both totem and shelter. Clad entirely in blackened timber, the house reads as a singular object: a carefully hewn vessel crafted for family life and as a work-from-home base for two creatives.
It is the home of architect Nic Owen and ceramicist Josephine Backhouse — a building that began, rather curiously, with a chance encounter in London where the pair first came across shou sugi ban, an ancient Japanese technique of burning and sealing cedar, creating a textured charcoal finish with remarkable durability. It became the material anchor for their future family home, which, years later, would rise from a difficult triangular site in Christchurch.
The land, long overlooked because of its irregular geometry and steep contours, offered challenges in which Nic saw an opportunity. Embracing the constraints, the design stretches the plan vertically and diagonally across the slope. The result is a low-lying faceted form that turns its back to the street and opens to the view. “We’re facing north,” says Nic. “So, it was about managing light without overheating. We didn’t just want a full wall of glass.” Deep window boxes act like hat brims — shading, framing and increasing the sense of scale.
Arrival is carefully orchestrated. A raking exterior wall funnels visitors towards a hidden front door — a charred timber panel that disappears into the façade. Inside, the experience is cinematic: a darkened threshold gives way to light, sea and sky.
Interior materiality is experimental. Oriented strand board is used throughout — mostly painted white, except in the lower-level studio where it’s left raw, textured and at times removed entirely to reveal buttery layers of hardened spray-foam insulation.
“Every space had to work hard,” says Nic. “It’s a bit like a caravan — compact but highly functional.”
Despite its modest footprint, the home generously accommodates work, rest and family life with a rigour that feels inviting and defining… a nest for creativity.
The whole reads like a cast object — an inhabitable sculpture. A shadowed form resting lightly on the land, its folds and seams catch the light, changing with the seasons. It resists spectacle in favour of intention, revealing its complexities slowly, through a dance of light and space, movement and material.
Words: Clare Chapman
Images: Simon Devitt
This feature first appeared in Homes of this Decade 2015-2025, which was published by Nook Publishing in 2025.
