Number Eight House
A sculptural, striated timber envelope recalls the makeshift sun and wind shading additions ubiquitous to the New Zealand vernacular beach house or ‘bach’. This permeable envelope creates soft edges to a series of outdoor and indoor spaces in and around the existing building—in turn variously curated as a found object, or spatially and formally integrated into the new composition. Continuity of floor levels and finishes heightens the blurring of interior and exterior spaces. A black stain to the exterior walls and black paint finish to the roof references the local history of creosote-treated cladding. Finished in white-painted plasterboard, the interior walls are presented visually as rectilinear volumes juxtaposed with the angled geometry of the found-object building envelope. Rather than a single panorama, spectacular views to the ocean are selectively framed from the interior, and sequentially revealed through the timber screens as one moves around the exterior.
