Local Rock House - Beautiful Summer Home on Waiheke Island, New Zealand






About Pattersons

Architecture: Pattersons
Project: Local Rock House
Location: Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Year: 2010

The Waiheke island is the location for some of New Zealand's finest holiday houses and this summer residence is located on a steep coastal escarpment above white sand beach on the island's northern coast. The architects used local pyrite stone as building material to create design that belongs to sense of this place. The stone mass of the house was been arranged as a viaduct, open both sides to exploit both the afternoon sun and the beach frontage.





Description from architects

This design creates the New Zealand residence for an expatriate family. It is sited on a steep east facing coastal escarpment just above a pohutukawa fringed white sand beach. Its materiality and composition seeks to create a ‘sense of place in New Zealand’ for this family.

A rock mass forms a bridge to exploit both the sea frontage and limited westerly light. Under this, the living area nestles into the escarpment contrasting an intimate living terrace to the north-east with a grotto-like western courtyard. Bedroom areas are grouped above as finely scaled louvred lookouts at the canopy level of the pohutukawas. The building uses local materiality to become intimately scaled to ‘belong’ in its setting.









About Pattersons

Pattersons Associates Architects began its creative story with Architect, Andrew Patterson in 1986 whose early work on New Zealand’s unspoiled coasts, explores relationships between people and landscape to create a sense of belonging. The architecture studio started based on a very simple idea; if a building can feel like it naturally ‘belongs’, or fits logically in a place, to an environment, a time and culture, then the people that inhabit the building will likely feel a sense of belonging there as well. This methodology connects theories of beauty, confidence, economy and comfort.

In 2004 Davor Popadich and Andrew Mitchell joined the firm as Directors, taking it to another level of creative exploration and helping it grow into an architecture studio with an international reputation. Pattersons now has clients and projects as far afield as India, Singapore, Australia, Germany and China.





We deliver bespoke and global standard buildings with no two being the same. The variety is made possible by an inventive spirit common to all. Contemporary forms, rooted in strong consideration for building usage, are underpinned by sound environmentally sustainable building principles, finished with an informed use of materials with elegant and robust detailing.

Our team is united and motivated by architectural innovation, we bring our diverse expertise together to collaborate on work. A broad range of disciplines come together in our architectural work; including resource management strategies, model making and digital technologies, landscape architecture, sustainable design initiatives, urban planning and interior design. Each project comes from selecting individual talents to create the right ‘super team’ for particular projects.

Address: Luminous Building 2, 22 Garfield Street, Parnell, Auckland 1052, New Zealand
Postal Address: PO Box 8778, Symonds Street, Auckland 1150, New Zealand
Phone: +6493034004
Email 1: Admin@pattersons.com
Email 2: Press@pattersons.com
Email 3: Careers@pattersons.com
Website: http://pattersons.com






Local Rock House - Beautiful Summer Home on Waiheke Island, New Zealand