Sculptors House

"Carefully sited on the contours of a spectacular promontory overlooking Akaroa Harbour, this home’s black fractured massing is broken into two forms framing the water views and setting up a dialogue with the heads beyond. The house, approached via a floating timber platform, is all on one level within its black weatherboard (boat-like) envelope, and is connected to the ground via a staircase that penetrates the ‘red belly’ of the main house, arriving below onto a sheltered deck overlooking Tikao Bay. The linear, nautical sense of spatial planning and movement though the house is terminated at either end with decks and extended roof planes framing horizontal views. A close collaboration over many years between the architect and the sculptor client is evident in this beautiful house."

Resene Colour Award:
"The black weatherboard, boat-like envelope of the building emphasises the sculptural form of the house as object in the landscape. Use of the red on the undercroft is a reference to the Māori settlement of Tikao Bay on the site’s northern boundary, and the dazzle reinforces the nautical theme."
-NZIA Citation