A Hidden Coastal Home Built Around Two Secret Courtyards (House Tour)

When we first encountered the site, it was in a state of transition. The pine forest that had previously occupied this coastal edge was being thinned out, revealing a dunescape underneath. Each subsequent time that we visited this site, it was as if the land had been completely reformed by the harsh coastal conditions. In parallel, the land beyond the site was being reformed into the golf course that you see today. What this highlighted to us was that this landscape was not this pristine and natural environment, but one that had been shaped and reshaped across generations. We needed a house that could sit comfortably and assuredly within this kind of changing environment. I'm Nick Roberts and this is Jimmy Gray. We're from Roberts Gray Architects and this is the Double Courtyard House. The site is an hour north of Auckland. It's set amongst rolling agricultural land and has entered through a pine forest that is in the process of being transformed back into a native dunescape. The core challenge in the brief was how to design a home for expat clients that felt immediately like their New Zealand home without relying on a lifetime of accumulated art and objects. Beyond this, the client's brief was direct and simple to design a house that had a sense of barefoot luxury. This suggests a certain amount of openness to the environment and continuity with it, but the extreme coastal conditions that we have described meant that there needed to be a sense of casualness retained no matter what the conditions were outside. So the first impressions of the site was that there's views and vantage points that come from all sides, so the design response needs to be one where it's in the round. Basically, there's no backside to the building. With a house that could be appreciated from all sides, we needed to reconcile this with the fact that the primary sea views and the sun path were in opposing directions. And then on top of that, we have climatic conditions such as a sea breeze or wild winds and rain that we need to manage. We're also anticipating the future development of the site, where the house would be situated within a restored ecosystem of dunes, as well as the ongoing residential development that would surround the house. So I guess our design responses to that was this one where we had these two opposing pavilions. They're stepped in the floor plan, but also in the section. And this allows us to take advantage of various view shafts, the sun and climatic conditions. The house's approach through the thinning pines, the first view presents the house as this clear and clean silhouette with a suggestion of the horizon line beyond. From there, each moment through the house is revealed as a process of careful revelation. The casual entry is expressed through a breezeway, which replaces hallway and an initial view of the fern garden and the focus light and the cool temperatures. This kind of transition also indicates where you go to retreat space. So the bedrooms, you transition around this courtyard and it's this buffer between the living pavilion, which is much more open and airy and nestled into the broader landscape. It was important in the front pavilion that the views were compelling in all directions and that the house appropriately addressed them. The coastline to the east is addressed through a widescreen series of sliding doors that dock back into the round earth wall. To the north, the living areas are protected by a deep overhang, which doubles as a covered outdoor space. This allows us to control the intensity of the sun getting into the living areas. It can also be closed off in a weather event by a series of sliding timber screens. What's compelling about this is it creates a series of alternating indoor and outdoor spaces and a series of layered views rather than direct ones. The two pavilions became a design response to organise the private and the social areas of the house and then the roof forms became an extension of that idea where a focus light that comes through the hip roof in the rear pavilion creates a calm and meditative environment, which is contrasted by the sliding screens and openness of the front pavilion, which creates a sense of continuity with the coastal environment. There's different days, there's the pristine bluebird mill pond day and the whole house is completely open. You've got the big sliding doors all stacked away into the pockets and the courtyard's completely open and the experience of living in the living space is very much one of living outside. And then there's the storm days where the doors are closed and the screens are pulled and the fire's on and you're listening to the wind and the rain and you're very much protected from the elements. And it's on these days that you see the scale of the house reduced to the size that's appropriate for two occupants where each individual space that's oriented around the courtyard is of a comfortable scale for two people. On those social days when everything's pulled back and it's the mill pond, the house feels almost double the size. Our client's desire for a relaxed home is expressed in the treatment and careful selection of every material in this project. So while the geometry is precise and rigorous, this control is gently undone by the controlled abrasion of key materials. There's this grounded kind of mass element which is the rammed earth walls and the concrete, but then in order for it to be more dynamic and usable there's these lightweight elements which is the aluminium and the stainless steel and the timber. But all these elements are, they're allowed to weather. So the stainless steel will t-stain over time, the timber is left to grey off. And so while the rammed earth will naturally kind of settle itself into the landscape and will stand up to the wind and the sand and all the other kind of environmental elements, it's important that the lightweight operable components of this are harmonious with that. What this all adds up to is a building that anticipates change both through the scale of a day but also through the scale across generations. A part of the house that resonates for me most strongly is the most obvious but the reasons for it perhaps less so. Growing up in New Zealand, the typical suburban house occupies the centre of the site and so the idea of a courtyard was kind of a foreign concept or foreign element to us. Having the opportunity to experience courtyards in places as diverse as Dakar, Berkeley and Amsterdam brought home the idea that courtyards are something both incredibly universal but also specific to place. And so having the opportunity to explore these two very diverse courtyards in this house is something quite magical and anchors the whole experience for me.