Great Barrier Island House

Three gabled boatsheds (the large one for living; two smaller ones for sleeping) sit close together but unconnected in a brilliant Great Barrier Island setting. The off-grid home (with Biolytix waste system, rainwater collection and solar power) is clad in cedar that will weather in time, further dissolving the house into the surrounding bush.

This house celebrates nature and the rituals of camping (you must go outside to enter an adjacent structure), with glazed ends orientated to the sea and lightbox-like windows sitting just proud of the façade, capturing focused views. Inside, the white-painted tongue-and-groove timber is a welcome and calm refuge from a climate that can be alternately hot and dry or wet and wild.

Photography by Jackie Meiring