Wainamu

Home is often more than a house. It’s a frame for memories. But sometimes a home needs to evolve, to be updated or reworked to accommodate new scenarios. As this project on Auckland’s west coast illustrates, the concept of the home can revolve around both how you want to live and the memories you want to preserve.

The brief to update this home, owned by the same family through generations, included a special caveat. Two rooms, a large living space and smaller sitting room, held significant family memories and were to be retained in shape and form. Another key element of the brief was to acknowledge the client’s generosity and belief in hosting and hospitality.

The considerable challenge was the reshaping of space around those existing rooms, and in particular, unifying the roofscape above them. Both rooms are now integrated into a comprehensively redesigned and rebuilt home, simply clad in board and batten, with the pre-existing rooms distinguished within the interior by their timber linings. Meeting the second key objective was a simpler proposition. Under a high, gabled ceiling, a generous kitchen with concealed scullery — and skylights that drop light in — provide the client with a command centre to survey the dining table and gardens beyond. It is spacious, scalable enough to accommodate various occasions, yet intimate enough for everyday use.

On every Bureaux project, care for detail heightens and elevates the authenticity and experience of space. Here, bedrooms feature custom-designed wardrobes and storage, and bathrooms bespoke consoles and vanities. Honey-coloured wide-board recycled timber floors unify the various spaces, and seamlessly transition through timber joinery to sheltered return verandas designed for sheltered seasonal living and carefully orchestrated views of nearby Lake Wainamu, with its black-sand shoulder. Filled with family keepsakes and treasures, this expansive rural home is ready to generate new memories for future generations.

Photography by Sam Hartnett