Garden Road Renovation 

Garden Road Renovation sits on the coast at Raumati Beach and was conceived as a place of retreat and quiet inhabitation. Although the house occupies a generous site, the primary living spaces were located on the first floor. While this arrangement captured expansive views, it also created a degree of separation between daily living and the landscape at ground level.

The brief focused on re-establishing a closer relationship between the house and its setting, with an emphasis on outdoor living and a more direct engagement with the coastal environment. The intention was to allow the clients to experience the site more fully, supporting a way of living shaped by climate, landscape, and daily rhythms.

This was realised through a series of carefully considered interventions. The first-floor deck adjoining the first floor living spaces was extended and sheltered by a finely detailed, double-height timber canopy, offering both shade and a sense of enclosure. Operable shutters allow the deck to be adapted for privacy from the street or protection from prevailing westerly winds and summer sun. At the southern end of the deck, an external spiral stair descends gently through a double height garden to a ground-floor Japanese garden. Here, the bedrooms have been opened directly to the garden, creating a sheltered place of calm and contemplation that draws the house back into the landscape and grounds it in a quieter, more tactile relationship with its site.