Houses and housing

In the past decade, New Zealand has moved on from the traditional ‘house on the quarter-acre section’ to a more sophisticated and diverse range of living options.

Studio Pacific has been part of this evolution, with a number of projects that respond to changes in our lifestyles across a diverse range of houses and housing typologies. These include contemporary and kitset baches, apartments, town houses, courtyard, terrace and patio houses, suburban villas, student accommodation, worker housing and hotels.

One of our key projects in this regard was the Courtyard Houses in the Wellington suburb of Seatoun, which reinterpret the suburban model of a house situated in the middle of a section by splitting the house in two and pushing it up to the boundaries to create sheltered central courtyards. This ‘suburban apartment’ typology is an efficient use of land and the low maintenance courtyards appeal to those who don’t want to spend their weekends mowing lawns.

The Prescott, Hornabrook and Taipakupaku Houses are not only site-specific but respond to contemporary lifestyles. Conceived of as suburban villas, they include a more informal relationship of kitchen, dining and living as well as separate media spaces and are designed to work for a family as it evolves from young children to teenagers to mid 20s returnees.

And while the days of the humble bach seem numbered, with the mass produced prefabricated K Bach we hope to preserve some of the modest ‘light touch on the land’ feel of New Zealanders’ second homes.