03 Oct 2025
Kāpiti House has been recognised as Living Space of the Year at the 2025 Home Interior Awards.
Set back from the dunes and amongst protected wetlands on the Kāpiti Coast, the house is both a retreat and a living system. The heart of the home is its soaring five-metre-high living room, wrapped in warm timber and defined by rhythmical LVL portals and cross-braces that give the space both generosity and intimacy. Visitors describe an immediate sense of calm – “like being inside a carefully folded brown paper bag of profound tranquillity.”
Material choices are equally deliberate and restrained: recycled rimu, hardboard, concrete with fly ash, and acetylated pine cladding. Passive design, wool insulation, and discreet solar panels support an ethos of low-carbon living. Beyond the house, orchards, horses, and an expansive permaculture garden sit alongside a protected wetland, extending the project’s spirit of sustainability.
For the whānau of Kāpiti House, this represents a shift from city life to a slower rhythm. For Studio Pacific, it reflects our kaupapa through design that is deeply connected to place, people, and environment.
We thank HOME Magazine and the award jury for this recognition, which acknowledges not only the architecture but also the lived quality of Kāpiti House.
