This much loved family chalet built in the 1960’s was in need of renovation. Out went interior finishes circa 1970, a too-narrow deck and tiny windows that only gave a glimpse of the spectacular view across the hills and pond below.
Just past the airport the landscape changes from tract housing to pastoral land and small rural communities. Dotted along the drive are old agricultural outbuildings and early settler dwellings. Nostalgia for this connection between land and building was the guiding principle for our Nulla Vale House and Shed.
The house is designed as a multi-generational retreat for the whanau offering manaaki (hospitality/comfort) to the whanau for current and future generations. The house is located on longstanding whenua (land) at the foot hills of Mount Ngongotaha in Rotorua which has been in the family for 16 generations.
Located on one of the last remaining undeveloped coastal areas in California, this modern off-grid guest house resides on a wildlife preserve; exemplifying a successful balance of residential development and ecological preservation.
The Y-Shaped house stands like a tripod, to privilege views to the valley but also wants to ensure to cover, radially, the whole environment. A series of enclosed spaces and courtyards succede each other and are distinguished by their use, closely linked to sun exposure. In the center, a covered outdoors space
The original house was a timber framed Colt House (see info below) extended by a previous owner with a two-storey brick addition in the 1990’s. The site is approximately a mile inland from the Suffolk Coast and surrounded by a number of individual residential properties set within generous well-established landscaped plots.
Černá Voda, a small mountain lodge, is situated next to the “old” ski run near the Pomezní Boudy border checkpoint in the Krkonoše mountains. The original lower ski-lift station was replaced with a new wooden structure on the confluence of Kolben and Černá Voda streams, the latter of which the chalet is named after.
Accessible only by winding gravel roads, the site for High Horse Ranch in California’s Mendocino County is full of steep slopes and open meadows. The owners were struck by the dramatic experience of approach and arrival, where the edge of a cliff falls away and reveals a panoramic view of the forested valley below.
