The emergence of homes on the exclusive stretch of beach between Tara Iti and Te Arai Links golf clubs will likely become a defining moment in Aotearoa’s architectural story. Designed by some of the country’s leading practices, each demonstrates a unique interpretation of the vast, east-coast landscape, responding to its site’s history, topography, climate and environment. It’s fascinating to watch as the innovative homes emerge, particularly one as intriguing as Palimpsest House by Monk Mackenzie.
“The design was a natural, gut response to the landscape,” says architect Hamish Monk, who led the design team along with project architect Abdallah Alayan. The sculptural weekend escape hovers lightly above the earth on its elevated coastal site in Te Arai. Nature anchors the architecture. Sun, sand and towering pine trees inform materiality, texture and tone, while the experience borrows from history. “It was built on the memory of Forestry Surf Beach pre-development,” says Monk. “Before anything was here, you’d come through dense forested woodland with no reference to the horizon, and then suddenly you’re at this stunning isolated beach. The home picks up on that same compressed sense of arrival.”
Working through the pines, your first encounter is with the garage. Wrapped in a dark scalloped precast concrete, the low-maintenance material has a beautiful ambiguity. Formed around rudimentary timber posts, the bark-textured, tinted surface picks up on the rhythm of the surrounding tree trunks. “You can do anything if you have the time and money, but we were trying to execute these ideas in a measured way,” Monk says of the innovative design. “Most people may not even make the connection to the trees, and maybe that’s good – it’s subtly there.” The welcome is informal and quiet, signalling the restraint that underpins the project. There’s no grand front door or overexposure to the view. Instead, you discover the home by slipping through a break in the thick walls to a sheltered courtyard.
This space presents a broader sense of the design and setting, with a glimpse of the ocean through the home’s core. “We didn’t want to show all of our cards at once,” says Monk. “We wanted to create a clear diagram of functional, connected spaces through the home from west to east.” This fluid layout flows from the rear elevated terrace into the courtyard, through the home and on to the sheltered outdoors, unhindered by internal walls. The sleeping quarters and private spaces flank this open arrangement, tucked behind concrete or dark oak walls that heighten a sense of escape and enclosure. Sand-toned concrete floors and textured ceilings and soffits travel through full-height glazing, blurring the boundary between inside and out to form that horizontal datum that holds the view.
By Tara Iti standards, the 343-square-metre internal footprint could be considered modest – until you factor in that elevated outdoor platform. The interior layout is sandwiched between the square terrace and low-lying hip roof. Outdoor living spaces expand and contract in rhythm with the floorplan. Small pockets of privacy lie just outside the bedrooms, while generous entertaining zones unfold at the front. The generous overhang shields the interiors from direct sunlight, while a void above the sunken conversation pit invites it in. Similarly, the uncovered rear courtyard draws afternoon light right through the home; its steps lead up to a raised, west-facing deck above the semi-sunken garage. From here, Alayan notes, “You get incredible panoramic views back to the golf course and the evening sun.”
Along with an overarching budget, the architects had to navigate the broader development’s design guidelines. These included restrictions on materials, a defined 1000-square-metre building platform, and a seven-metre height limit. “Because our design draws from the environment, it was relatively easy to fit within the criteria, respecting the guidelines and maintaining a general sense of place,” says Alayan, who is particularly thrilled with the scalloped concrete cladding.
Building up was unnecessary since the elevated site had commanding views over the coastline. Instead, the front split level is lifted just one metre off the ground by a sculptural cantilevered apron to achieve that modest defiance of gravity while retaining privacy from properties below. Surrounded by tall dunes, the home presents a quiet paradox: it’s simultaneously elevated and entrenched. In contrast, the garage burrows half a level into the ground, with sand pushing up the sides of its buried external walls.
Despite its setting among the dunes, there’s nothing unconventional about the home’s structural design. The site was delivered with its loose top layers already cut away to reveal well-draining, stable land, so the house sits on simple, shallow strip footing foundations. “The floor and walls are bedded in, the walls are bedded in, but the landscape around the edges of the building can and will shift over time,” says Monk. “That’s the idea. The home is set in time and place, but nature will change around it.” It’s one of the inspirations for the name, Palimpsest: a memory rewritten, yet still bearing traces of its earlier form.
Monk Mackenzie’s strong, conceptual vision for this home relied on restraint and simplicity of design. But when the success of a project hinges on minimalism, there’s little room for error – every material, junction and finish counts. What we see layered within the landscape here is a testament to relentless experimentation. Finding the systems and finishes that aligned with the budget was a precise and consuming task that often resulted in convincing, affordable alternatives, such as the use of Resene Sandtex instead of the intended (more expensive) plaster finish. Consistently referring back to the trees, sand, and surroundings kept it true to the original intent. “It was about referencing the context,” says Monk, “almost being ambient in that setting and not overembellishing anything.”
1. Garage
2. Entrance
3. Steps
4. Courtyard
5. Bedroom
6. Ensuite
7. Utility
8. Entertainment
9. Cellar
10. Dining
11. Kitchen
12. Scullery
13. Living
14. Firepit
15. Deck
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