Our first house was a compact 62 square metres. It wasn’t an apartment: rather, it was an expanded former bach originally built in the 1950s when it was, remarkably, even smaller. It suited us just fine, even after our first child was born – Ira slept in a cupboard behind the kitchen for a couple of years until we got around to building some proper bedrooms and fixing the place up.

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So you can imagine my surprise when I first heard about Sergeant’s Cottage, Luke Pierson’s home at Worser Bay, renovated and expanded by architect Guy Tarrant to reach a positively enormous 66 square metres between two buildings, one dating to the 1940s and one finished earlier this year. Here, Pierson lives with two of his three children – the eldest just moved out to go travelling – half the time. In one house, he has a comfortable living-dining situation, with a compact kitchen and even a scullery, not to mention built-in furniture and a chair by the woodburner.

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In these days of triple-car garages and internal-access everything, living this small, with this deliberate exposure to the elements, could almost be seen as radical. We do it quite happily when on holiday, but in the city? Even so, Pierson lives – in Wellington no less – between two buildings, walking across the deck to go from his living space to his sleeping space and in as much weather as he can, he sits outside with the fire going.

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What makes it even more surprising is Tarrant’s exquisite detailing and the care that has been taken to create something this special. (For what it’s worth, even the architect seems surprised at how successful the scheme is.) It is small, yes, but every detail is perfect.

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It wasn’t supposed to win Best House Aotearoa. We knew it would be good but none of the rōpū – architects Mark Leong, Raphaela Rose, and me – genuinely expected it to be named our favourite building of 2025. And yet, in this small project, Tarrant and Pierson have managed to effortlessly integrate compelling ideas and beautiful moments – and that was something we couldn’t let go of.

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There is repurposed rimu sarking from the bungalow that sat on the site originally, and there are two quite lovely bathrooms. There are the white-painted battens of the timber rainscreen over the new building, and the careful restoration work on the original. There is power in Pierson’s move, with two children, into something that would otherwise be considered too small and too idiosyncratic to be practical. And yet it works, and it has caused a change in thinking in this family about just how much space they need.

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These kinds of surprises are what I love about the Here Awards. They’re why we run them. I hope you enjoy reading about this house – and our other finalists.

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