Marie Beringer is an environmental scientist turned qualified builder. Mathilde Polmard is a spatial designer turned maker who designs and builds custom spaces. Together, they’ve spent the past couple of years building a shepherd hut. “From previous jobs we knew that working with good people was almost more important than the work itself,” says Polmard, “so why not work with your best friend?”

Mathilde Pomard: We came across an ad looking for a shepherd-hut building assistant in Tītīrangi. It asked for some wood-working experience, a good sense of humour, and a genuine interest in developing your skill set, learning from a builder/designer with 50-plus years of experience. Having both recently switched to making careers, and being small-space enthusiasts, it sounded too good to be true.

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We contacted Steve Sygrove (who’s been building huts in Aotearoa for 19 years). “I have two people engaged now,” he said, “but have you thought of making these yourself?” This was June 2022. A little over a year later – after visiting Steve’s current hut, figuring out some finances and freeing up time in our schedules – we were buying wheels to start our first hut trailer.

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There’s something empowering about knowing you can build a shelter for yourself (or others). Marie had built her own tiny home (with a bit of help) before she became a qualified builder. I came from more of a design and cabinetry background. What motivated us both was taking on the challenge of building every step of a project together.

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Following the 2023 Anniversary Weekend floods, Marie was working as a builder fixing flooded homes and managed to rescue some building materials. The windows, cedar cladding, pine flooring and our hut door, which features a Grecian goddess door knocker (AKA Patricia), were all repurposed, as were the wheels, which apparently had quite the past life in the agricultural industry. Having those reclaimed materials really balanced out the old and the new. Shepherd huts date back as far as the 14th century in the UK and France, so it felt right to be able to use materials that had had a life before, that could evoke the past and those who had been before us in some way.

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Inside the hut, the curved ceiling and wooden lining give you that protective feeling of retreat – that snug, homey feeling that allows you to recharge and focus. When placing windows and doors, we kept one wall uninterrupted, only glazing half of the hut to allow for that sense of retreat on one side and openness on the other. We added muted colours to highlight features like the rafters and to make the interior wood look a little more dynamic. The muted green and rough-sawn cedar came naturally on the outside, very much derived from a forest environment and behaving as a protective and warming second envelope.

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I love the feeling of freedom that comes with the flexibility of the space. It can become many things – a studio, a workspace, a guest room, a meditation room. The wheels really widen the possibilities of living. The interior has been kept minimal, able to adapt over time. Having a flexible, manageable and nourishing space might be just that extra bit of stability we need in our tumultuous world.

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