Te Puna House is a 60-square-meter house in Te Puna that celebrates the rustic simplicity of New Zealand's rural sheds. With Zincalume cladding, concrete floors, timber weatherboards and exposed steelwork, the dwelling expresses the rugged and robust qualities that define those structures. The program is equally pragmatic: two bedrooms and a central open living, offering the essentials. The dwelling is semi-embedded in the hillside to minimise its presence in the landscape, taking cues from the site's topography.
Te Puna House
ADNZ Awards 2023 Highly-Commended
Photography: Hyperreal
Simple forms, rationalized program, and honest, raw materials are qualities often used to describe the humble structures found throughout rural New Zealand: the sheds. Those qualities are widely pursued and idealised in architecture - especially in residential design. The shed has become a significant cultural artifact in New Zealand, embodying the country’s pragmatism and direct or indirectly influencing the country’s architectural identity. Te Puna Shed draws upon the evocative qualities of these emblematic structures.
Located in the leafy and rural Te Puna, this modest 60-square-meter house converses with its picturesque surroundings. Designed as a secondary dwelling for family and visiting friends, the structure is stripped down of excesses and deliberately understated. The building parti consists of a mono-pitched extrusion dressed in Zincalume cladding, with exposed steelwork, concrete floors, and rustic timber accents - robust, hard-wearing materials that emphasize its pragmatic nature
The house is semi-embedded into the hillside to minimize its presence in the landscape. The program is as practical as the structure: two bedrooms on opposing ends of the house and a central living space with areas for cooking, dining, and a pair of chairs by a wood fire.
Insulated masonry blocks make up the outer shell, contributing to the passive design strategy of absorbing the low winter sun during the day and slowly releasing it throughout the night, improving thermal comfort during the cold months. Conversely, the generous verandah deflects excessive heat gains from the high-angle sun, preserving cooler indoor temperatures during the warm months. Large doors to the north and high windows to the south provide ample natural light and promote cross-ventilation.
Te Puna Shed is a measured response to its bucolic context and a humble interpretation of the shed’s enduring architectural qualities and presence in the New Zealand landscape.
“Good things come in small packages, and this is no exception. The sophisticated feel of this sleepout achieves applause for the way it nestles into the hillside with a clear simple design and well-insulated walls. Good sleep is almost guaranteed in this Te Puna House, with the two bedrooms bookending a small, well-planned kitchen. Colours are dark and moody inside, bright and reflective on the outside.”
ADNZ 2023 Awards - Jury Citation
