Daniel Marshall on Waiheke

The first of two houses by Daniel Marshall on Waiheke Island that are finalists in our Home of the Year award is at Waikopua Bay, at the very eastern end of the island. The house is located at the bottom of an incredibly steep driveway, and faces slightly southeast. Daniel decided to arrange the buildings - a carport, the main house and a guest room above a boatshed - around the path of an old stream bed that ran through the site. This creates the feeling of an encampment centred around the sunken courtyard at the rear of the living pavilion. These photographs - most of which we couldn't fit in the article on the house in our Home of the Year issue - are by Simon Devitt.


This view from the water shows the way the building nestles into its site. The Felipe Tohi sculpture out the front provides a useful navigation point, apparently, when guiding the fishing boat back in the evenings.


Daniel chose the black colour for much of the exterior so it would blend in with the dark trunks of the manuka trees behind it.

This view shows the stone wall of the living pavilion that borders the old creek bed and the path between the two structures.