Roberts
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     Architects
Roberts
Gray
     Architects

Double Courtyard

Te Arai

Beach House
Te Arai, Aotearoa  New Zealand
Status ︎ Under Construction




The Double Courtyard House is a hybrid building type that merges two pavilions of contrasting character.





The sea-view and sun are at right angles to each other. Breaking the house down into two volumes creates more rooms that can face the sun and sea simultaneously. The two pavilions interlock and are set at different levels. Their differing appearance indicates the private and social zones of the house. A courtyard is cut into each pavilion drawing light deep into the house throughout the day. The result is a hybrid structure that merges two pavilions to create a house that is both solid and permeable. The flexible floor plan steps to follow the sun while orienting views to the near and distant landscape.







Set at different levels to follow the contours of the land, the house is both solid and hunkered into the dunes, while being permeable and continuous with the wider coastal landscape.






Two courtyards embody the character of the pavilion they are set within.









Filippo Bolognese ImagesThe private courtyard is contained, and the planting appears like a fragment of the outside dunes caught within the building.








In contrast, the front courtyard is open and operable, allowing it to read as an extension to the rooms located around its perimeter.