A completely secluded home located within New Zealand’s North Island mountain ranges, Karangahake House by MAKE Architects takes in 360 degree views of neighbouring farmlands, green plains, mountain ranges and clear blue sky.

Built to a modest budget and upon a small site footprint, MAKE rigorously designed the home, obsessing over the minutest of details, precise spatial designs, and the distilled essence of living simply. The practice worked thoughtfully to take advantage of the home’s surroundings, with the care taken into the spatial design of the home creating vignettes to crucial scenic moments. The home has been oriented to maximise views of nearby mountain ranges and Mt Te Aroha to the north, across the gold-mining gorge and a river to the east. The client specifically requested that the setting sun’s light fill the dining room, which eventually moves behind Mt Karangahake to the west.

The facade of the home is clad in locally sourced vertical timber shiplap, that will see the exterior grey over time. The grey will eventually evolve into a silver tonality, which channels the classic Kiwi Tramper Hut. The house is topped by a 5-metre-wide gable roof that minimises internal circulation without compromising on simplistic family living.

The main house comprises a double height open living and kitchen area, two double bedrooms and a bathroom, and a mezzanine that sits above the bedrooms. The outdoor room connects the main house to the guest bedroom/office, which contains an additional bathroom and laundry/mudroom. The mezzanine offers a space for impromptu gatherings with both family and friends. A covered verandah traces the house, much like a second hallway, to provide relief from the summer heat runs and melts into the hillside landscape.

The outdoor room is reminiscent of the quintessential barn, and creates opportunities for the occupants to connect with the surrounding environment. A bespoke sliding barn door gives the homeowners the opportunity to open the room up to the landscape, but to also close it up if conditions become uncomfortable. Clear roofing above floods the space with soft batten-filtered light during the day, and glows like a lantern at night, recalling memories of the welcoming glow of a night light guiding tramper's home.

MAKE collaborated with Welhaus to bring the dwelling to life. Much of the house is prefabricated, which alleviated any potential emission-heavy processes. The home’s floor, roof and wall panels were all preconstructed and were later assembled onsite over a four day period. The prefabrication of the home resulted in minimal onsite waste and major reductions in transport pollution, time, and labour. An airtight wrap intertwines with the plywood interior tilt-and-pivot joinery and a sustainable ventilation system that has resulted in a warm, sustainable domicile.

Built to the mantra of simplicity, Karangahake House takes advantage of its unheralded setting with the orientation of the home allowing for an experience uncharacteristic of family living. Building upon a unique site with the constraints of budget and environment, MAKE Architects have devised a sustainable entity that possesses a sense of warmth and purity throughout each of its spaces.