A beachy but sophisticated new-build bach

Architect Brendon Gordon of Brendon Gordon Architects in Tauranga met with his client’s father first.

“Jolie Hodson’s father, who is a very nice, elegant gentleman, called into my office one sunny afternoon and enquired about what we do, and how we do it. So we had a cup of tea and chatted for about half an hour, and it turned out to be a very informal interview. He said he’d like us to design a holiday house for his daughter.”

Jolie, says Brendon, is CEO of telecommunications company Spark New Zealand. “I met Jolie outside the site on the day she took possession, as the real estate agent was handing over the keys and she said lets get started.... She’s very efficient.”

The site is across a park from the Surfclub in Whangamatā in Coromandel. “There were two little concrete blocks, almost like two-bedroom motel units, which were the original baches on the site. So we went for a forage, basically. She had bought the place at auction and when we walked in everything was still there: doilies, cushions, chairs, blankets, cutlery, crockery, paintings on the walls. And there were about seven old rickety tin sheds at the back and all of them had a rusty old fridge, a wetsuit and a boogie board. She was discovering what she had actually bought.”

The brief for the new beach house was to accommodate multiple generations of the large, close-knit family.

“Her father, Chris, was very active during the build process,” says Brendon. “He was chief photographer. He’d go up there with his drone, create time lapses and edit these incredible videos of the build.”

The finished holiday home now perfectly accommodates everyone. “Just recently they've had 16 people stay. And it works when there are just two people there,” says Brendon.

A clever H-shaped layout, with a stairwell and lift in the centre, creates separation and makes the most of the views.

“You've got these nice public and private spaces. It's got a nice lawn, because of the dog. There was everything in the brief: make it dog-friendly, teenager-friendly, make it work for everyone.”

Bunk rooms and spare bedrooms downstairs can accommodate plenty, and there’s capacity for overflow in the family room and even the carpeted garage. “We put a fridge and microwave into the laundry so it makes the downstairs totally self-sufficient. The kids can take over.”

Upstairs, Brendon says the bedrooms are deliberately located at the back of the house for privacy. “But they still get those view shafts through to the beach so you still have those connections. Jolie’s parents’ bedroom has a beautiful view through to the Clark Island inlet.”

The family spends a lot of time on the front deck. “It makes it feel more like a beach house or bach because there's a whole outdoor room there. The screen is on the front because the entrance to the park across the road is quite busy, but we wanted to keep it open. The best thing about the house is the informal stairwell, which links directly to the front deck. It’s nice when you see people out biking or wandering past, because it’s got that village feel, they can just run up the external stairs. It’s a small thing but it’s quite important in terms of making it user-friendly.”

Jolie always had a black bach in mind. “She’d seen other examples of my work and really loved that. She said that was in her mind’s eye. We kept to a very beachy palette with the cedar soffits and cedar ceilings and the black exterior. When the house was finished, she had truckloads of beds, furniture, rugs, paintings, everything that she had bought and sourced. She worked with Trinity Interior Design to curate it all, and she spent days setting up the house beautifully.”

For such a large building, it’s not overbearing.

“The design is about celebrating the structure. Three massive glulam beams hold it up because the idea was we needed to get the height for that upstairs living to get all the views. The house plays with solid and void so the roof was deliberately floated with that continuous line of glazing. It’s actually quite big but it doesn't feel overscale. It disguises its volume.”

It’s very refined but still feels like a bach. “It feels comfortable. You don't want a massive house,” says Brendon. “You want something friendly.”