Located at Old Te Aroha road, the site enjoys first-row views of the Kaimai range. The clients, a lovely young family (as well as a dog, a pair of alpacas and a goat), gave us their functional requirements with free reign to honour the site and context. Our response: a building that embodies the pragmatism of farm buildings, takes all the opportunities to engage with the surroundings and nods to the various heritage buildings that grace the streets of Te Aroha and its mining history. The red roof is a subtle gesture to acknowledge a feature omnipresent in those emblematic buildings. Horizontal timber weatherboards with pronounced battens are spaced to invoke the historic tramlines on the various walking tracks of the Waiorongomai Valley.
