If you’re looking to build a summer beach house, then this Seascape Retreat in New Zealand ($NFS) is the model you want to base it on. Pattersons Associates Architects is a New Zealand studio started in 1986 whose first works consisted of building lodgings along New Zealand’s unspoiled coasts. Their mantra is quite simple:
If a building can feel like it naturally ‘belongs’, or fits logically in a place, to an environment, a time and culture, then the people that inhabit the building will likely feel a sense of belonging there as well.
The Seascape Retreat fits this methodology perfectly. Starting off with an amazing location set into a rock escarpment in a South Pacific cove. Created as a honeymoon retreat for paying guests, it consists of just three rooms; a lobby, living/sleeping room, and a bathroom. To make the cottage feel like it belongs amongst its surroundings, it was built from all local materials made up of rock, poured concrete floors and an earth turfed roof. It is also self-sustaining with on-site water harvesting and wastewater treatment.
