A relatively mundane set of requirements has been transformed into an exciting and vibrant treehouse. A one room space serves as bedroom, workroom and rumpus area, with a separate small bedroom in the concrete masonry tower. The red box ‘floats’ above the boat space, and is nestled amongst the branches of the existing pohutukawa. Squeezed between the sea and a steep cliff, the extension reads as a floating red cube relating to the existing and grounded yellow bach.
Clad in extruded aluminum weatherboards, the cube has a crispness of form and colour, which could overpower the bay and neighbours if not for the fact that it is recessed behind the large pohutukawa boughs, creating the feeling of a tree-house from inside. The red reflects the summer flowers of the pohutukawa, and also references the colours which many of the older baches along the beachfront used to be painted.
