The Whangapoua Tree House is designed to provide for a radically different experience to that of the main house where a family of five are efficiently housed in just 40m² of space. The tree house is a simple open space, highly detailed and simply appointed, located under the canopy of a mature pohutukawa tree facing the beach at Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula. The cantilevered steel trunk is the primary structural element atop which the tree house sits. The space is accessed by the exterior steel stair to the south. The space opens to the north and the beach pneumatic struts lift the full width screen to provide protection from the sun, and connect the occupant immediately to the outstanding framed view. A random textured natural tea-tree rainscreen is the secondary moderator of light – both incoming and outgoing. Beneath the tea-tree layer the cladding is entirely translucent sheet, to evoke the experience of camping at the beach. The primary filter is of course the Pohutukawa, through which sunlight is flitered and delicately played across the walls of the treehouse.
