Project Type: Residential
Location: Omaha Beach, New Zealand
Status: Under construction, due for completion late 2026
Set within the shifting coastal dunes of Omaha, this existing family home has been thoughtfully reimagined to celebrate both its extraordinary setting and the rhythms of family life. With sweeping views across the bay as its constant companion, the design response sought to elevate what was once a tired structure into a place of clarity, warmth, and quiet architectural confidence.
At its core, the project is about transformation through precision rather than excess. The original home, while well-positioned, lacked a sense of arrival and connection—its entry understated, its outdoor living unresolved, and its overall expression in need of cohesion and vitality. In response, the design introduces a bold yet measured architectural intervention between the two existing gabled wings: a dramatic, double-height lobby conceived as a gallery-like space. This central volume becomes both the physical and emotional heart of the home—an uplifting threshold that frames the experience of arrival, draws in natural light, and provides a curated setting for the family's artwork.
The existing wings have been carefully upgraded internally, respecting their form while refining their materiality and spatial quality. These quieter interventions complement the central gesture, allowing the new lobby to act as a unifying element that brings clarity and purpose to the overall composition.
Equally significant is the creation of a generous, sheltered outdoor living space—an essential response to Omaha's coastal climate. Designed to offer refuge from the intensity of summer sun and the unpredictability of winter rain, this space extends the life of the home outward, enabling year-round gathering and connection. It is here, framed by architecture and open to the landscape, that the everyday moments of family life unfold—meals shared, conversations lingered over, and memories quietly made.
Together, these interventions transform the home into a place of balance: between shelter and openness, refinement and ease, architecture and landscape. The result is a renewed coastal dwelling that not only responds to its environment but enriches it—offering a timeless backdrop for family life to evolve and flourish.