From Northland to the Coromandel, these architecturally designed baches are where every beach lover would want to visit. Take a look below
Who doesn’t love a view of the water? Whether they’re on a hill overlooking the sea, or right on the beachfront, these architecturally designed baches make the sea a focal point.
It’s impossible to get closer to the water than the Hut on Sleds, designed by Ken Crosson. This clever small home sits on the dunes, a stone’s throw from the water. The beach house takes the form of a vertical stack, with a petite living, dining and kitchen area on the ground floor facing the beach, and a bathroom and bunkroom tucked in behind. Designed on sleds, it can be moved around on-site or elsewhere if necessary once it’s decoupled from power and water supplies.
Furthest away from the water, but with arguably the most impressive view of it is another of Crosson’s designs in Otama beach on the Coromandel Penisula. Sitting above a deserted white-sand Coromandel beach, the bach Crosson designed for himself and his family is a timber box resting on a manuka-clad hillside that opens up to reveal unimpeded views stretching far out to sea. The home’s mission to make everyday rituals more pleasurable is highly evident in the bathroom, with a shower with full access to the magnificent views, and a bath that can be rolled on to the deck outside.
Scroll down to see more architecturally designed baches with incredible views of the water
Measuring just 40-square-metres in size, this petite holiday home by Ken Crosson in the Coromandel packs a powerful design punch
A notional shed on a jetty was the inspiration for this impressive bach above a beach on Kawau Island, which can only be reached by boat
Sitting above a deserted white-sand Coromandel beach, this bach Ken Crosson designed for himself and his family is a timber box resting on a manuka-clad hillside that opens up to reveal unimpeded views stretching far out to sea.
Floating on the white sand dunes, this black steel-clad Otama beach house manages to make the most of its views whilst maintaining its privacy
On a show-stopping site near the Whangarei Heads, Herbst Architects have created a holiday home for a family of four that could house 30 people
Architect Piers Kay of Fearon Hay channelled the intimacy of camping and created a holiday section many would find hard to leave
This beach house on Waiheke Island by John Irving quietly slips from view, without having to put up a fence
Passersby can be forgiven for not realising this Waiheke Island house by architect Andre Hodgskin even exists, because it is invisible from the road.
Sitting on the sand dunes, this angular new build encapsulates the spirit of the much-loved mid-20th-century batten-and-fibrolite bach
This striking bach floats among the pōhutukawa at Piha on Auckland’s west coast. At once elemental and polished, it’s a striking response to a difficult site
Dark branches of gnarled pohutukawa reach for the sea at the edge of Piha’s black-sand beach. They are mesmerisingly beautiful even without their red spikes of summer colour, but the houses around here mostly ignore them, striving instead for a glimpse of the surf. This home, however, chooses to do things differently, forgoing a sea view to locate itself at the heart of a grove of these magnificent trees and predicating its entire design on its relationship with them.
Rather a long time ago, the owner of this house on Auckland’s Takapuna Beach tried to buy the section from its elderly owner. She wouldn’t sell. Twenty years later, walking along the beach one morning, he saw the place up for sale and wasted no time in securing it. Now, with the help of Athfield Architects’ Zac Athfield (son of Ian, the firm’s founder) and Nick Strachan, the site sports three related buildings – a main house and two guest houses, all unified by a disciplined palette of materials, a sense of spatial ingenuity, and a scale that respects the modesty of the dwellings that originally lined this picturesque beach.
Created as a contemporary living space for a modern family, this holiday home nestled in the Omaha dunes is an entertainer’s dream
This beautifully designed beachfront property on Waiheke Island shuns too much interest from passersby by striking a balance between public and private
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
