Confidential
Complete
Hicks Construction
Dawid Wisniewski & SKN Studios
Palimpsest—a form that embodies writing, erasure, and rewriting. A structure layered with memory, where each intervention builds upon the traces of what came before.
This house operates as a palimpsest: a memory of experience, an intentional play on movement between contrasting conditions. It carries the imprint of the site—a trace of the beach once experienced—while also registering the ongoing erosion, transition, and geomorphological change at its edges.
Unique architectural elements exist at the liminal threshold between contrasting states. The approach through a dense, tree-lined forest compresses movement and filters light, culminating in the sudden openness of the beach. The flicker of light through silhouetted trees, followed by the sharp, illuminated line of the horizon, creates a dramatic spatial and perceptual transition.
The parti of the house responds by being both nestled and elevated—hovering above the building platform. It acts as a counterpoint: both courtyard and pavilion. A compressed yet gradual shift emerges between a heightened sense of enclosure to the west and an open, expansive orientation to the east.
As one moves through the thick, curved, black-silhouetted walls toward the projected openness of the eastern horizon, the experience of threshold and transition becomes blurred and informal. Spaces remain connected, yet subtly subvert expectation, gradually transforming from one condition to another as you move across the house.
The project was conceived as a weekend retreat for a small Auckland-based family—designed to be shared with friends and loved ones, and intended to endure across generations.
