Overview
Entrant:
Novak+Middleton Ltd
Category:
08. Residential Design Award for Single Family Dwelling
Photographed by:
Simon Devitt
Key team members:
Novak Middleton Ltd – Architects: Simon Novak, Daniel Grigg, Ryan Western
Clendon Burns and Park – Engineers
Philip Yong and Anthony Forlong
Dave King – Builder
Liz Kerby - Kitchen Designer
Abodo – Cladding supplier
The Kawau Island House is a contemporary timber holiday home located on a clifftop above Little Vivian Bay, accessible only by boat and reached via a steep walking track from a shared jetty.
The project was designed for the Morton family, who have lived on this land for 90 years, and reinterprets their original 1936 kitset house through a refined architectural response that sits lightly within the surrounding kānuka forest. The house is conceived as a single‑level glazed pavilion with two bedroom pods flanking a central living, dining and kitchen zone. Large roof overhangs, sliding glass walls and bronze‑coloured Kaynemaile exterior curtains create a seamless relationship with the landscape and provide environmental protection from sun, glare and wind.
Timber defines the architecture of the house, from its glue‑laminated engineered pine portal frame structure to its timber pole platform foundations. These repeating modules establish the home’s simple rectilinear form and enable extensive glazing that opens the house to its exceptional coastal outlook. Abodo heat‑modified pine cladding, used inside and out, allows the building to merge with the kānuka forest and creates warm, sheltered amenity spaces with a strong indoor–outdoor relationship. The lightweight timber construction also enables large overhangs, passive ventilation, and low‑energy thermal comfort systems that enhance everyday living.
A modular glulam frame was selected for its ability to be efficiently transported by helicopter and assembled by hand in this remote location where cranes and machinery were impractical. This functional necessity became an expressive design feature: the repeated timber portals clearly articulate the building’s structure and rhythm. Timber reduced embodied carbon, allowed prefabrication, minimised waste and simplified construction sequencing, all of which were essential due to the island context.
Timber connects the new house to the Morton family’s historic dwelling, which was also timber‑framed and originally kitset. The new design maintains a similar rectangular footprint and simple roof form, linking past and present. The extensive use of internal Abodo linings and timber flooring creates a warm, tactile interior that feels familiar, comforting, and strongly grounded in place. The timber palette reinforces the family’s generational story and expresses a deeply rooted sense of home.
Timber was chosen for its sustainability, lightweight properties, constructability in a remote environment, and its ability to integrate with the natural surroundings. The aim was to sit lightly on the land, minimise disturbance, and use a material that aligned with the clients’ environmental values.
Construction benefits: Lightweight glulam and Abodo components suited helicopter delivery, manual handling and prefabrication.
Aesthetic benefits: Timber merges the architecture with the kānuka forest, provides rich interior warmth, and reinforces a coherent visual identity.
Cost benefits: Prefabrication and repetition of modular timber elements increased efficiency, reduced waste, and simplified assembly, limiting both transportation and onsite labour challenges.
The project embodies kaitiakitanga through minimal environmental impact, onsite water collection, stormwater reuse, wastewater treatment and passive environmental systems.
The house’s modularity and transparency celebrate both landscape and family history, making it an elegant and enduring part of the bay’s story.