Coastal Encampment – Fold House by Bossley Architects

Meandering across its sloping terrain, Fold House stays true to its name and sees the composition of folding roof structures come together around a shared open courtyard. Bossley Architects responds to the generous coastal landscape, embracing the expansive views while sitting close to the undulating site below.

Part of a series of formal experiments exploring many iterations of ‘encampment’, Fold House is an expressed engagement with a sloping terrain in an enviable siting in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands. Its generous overall footprint responds to a specific brief and, as a means to navigate its site and fall underground, is broken down into three masses, all centring around a protected outdoor courtyard space. Connected to the beach, the form wraps and opens itself as a welcoming invitation to enter the space upon approach and aligns with a congenial familiarity of the traditional coastal home. Bossley Architects elevates the coastal rural experience through a refined approach to detailing and materiality, emphasising a sense of place through the home’s outward focus.

Internally the ceiling is expressed through a light-coloured ply materiality that wraps the underside of the structure and binds each of the spaces while sculpturally reinforcing the roof structure.

Built by Lindesay Construction, Fold House takes its name from the gently folding roof formations that sit hovering above a series of internal rooms, linking through a playful and formal expression of slope and the landscape. Comprised of triangular facets, the individual pieces come together to assume a united form and subtly hint at the site’s naturally occurring fall. Internally, the ceiling is expressed through a light-coloured ply materiality that wraps the underside of the structure and binds each of the spaces while sculpturally reinforcing the roof structure. Overhangs extend outward from the building edge to provide climatic comfort and act as a working mechanism of solar control, while allowing spaces underneath to be extensions of the internal enclosure.

The home, whose design process has extended over some 10 years, is intended as a holiday family home, endowed with enough additional space to accommodate visiting friends and family. The generosity of the site is carried internally into the approach to space and the connection between zones, with openness a priority. The three compartments on site allow for large family gatherings and have their own inherent hierarchy that reflects their function. The larger mass houses the main gathering and sleeping spaces for the family, the medium acts as a guest wing and the smaller is an ancillary space, used as a theatre and for younger family members to convene. Constructed of in-situ concrete primarily, vertical cedar elements add warmth and a textural element, while extensive glazing connects to the unique landscape beyond.

Built by Lindesay Construction, Fold House takes its name from the gently folding roof formations that sit hovering above a series of internal rooms, linking through a playful and formal expression of slope and the landscape.

Fold House addresses and embraces its proximity to the sea through the creation of open and closed spaces to retreat. Bossley Architects employs a refined rigour, which is expressed through subtleties, allowing the form to connect to its site in an organic and responsive way.