Turama House

Turama is a new house typology seeking to make residential architecture that is both deeply rooted in the whakapapa (genealogy) of this family and formally responsive to the landscape beyond the footprint of the site. The house is designed as a multi-generational retreat for the whanau (descendants of Quentin), offering manaaki (hospitality/comfort) to the Whanau for current and future generations. The house is located on longstanding whenua (ancestral lands) at the foot hills of Mount Ngongotaha in Rotorua which has been in the family for 16 generations. The house’s current context is on one of Rotorua’s poorest suburbs, so the house sits within a cluster of state housing. The planning of the house makes reference to three principal genealogy lay lines. Ngongotaha Maungatautari (Mt Maungatautari). Maketu Ongatoro (Maketu on the East Coast). Ra’iatea Taputaputea (Tahiti). The house formally responds to the aspiration of continuing to provide a cloak of protection over those who stay there with the house’s form wrapping around and protecting those within. The cloak form is embellished with oxidised steel pattern work from the family cloak. The timber posts that wrap around the house make reference to the forest, allowing those within the house to look out through the tree trunks.