home of the year 2014.

An eyrie is defined as ‘the nest of an eagle or other bird of prey, built in a high inaccessible place’. A perfect moniker, then, for these two cabins, built on an inlet on the New Zealand coast, and awarded 2014 Home of the Year by Home magazine.

Barely larger than their four sheets of plywood, the cabins are off-grid and autonomous, their outsides burnt black. I love the description of the architects’ vision, a ‘poetic of small boats bobbing in a sea of grass’. There are no doors. One climbs up boulders and in through a window instead. Each comprises a tiny bathroom (both have showers that are outdoors), a kitchen, a sitting area and a sleeping loft. Each has two large windows and wooden hatches that allow ventilation of the bathroom and sleeping areas. A window in the ceiling allows a view of the night sky. The interior of one of the cabins is covered in honey-coloured ply; the other is inky black. A perfect owl’s house.

eyrie16eyrie09HE0414_H_KAIPARA_011-1024x1536

HE0414_H_KAIPARA_005-1024x682eyrie07

Photography, Jeremy Toth (feature image, images 2, 3, 6) and Darryl Ward (images 4, 5)

Eyrie by Cheshire Architects, via. More cabins for living in, here and here

12 thoughts on “home of the year 2014.

  1. poppytump

    Oh the inky black interior for sure .. and a window to a starry sky …
    Thanks for the link J . What a wonderful setting for these cabins .

    Reply
  2. Marietta

    I could totally picture myself living there.The simplicity of its construction reminds us exactly what we have forgotten. That we need very little to be happy. A well deserved award! Thanks for sharing it! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Pingback: a danish shelter in black. | owl's house london.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s