We're honored to share that 'Volcano House' is among the 30 homes featured in 'Cape to Bluff' by Simon Devitt and Andrea Stevens. This book journeys through Aotearoa, showcasing homes that reflect a deep connection to their surroundings and communities. Being included is a humbling acknowledgment of our approach to architecture that seeks to respect and respond to the unique character of each site and its people.

The volcanic cone of Maungauika North Head is the backdrop to this quiet suburban site. Accessed from a small laneway and surrounded by two-storey houses, the land is largely inward-looking. Architect Tom Rowe has responded to this context with a sophisticated courtyard house, where every corner of the site been considered, detailed and wrapped into the composition. 

The weight of the mountain and the arc of the sun informed the placement of each building element and open space. Views of Maungauika are ever present, and the mountain guided the materiality of the building. ‘We sourced South Island basalt to bring permanence, mass and solidity,’ says Tom, ‘and timber for its softness and contrast. The third material is the glazing, which opens the interior to a series of micro-landscapes and “frees” the roof from the walls to create a balance between lightness and gravity.

Referencing the surrounding environment, the house is conceived as a collection of boulders in the landscape and translated into four stone-clad pavilions – the garage, kitchen and laundry, bedrooms and bathrooms. The basalt cladding wraps from the exterior to the interior, shifting in texture from a rough finish outside to smooth inside. Corridors and living spaces are located between and around these forms, beginning at the entrance gallery, expanding in scale to create the main living area, and dropping down in scale again in the main bedroom wing. Courtyards connect the house to all points of the compass for a sense of expansiveness and outlook, while maintaining privacy from neighbours.

Informed by ancient stone architecture and the local landscape, there is a sense of the eternal in this house. Tōtara and rimu logs felled a century or more ago, salvaged from riverbeds in Te Tai Tokerau, were milled for ceilings and floors. The basalt was quarried from lava flows near Timaru. Echoes of the bush resonate throughout. ‘Ancient sites change you,’ notes Tom, ‘and they have profoundly transformed the way I understand and think about space. I look to balance a sense of the present – the everyday – while alluding to something older and timeless.’


—Images by Simon Devitt and text by Andrea Stevens.