Boathouse Bay is a masterplanned housing development at the northern end of Snells Beach, north of Auckland. The site is bounded to the north and west by a prominent bush-clad rural headland; to the east by the long sweep of Snells Beach and Kawau Bay; and the south adjoins the suburban edge of the wider town.
At the time of Boffa Miskell’s engagement, the 2.31 hectare L-shaped site was largely undeveloped; containing just two residences and a boatshed. The vision was to develop a beachside multi-unit development at an affordable entry point for people seeking to live a relaxed coastal lifestyle in a friendly community where people know their neighbours.
As landscape architects and ecologists to the project, Boffa Miskell worked to achieve a naturalised landform and indigenous species planting concept, supporting an easy-to-maintain, resilient coastal environment. The team was integrally involved in setting the site levels and building a fore and backdune system to give the site resilience along its long coastal frontage. This included stabilisation of the created dune system with spinifex and pīngao.
Together with Crosson Architects, the Boffa Miskell team explored layout options, creating spaces within the cluster of housing for people to occupy as part of daily life and establishing the lines between public, communal and private. The concept developed for the site retained access along the original driveway, with native species planting along the southern boundary incorporating stormwater ponds. Revegetation of the western edge of the headland was incorporated to strengthen this important headland and backdrop feature.
Crosson Architects produced an architectural ‘boathouse’ vernacular, with each residence having its own private outdoor living space. The landscape concept connected these spaces to accessways and shared spaces for the community.
The landscape design strengthened connections to the beach, coastal reserve and the popular coastal walkway. Boffa Miskell ecologists and biosecurity experts advised on landscape-scale predator control and enhancement of the surrounding headland bush planting, recognising that the intertidal flats of Snells Beach are an important migratory bird habitat. Plantings, including the stormwater pond edges, are thriving as weed and animal pest control continues, and with controlled access points to the beach, dune vegetation is establishing well.
Boathouse Bay has a strong, evident sense of place drawn from the site’s location. The enhancement of the natural landscape features of the site – the headland, dune, and back-beach – together with the low-key boathouse vernacular has seen a new higher-density residential community settle easily into the Snells Beach bay and enhance the locality’s sense of place.
The project was recently awarded the Home of the Year 2024 by HOME Magazine – the first time in the history of the Home of the Year awards that a multi-unit project has taken the top accolade. The judges said Boathouse Bay was “…an exemplary model of multi-unit design embodying the quest for community living through a marriage of architecture, landscape, and master-planning.”
Boathouse Bay
Snells Beach, Auckland, New Zealand
Boffa Miskell: Rachel de Lambert, Sarah Collins, Aynsley Cisaria, Izack Franklin, Rory Gray, Alex Smith, Jason Mazey Pen Moore, Lee Shapiro (Biosecurity Ecologist)
Other contributors: Matt Henderson, Dave Parker, Heather Wilkins, Lindsay Kirkpatrick, Alistair McCullough, Ellie Helliwell, Jennifer Parlane, Olivia Opie, Samantha King
Client: Vavasour Investment Ltd
Project Partners:
Crosson Architects
Baker & Associates
Eco Nomos Ltd
Historian – Tania Mace
Warkworth Surveyors Ltd
Hutchinson Consulting Engineers
PT Construction Ltd
Greenscene
Photography: Samuel Hartnett.
Plans and Graphics: Boffa Miskell.
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