A Hidden Coastal Home Built Around Two Secret Courtyards (House Tour)

A hidden coastal home built around two secret courtyards, Double Courtyard House by Roberts Gray Architects is shaped by the shifting conditions of its coastal Auckland site. Set an hour north of the city, the home sits among rolling agricultural land and a pine forest slowly being restored into a native dune scape. Rather than resisting this changing environment, the architecture responds with a quiet confidence, creating a residence that feels settled, robust and deeply connected to place. Designed for expat clients seeking a home that felt immediately tied to New Zealand, the brief called for a sense of barefoot luxury. For Roberts Gray Architects, this meant designing a hidden coastal home built around two secret courtyards that could feel open to the landscape while offering shelter from the region’s harsh coastal conditions. Sea breezes, wild winds, rain, sun and surrounding views all informed the design response, resulting in a home that can expand and contract with the weather. The architecture is organised as two opposing pavilions, stepped in both plan and section. This arrangement allows the home to address views from all sides, with no formal back to the building. The primary sea views and the path of the sun sit in opposing directions, so the pavilions work carefully to mediate outlook, light and protection. A breezeway replaces the traditional hallway, creating a casual threshold into the home and framing the first of the courtyards as a cool, quiet garden moment. As a hidden coastal home built around two secret courtyards, the residence uses these outdoor rooms to shape movement and atmosphere. The rear pavilion, organised around a fern garden, contains the private spaces and offers a calm, retreat-like quality. Focused light filters through the hipped roof, creating a meditative counterpoint to the more open living pavilion. In the living areas, wide sliding doors open toward the coastline, while a deep northern overhang provides shade and becomes a covered outdoor space. Sliding timber screens offer further control, allowing the house to shift between openness and enclosure. On still, clear days, the home can be completely opened, blurring the distinction between inside and out. During storms, the doors close, the screens are drawn and the fire becomes the centre of a more intimate domestic setting. Materiality reinforces this sense of resilience and ease. Rammed earth, concrete, aluminium, stainless steel and timber have been chosen not only for their strength, but for their ability to weather over time. The precise geometry of the home is softened by materials that will stain, grey and settle into the landscape. This hidden coastal home built around two secret courtyards is therefore not static, but designed to register change across days, seasons and generations. Double Courtyard House reflects a thoughtful approach to coastal living, one that balances exposure with protection, openness with retreat and precision with casualness. In doing so, Roberts Gray Architects created a hidden coastal home built around two secret courtyards that feels both grounded and quietly transformative. 0:00 - Introduction To A Hidden Coastal Home Built Around Two Secret Courtyards 3:09 - A Home Designed For An Ever-Changing Dunescape 5:59 - Materials Designed To Evolve Over Time 7:14 - How Courtyards Transform Everyday Living For more from The Local Project: Instagram – Instagram: thelocalproject Website – https://thelocalproject.com.au/ LinkedIn – LinkedIn: the-local-project-publication Print Publication – https://thelocalproject.com.au/public... Hardcover Book – https://thelocalproject.com.au/book/ The Local Project Marketplace – https://thelocalproject.com.au/market... For more from The Local Production: Instagram – Instagram: thelocalproduction_ Website – https://thelocalproduction.com.au/ LinkedIn – LinkedIn: thelocalproduction To subscribe to The Local Project's tri-annual print publication see here – https://thelocalproject.com.au/subscr... Photography by Sam Hartnett. Architecture and interior design by Roberts Gray Architects. Build by Lindesay Construction. Landscape design by Jared Lockhart Design. Filmed by The Local Production. Edited by HN Media. Production by The Local Production. Location: Auckland, New Zealand The Local Project acknowledges Māori as tangata whenua and Treaty of Waitangi partners in Aotearoa New Zealand. We recognise the importance of Indigenous peoples in the identity of our respective countries and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Indigenous people of these lands. #DoubleCourtyardHouse #Architecture #NewZealand