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Groundwork

01.5 / Residential / Microclimate

Sanctuary at Hobson Bay

A courtyard for listening.

Location
Parnell Peninsula
Year
2022
Scope
850 m² Native Stone Garden
Area
850 m²
Procedural site model — 34° / seed 63.5

Carved stone water court, moss forest, and contemplative microclimate nestled in basalt rock.

The brief

A 1930s basalt villa with a walled rear court that had been paving since the 1970s. The owners wanted a garden that was quiet enough to hear the water, and cool enough to sit in through February. 850 square metres, no machinery access past the gate.

  1. Carved basalt water court with still water reflecting a wall of native ferns
    01The water court. Fed by roof capture, it has never been topped up.
  2. Weathered stone masonry blocks and joint detailing under examination
    02Drystone basalt, laid so that no two faces sit flush.
  3. Native fern specimens held in a sheltered courtyard nursery
    03Epiphyte ferns established on the north wall over three seasons.

[ Approach ]

Four phases on the ground

  1. 01

    Read the land

    We logged the court for a year. It is 6°C cooler than the street at 6am and holds a persistent humidity that suits ferns — so the design decision was to protect that microclimate rather than redesign it.

  2. 02

    Sketch the possibilities

    All material was to be carried in by hand through a 780 mm gate. That single constraint set the whole palette: stone that could be moved by two people, in sections no larger than a paving slab.

  3. 03

    Grow the proposal

    The court is organised around one gesture — a single basalt shelf, 9 m long, cut from the bedrock that came up during construction, with a channel milled through it to gather roof water into a long still pool.

  4. 04

    Steward the delivery

    Fourteen drystone masons' weeks. Nothing is fixed: the shelf is bedded on sand, the ferns are epiphytic and self-managing, and the moss will thicken for the first five years.

Outcome

Peak summer temperature inside the court is 9°C below the adjoining house, and the pool has held water for three years without topping up. The garden won the 2023 NZIA Small Project Award.

Summer temp reduction
−9 °C
Top-up water required
0 L in 3 years
Rock moved by hand
31 t
Award
NZIA Small Project 2023

Materials

  • Bedrock cut from site excavation
  • Dry-laid basalt retaining
  • Bluestone channel, milled
  • Epiphytic fern and moss groundcover

Credits

  • Lead designer — Tomas Lindqvist
  • Planting design — Maya Chen
  • Microclimate analysis — Isla Vance
Client
Private
Collaborators
Stonewrights NZ, Fern & Fable Nursery

Site model / plan

The model above is generated from this drawing's height field, which is shared between the shader and the CPU so planting lands exactly on the surface.

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