Designer David Trubridge’s eco-friendly Mahanga bach is filled with his own distinctive timber furniture and lightshades.
Words Brenda Ward Photography Brian Culy
You can see the curves of the land, the dunes and the bush-clad hills echoed in the sleek lines furniture designer David Trubridge drew for his holiday home.
The bach, set above a gravel road behind the seaside village of Mahanga, north of the Mahia Peninsula, is like a showcase of the artist’s work, a simple three-room structure filled with innovative design prototypes, many which have never been seen in public.
But it’s mainly a summer hideaway for the designer of the iconic Kiwi-made timber lampshades and his artist wife Linda. The wetsuits and bikinis on the clothesline and the laptop open on the kitchen island for their writing projects show how they like to spend their free time here.
Everywhere you see the eco-friendly philosophies of its designer.
“I was just trying to be as ‘green’ as possible in every way,” says David. “All the framing timber is macrocarpa and there’s no treated timber in it at all, apart from the piles. I wanted to use old jarrah powerpoles for piles, but the authorities wouldn’t let me do that.”
He gestures to the hills behind. “The whole of this area is an old landslide that came down from up there maybe 700 to 1200 years ago, so it’s relatively loose. The engineers wouldn’t let us use anything but treated driven poles, but from the bearings up it’s all macrocarpa. We used bamboo flooring, natural wool insulation, the paints are all bio-paints and the ceiling’s poplar and untreated.”
The bach isn’t connected to the grid, and power is supplied by a single solar panel and stored in two 6-volt batteries. This system, the smallest David could find, cost just $2500, and also powers a fridge, laptop charger, a stereo connected to an iPod and the fan for the composting toilet. A tilting mechanism lets it follow the sun which doubles its output.
The couple’s main home is in Havelock North, two and a half hours’ winding road away. Dreaming of a simple holiday lifestyle, they bought the section nine years ago, but subdivision red tape delayed building until four years ago. Then the remoteness of the site meant it took two years to build. Over that time the couple underplanted 350 natives beneath the kikiyu, blackberry and honeysuckle on the site. They will use the existing plants as mulch and protection until the trees are established, when the weeds will be cleared.
The structure evolved after they consulted with the local iwi. “There was only one place to build on the site,” says David. “We did look at going higher, but there was an urupa – a Maori burial ground – that side so we shifted it down.” Food preparation couldn’t be on that side, which meant the bedroom had to be up steps at the higher end.
David, who has designed around 30 homes for other people, created the design and a draughtsman did the drawings. “I started off with wild, crazy ideas, but practicalities intervened, so it evolved. A house design follows its own logic. If you take account of the site, the sun, the views, you’ve virtually got your house. It is on a north-south axis and we face the views either side. At midday, you want it cool, with no sun at all coming in.”
To see more from this home pick up a copy of the lastest issue of homestyle. On sale now at supermarkets and book stores nationwide.