The Whanganui Dog Box
A night in the Dog Box does not sound like something you would want to experience. Were you banned from the house for the night? Were you being punished? Did it involve sleeping on the couch or worse still on the front veranda? This may not be so bad if the dog box you must spend the night in is in Whanganui, and the weather is warm, and the skies are kind.
The Dog Box in Whanganui is a modern architectural creation put together by a group of students fresh out of architecture school who understood that good architecture did not have to be expensive, did not have to be predictable and did not have to be a carbon copy of its neighbours. These particular students took a number of short cuts in the interests of economy. They looked for materials on line which could be useful but which no-one seemed to want: example, trusses - discarded by someone and now a bright blue feature of this home.
They looked for a section in Whanganui and found that they could afford zilch. Solution - give up? Not likely . Instead they found a section that nobody wanted; - too steep, too inhospitable, - too hard. They made the section their own. The stairs were still needed. Maybe they seemed irrelevant especially if they had already lived in Wellington ....
The House of Dogness in Whanganui was built with love, with determination, with semi- starvation, and with great success. It is exuberant, joyous and delightful. The huge windows slip slide away to one side or the other. |The decks are part corridor, part living space. |The materials are raw and unadulterated. Concrete is undisguised. Plywood is rich and natural. Perspex - yes perspex - turns out to be an exciting building material.
The Dog Box is now a short stay rental accommodation. With its extensive decks jutting at angles, its outstanding hang out spaces and its fabulous summer feel, all I can say is if you are heading up towards the central north island for a break, this is the place to go.
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