Pocket Houses at Avenue Rd

In this time of housing shortage and financial crisis the need for affordable homes has become exponentially greater. Unfortunately we are seeing an avalanche of poorly designed, expensive and often overlarge houses in sub-parr developments. Resulting in small, mean and cramped spaces with little to no outdoor living and generic designs. Guided by the idea of affordable architecture Pocket Houses deliver high quality architectural design at a much more affordable m2 creating a product that provides a home within the footprint of the quintessential Kiwi double garage, with a footprint of only 36 m2.

The site presented an intriguing opportunity — a modest 290m2 section behind a classic brick and tile. Rather than thinking of this as a limitation, we embraced the constraint, dividing the plot between two compact homes. The suburban setting providing context for our design's bold intervention. While neighbourhood properties typically occupy substantial sections in detached arrangements, our approach demonstrates how thoughtful density can work effectively, even on seemingly impractical plots. This project demonstrates how under-utilised pockets of land within existing suburbs can contribute meaningful dwellings to housing stock. It's not about maximum yield, but appropriate intervention – delivering density with dignity.

Each home occupies just 36m2 of ground floor footprint— equivalent to a standard double garage. This comparison isn't coincidental; it deliberately references how many underutilise their garage spaces, while simultaneously demonstrating how thoughtful design can create complete homes within similar boundaries. As well as showing an alternative opportunity for these existing spaces to be developed, proving that small sites need not be overlooked in our search for housing solutions. The result is homes that wear their creativity proudly while maintaining realistic build costs — proving that architectural character needn't be prohibitively expensive. Small but perfectly formed, homes for all.

The ground floor centres around an open-plan kitchen/dining/living space with large sliders opening on two sides, blurring boundaries between inside and out. We incorporated a built-in daybed (doubling as guest accommodation) and cleverly tucked the laundry into a cupboard. Upstairs, the landing doubles as a home office, while two bedrooms with built-in wardrobes share a compact bathroom. The most striking feature is their vibrant orange roofing tile cladding — a joyful exterior choice that's also supremely practical, promising decades of minimal maintenance. This playfulness continues inside with warm plywood wrapping the downstairs interior, polished concrete floors, and doors painted in cheerful, individual colours to add life. Positioned diagonally across the site in a checkerboard pattern, the two homes maintain privacy while making efficient use of their individual 146m² sections. Each dwelling enjoys its own yard, private courtyard, garden shed and carpark. The vibrant orange cladding creates a distinctive presence that's simultaneously playful and confident. These prototypes demonstrate that architects can contribute meaningfully to solving New Zealand's housing challenges. By embracing compact living without compromising on design integrity, we aim to prove that architectural thinking isn't solely the domain of high-end projects. Small can indeed be beautiful, functional, and accessible.