A house, a gallery, an artists’ retreat, a hedge and a landscape. The House of a Thousand Windows explores the relationship between art, architecture and the landscape, with collecting understood not simply as an act of ownership, but as an opportunity to support and encourage others.

Conceived for a philanthropic art collector, the project brings together a private residence, a gallery and four independent artists’ retreats. The intention is to provide emerging artists with the space and support to develop their practice, extending the role of the house beyond the display of art to its creation and exchange.

The design takes its geometry from the existing shelter belts and hedges that define the Tauriko site. These established landscape lines become the ordering device for the architecture, with the main residence conceived as a two level gallery and ancillary volumes extending perpendicular through the hedge. The composition is deliberately simple, setting the precision of geometric forms against the organic continuity of the landscape.

The defining feature is a façade assembled from one thousand reclaimed windows. Individually collected, each carries the potential memory of another building and another life. Together, they form a continuous architectural skin, giving physical expression to the idea of collecting itself. A thousand individual elements become one, each retaining its own character while contributing to a greater whole. The windows also create an interface between the private world of the collector and the landscape beyond, offering multiple perspectives through a single architectural expression.

Beyond the house, four independent artists’ retreats follow the same geometric order, each with its own outlook and a degree of separation for reflection and creative work. Connected through the landscape and their shared purpose, they establish a small community of creative practice.

The House of a Thousand Windows is an architecture of accumulation, memory and generosity. The hedges provide the order, the buildings establish the composition, and the reclaimed windows bring the concept together. Ultimately, the project explores how architecture can transform the act of collecting into something more meaningful: a place where art is not only gathered and displayed, but made possible for others.