Onetangi

This garden forms a connection between a new home, designed by Oli Booth and Libby Elmore at Elmore Booth, and a special site overlooking the Hauraki Gulf. With the wings of the house creating a sense of integration between the home, landscape, and environment, the leftover spaces provide the perfect opportunity for thoughtful landscaping. The architecture invites the garden into the home, creating a dialogue between the interior and exterior spaces. This landscape design takes full advantage of that interplay, bringing the built and natural environments into harmony.

This creates a space that shifts effortlessly between vibrant movement and quiet stillness. Grounded in the island’s terrain, the design embraces the arid climate, using natural stone and native plantings to echo the warmth, texture, and history of the land.

At the heart of the design is the client’s deep love of gardening, which has shaped both the garden itself and its connection to place.

An avid gardener, the client has spent years restoring the site’s native ecology, clearing invasive species and planting thousands of natives. This respect for the land carries through to the materials—local stone, unearthed rock, and repurposed tiles—woven into the design with a focus on sustainability. A garden seat, formed from local stone, reflects the island’s natural materiality, grounding the space within its surroundings.

Stone is used throughout the garden to form sculptural mounds that frame the space they embrace. These carefully stacked structures define the transition between the car park and outdoor living areas, shaping the garden while blending into the natural contours of the land. Intentional natural paths weave through the garden, connecting different zones and shaping movement.

Sunset Rock, a west-facing point within the design, provides a place for the client and grandchildren to gather and take in the evening light. This is a garden designed to be experienced—a place of movement and stillness, discovery and reflection, evolving with the seasons.